social media for event planners

A Quick Guide to Key Social Media Channels for Event Profs

ByJessica Stafford

Event marketing is an essential step in pulling off a fantastic event. Not only can it help spread awareness about the event, but it can also help you engage attendees before arrival, disseminate important information, and more!

And yet, many event planners leave social media as an afterthought when it should really be at the forefront of an event management and marketing strategy.

This blog will provide a brief introduction to the three core social media channels, and an insight into their main demographics, strengths, and weaknesses. So, the next time you’re planning an event, you’ll be prepared to leverage social media, and the right social media channels, to their fullest extent.

How Event Planners Can Use Facebook

When it comes to event marketing, Facebook is an excellent platform to leverage. Not only is it the most popular social network in the United States, it also has fantastic features intended specifically for promoting events.

Here are some quick stats about Facebook:

  • 68% of adults in the United States use Facebook
  • A relatively even number of females and males use Facebook
  • Facebook users spend over 25 minutes each day browsing the platform

So, why is Facebook good for event marketing?

  • 62% of survey respondents indicated they use Facebook to learn about upcoming live events
  • This number increases to 72% among a millennial crowd
  • Once at an event, 55% of women and 46% of men will make posts to Facebook about it

Source: Hootsuite

Facebook’s built-in events feature makes it easy to list your event, link to where you’re selling tickets, and invite people to attend. It also makes it easy for future attendees to share the event amongst their friends, creating “FOMO” that drives potential attendees to check out your event page.

Some quick stats about Facebook’s events feature:

  • Each month, 41% of users interact with public events on Facebook
  • 35,000,000 people view a public event on Facebook each day
  • 490,000,000 people utilize the Facebook events feature every month

You can use the events feature to pay to promote your event, publish events to your timeline, list your event on the Facebook Local App, stimulate conversation and interaction among your attendees, and more!

Source: Facebook

Instagram for Event Marketing

Owned by social media giant Facebook, Instagram is another great tool in the toolbox of savvy event planners and marketers. While Instagram doesn’t have a dedicated events feature like Facebook, its visual nature and popularity make it ideal for spreading the word about your event using striking images and fun graphics.

Here are some quick stats about Instagram:

  • Each month, Instagram boasts more than 800,000,000 monthly users
  • 38% of women in the United States use Instagram, while only 26% of men do
  • Of all Instagram users in the United States, 59% are under the age of 30
  • 63% of Instagram users make $50,000 or more per year

Despite Instagram’s popularity in the United States, it’s actually a great platform for reaching international audiences, as 80% of Instagram users live outside of the US. So, if you’re planning an event and marketing to people across the world, Instagram could be the ideal platform.

In general, Instagram is a great platform for businesses. Here’s why:

  • Upwards of 80% of users follow a business Instagram account
  • 75% of Instagrammers take action (such as clicking through to a website) after seeing a post
  • Instagram flaunts the highest engagement rate of all social media channels

Source: Hootsuite

Using Twitter Before and During Events

While many people think Twitter is dead or at least on its way out, there’s still a place for it in event marketing when used correctly.

A quick look at Twitter stats:

  • There are still 330,000,000 people who use Twitter actively each month
  • Twitter supports over 40 different languages and 79% of its users are outside the United States
  • The same percentage of men and women use Twitter in the United States

With Twitter users citing discovering new things as the main reason for using Twitter, it’s an excellent platform for getting the word out there about your event and creating a brand personality.

In addition, Twitter is a great platform for providing customer service pre and post-event. In fact, 85% of SMEs use Twitter as an important part of their customer service efforts. It’s an easy way to answer questions before the event, solve problems, help people find their sessions, etc. The options are endless!

Twitter is also an excellent platform for live streaming your event. In the third quarter of 2017, Twitter live-streamed more than 830 events.

Source: Hootsuite

What about you? How do you use social media for event marketing? Feel free to share any creative ideas below in the comments!

Learn more about Leveraging Social Media for Event Marketing!