There is no doubt of the broad effect that social media is having on our culture. It’s also caused a revolution in marketing, advertising, and business events! Obviously, social media has emerged as a highly efficient and remarkably inexpensive way to share news and content, to promote events, and to build a strong community around your brand.

By effectively using social media, Event Planners can easily supplement their traditional paid advertising promotions, and in many cases, social media can be used EXCLUSIVELY—completely replacing expensive advertising methods.

The following 20 social media tips help set the strongest foundation for generating buzz and stimulating interest in your event!

1. Establish your hashtag as soon as possible. This important centerpiece of modern marketing immediately helps get the word out and acts as a placeholder of sorts. Select wisely and begin using it in all your promotions and across all social media platforms.
2. When researching your hashtag, take time to ensure that the tag can’t be misinterpreted. Plenty of well-meaning marketers have fallen victim to tunnel vision, never noticing that their hashtag inadvertently held an inappropriate second meaning . . . don’t let your event promotion begin as the punchline to a joke. Do your research and get multiple opinions.
3. Make it easy to share your content as a tweet with ClickToTweet. It allows you to create a simple, sharable, trackable message button.
4. Consider giving your event a dedicated Twitter account. Depending on the size of your event and its community of attendees, a dedicated Twitter account can be an excellent hub for conversations, networking, and customer relations, as well as information distribution.
5. Offer promotions through your social media profiles. Consider offering free or discounted tickets, VIP passes, complimentary services and upgrades as a method of stimulating registration. A small portion of attendees are probably obliged to attend, but the rest need encouragement, enticement, and motivation!
6. Vary your event promotion tweets to avoid causing irritation and burnout. Rather than simply pushing out a daily countdown, show the event from all angles—professional, social, educational, venue excitement, and local attractions or happenings that will enhance attendees’ experience.
7. Create a dedicated Facebook page for your event.  A dedicated Facebook page is an ideal mixture—it is part website, part blog, and it is already optimized for social networking, conversations, and social sharing.
8. Allow your Facebook event page to accept shared content.  Videos, comments, and photos from followers help encourage conversation and community—better still, they increase the scope of your efforts and have the potential to go viral.
9. Remind your Facebook followers about features such as your newsletter, YouTube channel, RSS feeds, and other subscriptions.
10. Encourage Facebook fans to invite friends. Use the power of peer pressure to your advantage.
11. Set up the Facebook “call-to-action” button. This feature will take visitors directly to the webpage you choose—such as your contact page, homepage, online registration form, or ticket ordering.
12. Use LinkedIn to build a group. This easy step will help create and connect the ideal guests for your event. Furthermore, by curating a community, you’ll gain valuable insight into the problems, ideas, and questions that are unique to your targeted population.
13. Establish photo sharing opportunities. Use Flickr and Instagram combined with contests and your hashtag to give potential attendees a clear idea of just how much fun your event will be.
14. Establish location-based social media profiles. Platforms such as Foursquare and Yelp help to work the location advantage in both directions—giving locals the heads up that your event is in town, while giving out-of-towners great advice about local hotspots that supplement their overall experience.
15. Make full use of videos. Video-sharing social media platforms are the ideal spot for running low-cost ads, targeted to the groups you most want to reach. YouTube, Vine, and Vimeo are excellent options, and don’t forget that Facebook videos perform well too.
16. Pinterest is a highly popular site. Any content that contains an image can be pinned, tagged, and searched—expanding news about your event to a whole new social set.
17. Use SlideShare as an ideal way to collect and share visual content that is searchable from the site itself, as well as being another great method for distributing information regarding your event.
18. Google + is valuable location for creating, cultivating, and nourishing a community. Create relevant groups and hangouts, as well as directly promoting events and coordinating calendars.
19. Consider a Reddit sub-forum. Reddit is a targeted format for sharing articles and comments. Use subreddits to reach exactly the audience that is looking for your content.
20. Don’t forget to be on the lookout for social networks that are specific to your event’s industry!

SmartSource Rentals offers a vast selection of event technology rentals that keep attendees connected! With 20 locations nationwide and over 30 years of experience, SmartSource is a Total Technology® provider. Request a quote today!