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Increase Event Attendance with the Help of Social Media for Pre-Event Promotions

The hype you create for your business event relies heavily on social media platforms. If you don’t create enough interest or excitement, the success of your corporate event is grim. Remember that it will take time to build relationships with your target audience and to influence them to attend, so your social campaigning should already start a few weeks before your event.

 

Get to know your target audience.

You want to start communicating with your target audience many weeks before registration even starts. Find out where your ideal attendees are and join in on the conversation on those social media platforms. Start grooming a relationship with them by liking their posts, following their accounts, commenting, etcetera. Just think of it as a ‘getting to know phase’, where you’re trying to get noticed and impress someone so they hopefully will start to realise they like you, so that when you eventually ask them to the ‘school dance’ (aka your corporate event), there is a higher chance they will say yes.

 

Market the success of last year’s event.

Through scheduled posts, share useful, inspiring, or entertaining content about what great stuff happened at your big event last year. Use photos and videos and post them on Facebook and YouTube. When using pictures of people, make sure they are all flattering images because if someone doesn’t like they way they look in the photo they might get angry with you. You can also go through feedback and surveys from previous attendees to find flattering quotes. Pair these statements with an image showing what the attendee was referring to and share these also.

 

Let your previous attendees help.

You can attract new clients and encourage previous ones to attend again by acquiring the help of last year’s attendees. These people are already familiar with your brand, so there is less nurturing required and they can be the perfect ambassadors to advertise your event. You can encourage them to post testimonials on your Facebook page, and in return you give them a discount for their ticket this year. Or give them a free ticket referral scheme by asking them to invite their acquaintances, and for a certain number of people they successfully convert into attendees they will receive a specified number of free tickets. For example, they get 2 free tickets for every 8 people they bring.

 

Offer incentives through social media contests.

For example, you can ask people to suggest a slogan for the event and post their ideas on Twitter using your event’s hashtag. Or have a photo contest on Snapchat where participants can send the best picture of themselves with your logo. The winner gets free tickets and other prizes. Just make sure to also post clear guidelines for the contest. There are many ways to use social media contest that can increase the interest and engage your audience, so feel free to use your creativity.

 

Social media platforms are essential tools in creating the right amount of buzz for your corporate event. So use them wisely and creatively.