Social media presence for events

Social media marketing was once considered a miracle cure for attracting new customers and guests at no cost at all, who would then forward information to their friends. Of course, it's not quite that simple. In this article, we want to show you how you can still effectively support your business or event with social media.

This blog article refers to content-based social media marketing. This is about inspiring users with your own interesting content and making your own brand visible at the same time. In addition, there is also the large area of paid advertisements. This can also be an effective way to generate attention and, above all, to obtain concrete user actions (e.g. calls, contact inquiries or bookings). But that's another topic and we may write a separate article on that.

All articles in this series:

1. Tips for your social media presence
2. Social media marketing - before the event
3. Social media marketing - at the event

The most important 5 tips right at the beginning:

1. Social media is always based on voluntariness. Be sure to forget all approaches that force users to like a Facebook page or subscribe to newsletters. Enthusiastic customers become followers voluntarily.
2. Content you post or send should always have a real benefit for the recipients. Avoid pure advertising.
3. Be patient: you don't build a follower base in a few days. If you maintain your social media accounts and post helpful, interesting content, you'll get more followers over time.
4. Be sure to respond promptly - within 24 hours at best. The special thing about social media is that you can interact with users. When they ask questions or comment on posts, they usually expect a response immediately.
5. Be open to criticism. It can happen that users complain publicly about something - often, unfortunately, with a harsh choice of words. Enter into dialog with these users and help them - always in a factual and friendly manner. It is not uncommon that even dissatisfied customers can be turned into enthusiastic customers with uncomplicated help. Oh, and don't let yourself be provoked - there are quite a few users (so-called trolls) who deliberately provoke just to start a heated argument.

If you take these tips into account, not much can go wrong. But how do you use social media in everyday business?

The most important thing is that you should enjoy maintaining your social media platforms. Therefore, it's better to concentrate on just a few - otherwise it quickly happens that a platform remains unkempt - and that doesn't have a good external effect. If social media is just a chore for you, it will show on the outside.

What platforms are there?

Social media is not just Facebook, even if it is probably the best-known platform. But there are some other offers that, depending on the business model, can be quite suitable. We deliberately want to list only the most important platforms here, so that the list still deserves the name "overview".

Facebook

It is the most popular social media platform and also the largest with almost 2 billion users worldwide. As a result, Facebook has great potential if the store's page is well designed and maintained. A large proportion of users are active on Facebook almost daily, scrolling through the news stream, commenting on posts or sharing content with friends. However, the abundance of posts makes it even more important to post really interesting content. Boring posts or pure advertising that simply promotes products have little chance of being seen or shared.

Instagram

Instagram is a social network that relies purely on images and small movies. Posts can only be created with a smartphone and the Instagram app. However, Instagram is only really useful if you enjoy taking photos with your phone and there are always interesting, funny or entertaining motifs in your everyday event life. These can be impressions of shows, new creations or thematically appropriate images or video clips.

Posting your own interesting image content is a good basis. However, it only gets really interesting when you motivate guests to upload their own images and tag them with a specific hashtag (#). However, you need to offer an incentive for this. Example: Every user who posts an event photo with the hashtag #meinevent automatically takes part in a competition or can pick up a goodie at a counter.

TIP: in our blog post "Social media marketing - before the event" we covered the topic of Instagram in detail.

Newsletter

Whether the classic newsletter is a social media tool is debatable. However, it is still a fantastic way to get in touch with customers and get feedback. After all, all Internet users - regardless of age - are generally familiar with the medium of e-mail. But beware - most users already receive quite a few newsletters. Therefore, you should send your newsletters in good doses and with really interesting content. One newsletter a quarter of the year is a good guideline. Combine news about your company or events with helpful articles that will benefit your target audience. For example, report on a new trend in the industry of your target group in the first topic and then point out your next event in the second. Maybe the newsletter also holds a discount code with a link to the booking - then your recipients have a real advantage and will certainly not click on "Unsibscribe".

Twitter

Twitter is certainly the fastest of all platforms and is therefore most suitable for quickly informing about current topics or informing customers. Thus, Twitter is often used by large companies to inform about very current events or short-term disruptions. A special feature is the 140-character limit. A post may not be longer than this. In principle, Twitter is more suitable if you often have a lot to say. However, it is not very widespread in Germany.

Xing

In German-speaking countries, Xing is one of the most important business platforms, with around 8 million users. The difference to other platforms such as Facebook is that users here are in a professional context. It is advisable to create a profile with up-to-date information for oneself in order to maintain the professional network. It is not uncommon for partners or customers to network directly via Xing in order to literally get a picture of their business partner. A "company page" can also be created for the user's own company.

LinkedIn

This is the international counterpart to Xing. From my point of view, it makes more sense to concentrate on Xing first. However, if your business is international, it is worth considering maintaining a LinkedIn profile in parallel.

YouTube

Everyone who is on the Internet knows this name. YouTube is the largest video platform and the place to go when it comes to moving images on the web. Anyone can create a channel and upload their own videos. Users can then comment on these in turn, and the videos can also be embedded outside of YouTube - for example, on your own website. If you decide to run a YouTube channel, however, you should definitely consider how you will (have) create professional videos and what content you want to convey. Here, too, it is advisable to draw attention to your own company in a charming way with entertaining, helpful clips or to create videos that explain your own product in a clear and simple way.

Pinterest and Flickr

These two platforms focus entirely on photos and videos, and are therefore particularly suitable if you can produce a lot of visual content (similar to Instagram).

If the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words is true, it's certainly true in the social media space.(An example: Since Twitter introduced the photo sharing function on its website, tweets with attached photos are retweeted far more than tweets without photos).

Blogs

If you don't have your own blog yet - create one now. Really. Yes, it's time-consuming and it will surely cost you 2 - 4 hours a month. But it will enhance your website and your whole business and project and that will pay off in the long run. The articles can be compact - but publish something regularly. There should be something new on your blog at least once a month. The topics should help your target group: Trends, tips, testimonials or even something funny (if it's really funny). Above all, add lots of photos and of course videos. Make your blog interesting and informative and you will continue to gain readers. But be sure to keep one thing in mind: a blog is more of an informative magazine than a platform for self-promotion. If every other article is about how great your events are, people are sure to lose interest quickly.

Social media in everyday life

If you decide to present your company on social networks, it's something long-term. You should therefore consider whether you can regularly find time to maintain your profiles, communicate with users and plan appropriate actions for your followers. Unfortunately, it often happens that companies launch a social media page full of euphoria, which then becomes orphaned after a few weeks. Therefore, it is better to have no social media presence than one that is not up to date.

Be transparent, natural and entertaining

Social media has the great advantage that you can present yourself as a customer-oriented company. Uncomplicated help, a natural way of dealing with mistakes (especially if something went wrong in-house) and a pleasantly informal tone (you're welcome) go down well and come across as likeable.

Have fun creating posts

One of the most common questions is: What should a contribution look like? Of course, there is no one-sentence answer to that. But there are some points that make good posts. Try to look at your business from the customer's eyes, leave the familiar ways of advertising and, most importantly, don't treat creating posts as a chore. What would interest you if you were your own customer? Interesting facts about the store's manufacturing or history, an introduction to the individual staff members, a previously secret recipe, pictures of pre-season renovations, special projects or impressive one-of-a-kind pieces - there's sure to be a lot to share. Gather ideas, involve all employees, have fun with it and entertain your customers. Try not to treat your posts as advertising, but as entertainment - personal and close to your customers.

Post Exclusive

Social media followers are fans of your company. It's good to acknowledge this every now and then and publish exclusive offers that are only available on a certain platform and are thus held exclusively for followers. These can be discounts, sweepstakes, exclusive offers or pre-announcements of new products. Make your followers feel special and get something that others don't get.

Plan something in advance

Have good ideas for Facebook posts, Instagram photos or YouTube videos? Perfect. But don't post everything immediately, but rather one after the other and with a little time gap. Let's say you have 12 good ideas for posts, then rather publish them over the period of a year and once a month instead of putting all posts online already in one month. If necessary, you can also make a yearly plan and already prepare contributions. However, you should still post something spontaneous from everyday business life every now and then, so that your profile does not appear too static and planned through. Overall, it's all about regularity. You should post at least once a month. But still check your profile more often - because questions or comments from users should be answered as quickly as possible.

See what others are doing

Be inspired by already successful social media profiles. Almost all major brands operate their own channels and in some cases show a lot of creative talent for entertaining posts. Such profiles often provide ideas and inspiration for your own activities.

Perfect combination: social media and event WiFi

The most important thing besides a professionally designed and maintained social media page is attention. Only when your customers know that you have a presence on one platform or another can they become followers there.

This is exactly where the combination with an event WiFi helps you.
Because you can display information to every guest who uses your WiFi when they register. This makes it easy to ask them to like your Facebook page, subscribe to your newsletter or forward them to a social media profile of your choice.
This way you quickly gain new followers who may also tell friends and acquaintances about your business.

 

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