Planning & Creating Events That Succeed
For those businesses and organizations that love to hold events — whether an open house, an anniversary bash, a guest visit or just a simple seasonal sale — they know social media is the best way to promote an event these days.
And If there’s one thing everyone plans to do once the coronavirus shelter-in-place order is over, it’s get out and socialize. That means there will be no better time for your business to find out for yourself just how much word can spread via social media and draw a crowd to you, even if it’s for something as simple as an end-of-quarantine community champagne toast.
Sounds like a great idea, right? Even if you have to wait a few weeks after the shelter-in-place order is behind us (honestly, some people might not be ready to get together in huge crowds right away) or you need to focus on regaining your bearings as a business first (because having a get-together sounds lovely, but you might have a few pressing priorities before you organize that), you can still brainstorm a few ideas of how you’ll promote the excitement on your online platforms.
First, decide on what kind of event you want to hold.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s big or small. Just give people an excuse to come visit you. You could have an industry-related expert or “celebrity” drop by for a visit and give a presentation. You could offer discounts or launch new products. You could have a grand reopening ribbon cutting. You could just have an open house with refreshments and entertainment. Whatever it is, give people a reason to stop by. That way, you’re getting both loyal customers and new customers in your door.
Create a Facebook event.
Use Facebook to create an event where people can see the date, time, location and a few key details. You’ll want to have an idea of the kind of event you’re holding when you create this so you can use appropriate attention-grabbing text in the description, as well as a relevant graphic for the event’s photo. One of the nice aspects of Facebook events is that you can invite people and they can RSVP, which makes it easy not only to spread the word but also to gauge how many people you expect will show up.
Develop an event hashtag.
When you have a hashtag for your event, it makes it easy for people to find all posts created about the event. And that’s not just the posts you’ve create about the event — that include posts created by your followers who plan to come. Let them know what the hashtag is and encourage them to use it. They can tweet, “Can’t wait to see all of you at #QuarantineIsOverParty next weekend,” for example. Just make sure your hashtag is catchy and specific to your business so that your followers can remember it.
Create a countdown.
One of the fun features you can use on Instagram stories is a countdown. You’ll set the date and time, add a graphic, and people can see just how many days, hours and minutes are left until the official start. It’s just one more small way to build anticipation. If your event is several weeks out, you could try doing a countdown two weeks before and then another one three days before, as the countdowns will stay up for only 24 hours on your story.
Give a final behind-the-scenes look the day before the event.
Give your event one final push with photos and videos of your setup: refreshments you’re serving, decorations you’ve put up, giveaways you have ready. This will create a sense of excitement in the final hours before your event starts.
Don’t forget to post from the event.
Once the event starts, you want to let anyone on social media know that if they aren’t at your event, they should head over your way before it’s over. In other words, show them the fun time they could be experiencing. Put photos and videos on Instagram. Live tweet what part of the event’s itinerary you’re on and what’s coming up in the next hour. For those who still can’t make it, they will be able to follow along and feel as if they’re there in spirit.
Don’t forget to post afterward.
It was a lot of hard work to plan and promote your event, but remember that you still have one more very important task: create a few follow-up posts to thank everyone for coming. You can even see which attendees used your event hashtag and ask them whether you can share their content on your feed. This will bring all the excitement to an appropriate conclusion and leave people looking forward to your next big event.