How to Promote Your Event on Social Media (+Checklists and Templates)

If you’re wondering how to promote your event on social media, you’re not alone. The good news is that you’re in the right place:

In this guide, we’ll outline exactly how to market an event on social media, whether you plan on using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or any other platform.

Ready to get social?

1. Facebook

Facebook is by far the most powerful social media event marketing platform. It offers you hyper-targeted ads, lets you share all types of content, comes with many bells and whistles…and everyone’s on it.

What to do on Facebook before the event

• Install the Facebook Pixel on your event website.
• Create a Facebook Event and link it to your ticketing app.
• Add any co-hosts you’re working with to the event page.
• Share the event in relevant Facebook groups.
• Post relevant images and videos from your past events.
• Promote the event page with Facebook ads.
• Set up a contest and give free event tickets to the winners.
• Continuously optimise your ads and create Custom Audiences.
• Use your mailing list and website visitor data to create Lookalike Audiences.

What to do on Facebook during the event

• Start a Facebook live stream and engage with your viewers.
• Create live polls to engage with your audience on social media.
• Post images and videos from the event to the event page.

2. Instagram

Since Instagram is part of Facebook, it’ll be easy for you to cross-promote your event on both platforms. Although it has fewer tools than Facebook, it offers a much higher organic reach, especially if you’ve built up a loyal following.

What to do on Instagram before the event

• Post relevant images and videos from your past events to your Story and feed.
• Cross-promote your Facebook content with Instagram ads.
• Set up an Instagram contest and give free event tickets to the winners.
• Create an event hashtag and combine it with other popular tags.
• Team up with Instagram influencers to promote the event.

What to do on Instagram during the event

• Start an Instagram live stream and engage with your viewers.
• Create Instagram Story polls to engage with your audience.
• Update your Instagram Story and feed with photos and videos.
• Reply to any direct messages and comments to keep the conversation going.

3. Twitter

Twitter lands somewhere between Facebook and Instagram when it comes to social media event promotion. You can post all types of content, run ads and live streams, and use hashtags to promote your event.

What to do on Twitter before the event

• Avoid making these rookie mistakes on Twitter.
• Post relevant images and videos from your past events.
• Promote the event content with Twitter ads.
• Create an event hashtag and combine it with other popular tags.
• Team up with Twitter influencers to promote the event.

What to do on Twitter during the event

• Live tweet comments, quotes, images, and videos from the event.
• Start a Twitter live stream and engage with your viewers.
• Create Twitter polls to engage with your audience on social media.
• Reply to any comments to keep the conversation going.

4. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is to B2B events what Facebook is to everything else. It offers you many of the same marketing tools, has a very high organic reach, but lags a bit behind in the live department.

What to do on LinkedIn before the event

• Promote the event on both your personal and company profiles.
• Post relevant images and videos from your past events.
• Share the event in relevant LinkedIn Groups.
• Use Sponsored Content to promote the event content.
• Use Sponsored InMail to promote the event to people directly.
• Set up a LinkedIn contest and give free event tickets to the winners.
• Create an event hashtag and combine it with other popular tags.

What to do on LinkedIn during the event

• Live post quotes, images, and videos from the event.

5. Pinterest

Pinterest is an underrated platform that’s very popular with female audiences. It has the same content limitations as Instagram but offers some powerful marketing features you should use.

What to do on Pinterest before the event

• Make your board SEO-friendly with the right keywords.
• Pin relevant images and videos from your past events to your board.
• Pin blog posts from your event website to your board.
• Create a SlideShare slideshow and Pin it to your board.
• Set up a Group Board to engage with speakers, attendees, and sponsors.
• Promote your Pins with Pinterest ads.
• Set up a Pinterest competition and give free event tickets to the winners.

What to do on Pinterest during the event

• Live Pin quotes, images, and videos from the event.

6. YouTube

Although YouTube can also seem restrictive in terms of content, they’ve rolled out some cool features. Since they’re owned by Google, you can market to people based on their searches.

What to do on YouTube before the event

• Make your channel and videos SEO-friendly with the right keywords.
• Publish a highlight reel of videos from your past events.
• Create a promotional video for your upcoming event.
• Use YouTube preroll ads based on popular event-related search terms.
• Post YouTube status updates to maintain interest.
• Publish videos of the speakers, entertainers, venue, and catering.

What to do on YouTube during the event

• Start a YouTube live stream and engage with your viewers in SuperChat.
• Post live YouTube updates from the event and include images.

Use a social media event marketing plan template

With so many social media platforms and types of content to choose from, it can quickly become overwhelming.

Here are a few social media event marketing plan templates you can use:

• Marketo offers a template that covers social logistics, pre-event planning, a pre-event social checklist, a during-event social checklist, and a post-event social checklist.
• Hootsuite has nine different templates, including a social media strategy template, a social media audit template, and a social media content calendar.
• Sprout Social helps you create a 30-day social media marketing plan, complete with a calendar template and tips for how to refine your event brand.

Let’s get social

Hopefully, you’re now much closer to understanding how to advertise an event on social media. Each platform has its pros and cons, but it’s always better to be on as many of them as you can.

Do you have any first-hand experience on how to run a social media campaign for an event? Make sure you share your wisdom in the comments section below!