Are you looking for how to promote an event on Twitter? People are increasingly turning to other channels for promotion of their events, as Facebook’s organic reach is declining year over year. Twitter is a channel almost all event organizers are turning to.
Although it takes time and effort to build an audience on Twitter, it is also a great way to create a space for your event’s target audience by using a hashtag. Event organizers can use Twitter‘s conversational behavior to create a community that is interested in their event.
It takes more than just posting sponsored tweets to promote an event on Twitter. A true marketer will always recommend that a brand use a mix of organic and paid strategies.
This article contains some great tips for how to organically promote an event on Twitter.
Pre-Event
- Make your event’s own hashtag
Hashtags can be thought of as rooms that have topic labels. They are useful in sorting posts on the same topic. This allows you to create your own space where you can only talk about your event. Unless you are up to something more creative, your hashtag should be unique and easy to remember.
- Make a Twitter Calendar
A Tweet Calendar does not mean you must follow a particular schedule like one tweet per day. This simply means that you have a list or posts that can be tweeted every day, or every alternate day. You could have different content. This could include announcing early-bird tickets, a line-up a day, sneak peak into event preparations, past events takeaways and experiences (if any), declaration of partner collab, and many other things.
To avoid missing a day, you can schedule your tweets ahead of time. You will need your Tweet Calendar to do this.
- Be spontaneous
Twitter is a hub for many conversations around the globe. Each region has its own list trending hashtags, which you can find on Twitter.
The trending hashtags used to be listed on the left-hand side of the Twitter stream. Twitter has changed the way they display the trending hashtags in their feed. Now you can see them on the right-hand corner of the feed.
You may be curious about how to leverage trending hashtags. It’s easy to do. Use hashtags that relate to your event whenever possible. To capture new audiences for your event, you need to be spontaneous.
You can also use niche hashtags to reach your target audience. You can also use a few niche hashtags to reach your target audience. #ArtistOnTwitter is one example.
- Follow your target audience for the event
This is an easy one. Everybody is curious to know who they followed. This would benefit you and bring people to your account. Follow the right people and target them.
Automating the activity of following your target audience is also possible. Automate followings based on tweets or other factors can be automated with a variety of tools.
If your event is targeted at people in the fintech industry, you could use #fintech or the keyword “fintech” to trigger the bot to identify the accounts to follow from your account. This is a great growth hack. However, I recommend manually finding relevant people and following them based on their tweets and locality. This will not only help you to get more followers but it will also help you build a strong community around your event.
- Contests and Promotional Giveaways
Contests are a great way to reach your audience and gain more followers. You can choose a contest type that suits your purpose. It could be as simple as following and retweeting your event, or simply submitting a photo with the event hashtag.
You have many options when it comes to contests and competitions. There are also offers and gifts that will attract people. You can reward loyal customers with a free ticket by running a contest. It will not only increase customer loyalty but also bring more people to your events.
- Invite Influencers to Partner or Invite You
It’s easy to create buzz about an event with the help of influencers. Invite an influencer to your event, or collaborate with them in any way you like to make your event stand out. Make your event a success by leveraging their influence.
Imagine this: Someone who has been following an influential person for many years and now they get to meet them in person. They would not miss the chance to meet them. No. They would spread the word with excitement. Yes. You’re done!
During Event
- Maneuver Your Audience
Imagine Gary Vee appearing at a local workshop in digital marketing near you. It’s obvious. Everyone loves to be amazed. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to invite industry leaders at last-minute to your event.
A surprise party, or game that uses a specific hashtag can be planned to generate engagement at the event. It’s easy to get your audience to follow a specific hashtag, which is a great strategy to promote your event. This strategy works, even though it might seem a bit shady. However, the truth is that interesting things always work.
- Install a Twitter Wall during the Event
A Twitter wall is nothing more than a screen that displays tweets related to your event. It is a live feed that displays tweets about your event hashtag. Everyone loves being in the spotlight. Your event can have a Twitter wall that allows attendees to voice their opinions via tweets. This creates buzz and generates interest in your event. In big conferences such as SXSW, SMW and Rise Conference, Twitter walls are an essential part of the event.
- Designate a person as your manager
Live-tweeting can be very useful as it informs your followers and hashtag followers about the latest updates. You can focus on the event by having someone manage your Twitter account during the event, while everything is being captured in the form of tweets.
You should ensure that the person who is responsible for live-tweeting the event captures every detail. Live-tweeting should include every speaker, artist, and every topic. Even if someone cracks a joke or everyone has a great time at the event, it should be recorded. Live updates bring life to your event and inspire people to come back the next day.
- Tag. Tag a lot. Tag Again!
Tweets should include artists, panelists, and speakers. Tag local influencers who might be attending your event.
Your event can be made more accessible by a retweet of a macro- and local influencer. Get to know your attendees and tag them when you can, but not necessarily in every tweet.
- Get in touch with attendees via Twitter
It’s possible for attendees to start using your hashtag in their tweets if you have done a good job of promoting it online and at venues.
Engage with them by liking, retweeting and responding to them. Netflix inspires me when it comes to responding to comments and replies.
Your event is now over. Do not stop! You can also post event tweets that highlight the key takeaways and other experiences from the event. This will help to build a strong community around your event. It is a great way for you to interact with your followers from the event and it attracts new people to your event’s community.
Send a series to Twitter and tag people. Ask them to send any throwbacks. This can be done every once in a while after the event has ended.
Tweet them to promise you a better event next time and keep your word.
You can only do this from the moment you plan to host an event, to the moment you share a glimpse of it with a #ThrowbackThursday. Get the most out your Twitter presence and make sure your promotion is on point.
These are the top ways to promote an event on Twitter that can be leveraged for your next event.
Are you interested to promote your event on event listing sites? Here are the 7 Best Event Listing Sites That Let You Reach New Audiences