Red Desk have worked on a number of social media campaigns for events and we’ve found a few common mistakes. 

Don’t Let Your Social Media Go Dead

Firstly if your event is annual, it’s a really bad idea to just let your social media go cold once the event is over.  People unfollow dead accounts very quickly, so you need to keep some kind of content running to keep the audience you’ve fought so hard to get.  A good way to do this is adding a blog to your site.  With a blog you write one or two articles a month and use that content to schedule posts across your social media.

Don’t Launch Your Campaign Too Late

The second big mistake is starting the full campaign too late; you need to create a detailed strategy at least 5 months before.  This gives you time to make sure everyone working on the event is clear of the strategy and you’re all working with the same aims in mind.

If you do have a blog you can use it to post your Mission Statement for the event; do this a good 3 months prior. This mission statement can then be pushed out via social media to your audience and also your event partners.  You can also at this stage create a pre-event page on Eventbrite.

Your Social Media Team & Influencers

You need to make sure all your partners, exhibitors and team are all on board with the social media. Beginning your social media early is important to build a support community and build momentum.  By this stage you should also have a good list of influencers that you can target to get the word out.

Who is Your Campaign Aimed At?

When creating your campaign it’s important to use a User Persona to get a really good idea of the type of person you are targeting with your campaign so you know what type of content they like and where to find them i.e which social media platform they use.  A good campaign will also have a good list of key search terms and hashtags that will be pushed through the website, blog & social media.

Make sure you have set up Google Alerts so you are aware of any mentions of your event and also any news related to your industry.  You can work with exhibitors to find good human element stories for you campaign plus ideas for polls / promos and conversations that can be used throughout.

You should launch your event 3 to 4 weeks prior with a blog post, newsletter, social media and press release, all to include key search terms.  Concentrate on the USPs (what makes your event unique) and always have a supply of high quality images.  As well has the hard sell to push the ticket sales you also need to provide good, interesting and useful content. 

On The Day

Once you get to your event day make sure you have a dedicated person on site working the social media, the behind the scenes shots of set up and the special highlights of the day make for great content that can be used for this event and future ones.

Red Desk are here to help you with any aspects of your event including planning, organisation, project management and social media.  We’d love to hear from you so get in touch today.