How to Promote Your Event through Social Media?

Want to reach out to your business customers? Or looking to convert your target audience? Planning an event is one of the best things possible. There you can interact with people, which is likely to add value to your business. However, organizing an event makes no sense if no one is attending it. So, you need to spread the word about the event among your target audience. And this is where you will need marketing.

Is there any specific way that you can use to let people know about your event?

Of course there’s no rule for it. But no matter what you do, you can't ignore the internet these days when it comes to marketing. And if you are marketing your event on the internet, including social media is a must. It's impossible to ignore it in any manner.

But how are you going to use social media for marketing an event?

There are quite a few ways that you can use to promote it.

Here is a sneak peek at some of those methods.

Use Multiple Channels

Do you have a clear idea about your event? Do you know:

• who will be coming to there?
• what will it contain?

It is important that you know the right answers to these questions much before you start using social media to spread the word about it. And you should also use as many channels as available. This is one of the best ways to reach out to maximum people and across a large cross section. Some of the channels that you might use can be:

• Email marketing
• Sponsored ads
• Website
• Podcast
• Webinars
• Social networking

And all these together are going to help you achieve the desired results from your endeavor.

Start a Countdown

When is your event scheduled?

Make the potential audience wait with baited breath for it. Create a buzz around it by creating a countdown clock. You can add such a clock to a Facebook page or even to an event on any social media platform. Share an image, Instagram video, a live digital calendar tool, or an infographic on a regular basis for people who want to follow. A link to the countdown can act as an amazing reminder tool. It can also help to generate excitement around the event, which can lead to its eventual success.

Remember — Being Creative Pays

Are you being creative enough?

The answer to this question is likely to play a major role in ensuring whether people are being attracted towards your marketing process. So, show your creative side as much as possible. Use relevant images for your marketing purpose. Convey more through less, as images speak a thousand words. If you use them, don't forget to add some attraction captions for each of them. Even using infographic about the event can be of great help in the process of reaching out to more audience through social media.

Design Videos that can Go Viral

Just as a picture helps to convey more through less, so does a video. In fact, in a more effective manner. Videos on Facebook have a reach that's 10 times more viral than YouTube videos. So, using videos can help to make more people aware about the event. Besides, as videos can convey a lot of message within a short time, it will be able to reach more people. Moreover, if you can create videos that people will love to share, then they might even go viral on the social media platforms. Just give a tweak to the video to ensure that it meets the requirement of the event. It surely will help a lot in video marketing.

Create a Unique Hashtag for the Event

Gone are the days when hashtags used to be found only on Twitter. Just look around and you will find them almost everywhere - on every social media platform - and for everything as well! So, choose a perfect hashtag for your event. Remember, the hashtag needs to be unique and simple, so that people can remember it easily. Check out on Twitter to ensure that it has not been used already.

After you have created the hashtag, start promoting it everywhere - on your website, social media platforms, banners, and on all places where you can. Soon you will see the impact. People will start using the hashtag when they refer to your event. So, you can use the hashtag to check what people are saying about your event across the internet.

Utilize Testimonials You’ve Received

Have you ever received any testimonial from your customers?

They can be turned into a great marketing tool, which can help you to promote your event. And if these testimonials are for a similar kind of event that you are holding now, then they are likely to be more effective.

But you need to use these testimonials prudently.

• Find the best testimonials that are relevant.
• Put them together.
• Design an attractive video with them.
• Share the video on various social media platforms.

Do you have any video or audio testimonial from any of your clients?

You can share them right away on social media networks. Such video or audio testimonials can play a major role in increasing trust about your business and event among your target audience.

Organize Social Media Contests

Want to make the event more popular using social media? Start organizing contests on social media. It will play a major role in attracting the attention of a lot of people. As awards to the winners, give away free tickets of the event. The incentives will drive them to share the event, which will help to bring more number of audiences. Write about the competition on your company’s blog and share it across social media. It will make more people aware of it and also do the publicity for your event.

Use Social Sharing Buttons

Your website is a platform that's already known to people. So, you can use it to promote your event. But that's not going to be enough at all. You will have to give it a touch of social media as well. You must have shared the news of the event on your website. Add social sharing buttons near those platforms. They will result in spontaneous shares, thus driving the number of attendees up.

Increase Interaction with Platforms Like Instagram and Twitter

Social media platforms, such as Twitter and Instagram, can help a lot to make your events interactive. With these, you can find out what people are saying about your event. This will also let you make necessary changes to make the event more effective and successful.

The advent of social media has transformed the world of marketing to a certain extent. It is a perfect platform to reach out to maximum number of people with minimal effort. And it remains relevant for your event as well.  You can use the social media platforms to maximum effect to make the event successful.

Top Social Media Marketing Strategies for Your Startup

Looking to take your startup a step forward? Want to reach out to more people and spread the word about your new business and its offerings? Look back a few decades and you will find that this task was, no doubt, extremely difficult for any startup. The times, however, have changed. With the arrival of social media, it has become much easier to reach out to people across the globe to spread the word about your business. However, being a startup, you need to use social media prudently. The social media strategies of your startup need to be completely different from those of an established brand.

Select the Right Platform Prudently

Want to plan the social media marketing for your startup? You have all the social media platforms at your disposal that any established brand can use. It is always difficult to decide, which social media websites to use. There are quite a few of them and many of these, such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and others are quite popular. In fact, the trick lies in selecting the right social media platforms for your startup. No matter which one you are using, try to get the most out of it. And to do this, it is important to coordinate the activities on all the social media sites. Keeping the activities as standalone on some of these sites will hardly be of any help.

Optimize the Website and Blog for Social Media

Don’t have any website or blog of your business yet? You need to develop one immediately. These days, you cannot spend even a day without a website for your business and yet think of marketing it among a large number of people. A blog is equally important for the prospects of your business. Make sure these are properly optimized for social media. The icons for different social media websites should be properly displayed in the pages of the blog. This is expected to increase the number of shares of these pages across social media and thus, extend the reach of your business.

Participate in Conversations and Answer Queries

When your business is new, you should take extra steps to let people know about it and answer their queries. Social media is the best platform to do this. Participate in different conversations about your business. Remaining active on social media is probably the best thing you can do. Reply to all the queries and comments, which are made on your posts on these platforms. However, it is important to take a balanced approach to your activities on social media and focus on the minute details. It can come in handy in the long run to help your business perform better. However, being a startup, you need to keep an eye on whatever you are saying. It is important to ensure that none of your comments have any negative impact on your business.

Make Full Use of Groups and Communities

Social media platforms usually have numerous groups and communities. In each of them, different types of topics are discussed. When you are planning to use social media for your startup, try to make full use of these groups. Join a relevant group with large number of members. Post about your business on these groups and communities to ensure that all the members can see your posts and come to know about your business. Engage in these communities to start a discussion about your business. You can also create a page of your business on social media and post information about your business there. This will ensure that people who are connected to your social media profile on that specific platform will be informed about your business.

Go for Visually Engaging Updates

Gone are the days of text-based updates on social media. Always remember the old adage: a picture speaks a thousand world. Use the latest social media platforms, such as Pinterest and others, which allows you to share pictures. They surely offer the shortest way to drive your idea home. Use bright and colorful images to attract the attention of the viewers. You can even create small videos and spread the word about your business, which is the in-thing now. No matter what you do, it is important to be visually engaging to fetch results. They can even go viral on social media, thus making your business familiar among a large number of people. This is likely to help increase the shares of your posts on these social media websites, thus helping you reach out to more number of people.

Social media appears to be the perfect marketing tool for today. It offers the opportunity to reach out to millions at one go. Hence, it can be used to spread the awareness about your startup and reach out to the maximum number of people within the shortest possible time.

[Image Courtesy:
http://ridiculouslyefficient.com/

http://www.thebrainchildgroup.com/blog/2013/07/startup-social-media-marketing/]

A Few Stories that You can Use for Marketing on Social Media

These days, social media is almost everywhere. No matter what you do, you need to be present on the social media platforms. And if you own a business, not having a social media presence can be the biggest blunder you can make. It is one of the most outstanding ways through which you can remain connected with your audiences. However, just remaining connected with them and communicating nothing is no good. You need to keep them engaged and ensure that they are enjoying your presence. The best way to do this is by telling stories. And in social media, you can tell a lot of stories to keep your target audience interested.

You Know Your Own Story Best

What is the first story you should tell the people with whom you are connecting on social media? What is the story that you know the best? It has to be your own story. And believe it or not, people on social media who are connected with you are eager to know about it. This is why using this story on social media can be a real good marketing ploy. They want to know several things about you:

• Who you are?
• What are your hobbies and interests?
• What you do off work?

They also want to know what you are passionate about, your values and so on. Share with them your future plans through the social media pages. Your story is likely to make them interested and keep them glued to your social media profile for a long time.

Tell about Your Business and Company

The page you should set up in a social media platform is that of your company. Hence, while telling the stories, never miss out on your company’s stories. There are so many things to tell! And your stakeholders are always eager to know about the company. Start with the history and then move on with time. Share your present experiences and future plans. These are likely to help you keep the audience interested. Some of the most common questions that pop up about your business include:

• Why you had incorporated the company?
• Who had inspired you?
• How do you continue performing well day in and day out?
• Have you ever failed? If yes, what were the reasons?
• What have you accomplished over the years?

You can check out a few examples on different social media websites. Follow major brands and check out how they manage their social media platforms. You can try to follow their footsteps and this is likely to come in handy in the long run.

Customers are Important as Well

Customers should form the core of the business universe of a company. Only then you can expect outstanding results in the long run. But how can you let the customers know that you care about them? Share their stories on your social media page. You can point out the difference that the customer experienced before and after using the products and services offered by you. Include stories about different fans that your business have. How did your business help them? It will be really great if you can have some positive testimonials from the clients. You can display them on the social media profile to make it more interesting.

Share Your Vision for the Business

What are your vision about your business? Where do you want to reach after about 10 years? You need to understand what are the strengths and the weaknesses that your business exhibits. Decide the changes that you would like to make in your business. Keep thinking about the things of the business, which you would like to improve. Share the thought with the fans and stakeholders. Take their advice as well and check out whether it really helps.

Communicate with the fans and let them know how your business moves in line with their values. Share with them why you feel your business is special and unique, completely different from most of your competitors.

What Stories Inspire You Most?

Apart from telling your own story or those of your stakeholders, you can also share something else. If you know a few stories, which you feel are really inspiring and will have the same effect on the others as well, post them on your business page. They are surely going to be shared by most of the people who read them.

Stories are always the best way to communicate with your audience. They help to add a touch of interest in the otherwise mundane things. This is what makes them more popular than almost everything else. Including these stories on your social media platform can help to remain connected with your audience and hence, the business is expected to perform better than ever before.

[Image Courtesy:

http://blog.marketamerica.com/blog/social-media-monday-top-stories-from-around-the-web
http://mashable.com/2010/10/01/facebook-photos-street-view-social-network/ ]