You created the Twitter feed, the Facebook page, the Instagram account. You’ve spent blood, sweat, and tears trying to get your event known in the world. Hashtagging, mentioning, reposting posts, and now over time, you have a successful social media following!
It’s one thing to have a social media follower, it’s another to convert them into a paying attendee. If you apply these few tricks, you can use your followers as base of ripe pickings for your event sales.
1. Run Promotions Exclusive for Your Social Media Followers
Running exclusive promotions for your social media followers will help make your followers feel like a VIP. It’s an easy way to reward them for choosing to follow you. Your updates show on their newsfeed so use this as advertising for promotions. In case you run short of exclusive promotional ideas, here are some to get the brain juices flowing:
- Like this post and be added for a drawing to win entry tickets.
- Broadcast “20% off of packages exclusive for our LinkedIn followers. Email us and mention you saw this post.”
- Tell Instagram followers to post event promotional materials in creative places and take a photo, tagging the event - best photos receive free upgrades, swag, or a meet & greet.
- Followers repost an image with a #giveaway tagging for friends to be placed to enter a drawing.
The list could go on and on! This is a chance to be creative and fun with your promotions and see your followers become attendees in no time.
2. Make it Easy to Purchase Through Social Media
Your followers will stay in tune with event updates on your social media like Facebook. They can also see if their friends are attending or are interested in the event. Obstacles to finding your registration page is the last thing you need when a follower becomes interested in attending. Make it seamless to register on social media. Facebook usually has plug-ins or apps that allow you to not only post a registration link on a Facebook page, but allows them to actually register through the plug-in without being redirected off of the site. We have a Facebook app specifically for these cases. If you’re marketing on Instagram, list the registration link in the bio referencing it with every post you make. Making sure your direct registration link is in multiple places and easily found ensures that your followers have an obstacle-less way to register.
3. Keep Followers Intrigued as the Event Gets Closer
Posting updates as your event gets closer keeps your followers engaged and excited. Some of the best posts I’ve seen were in-progress photos of festivals or conferences. The posts were videos or photos of behind-the-scenes peaks that made me feel I was going to miss out if I didn’t get on board now. Unveiling surprise meet & greets, perks, or also posting exclusive interviews with speakers will all help keep your followers on their toes with anticipation for your event. These updates paired with exclusive promotions, as mentioned above, will keep your followers fully engaged.
These tips are ingredients to the overall recipe of converting observers to attendees. Though there are many ways to market your event, promoting to your social media followers specifically should be the ace in your back pocket.
Have you run successful social media promotions to your followers? Chat into our team and let us know what's on the pulse of social media promotions right now.
