Social media is now one of the most useful tools that event planners and promoters can use to spread the word about events and meetings, interact with attendees, receive feedback, and create engagement with their target audience.

But its rise to importance has prompted questions about how to effectively employ Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other such platforms before, during, and after live gatherings.

We’ve decided to have a look at some tips that you might find helpful at your next event.

Creating the event page

The first step is to focus your social media choice on who your target audience is. The more focused you are, the more specific your targeting can be and that means a better outcome.

Once you have decided on your audience, think about which social platform they are most active on. Facebook events are one of the most popular event features on social media as they can be used for both public and private events.

Although LinkedIn removed their event features in 2012, there are still ways of promoting your event on the platform. By creating a ‘Showcase Page’ (a subsection attached to your company page) you have a central focus that you can direct people to. Once the showcase page has been created you can share it with your network, link it to LinkedIn Pulse posts and post relevant updates about the upcoming event. You can also advertise it on LinkedIn – a fairly cost effective way to generate a lot of visits to a carefully targeted audience.

Make it easy to share and engage

Depending on which platform you choose, there are different ways for you to make it easier for your audience to share and interact. For example, on Twitter it would be recommended to make a hashtag or run a poll to give attendees the option of choosing certain aspects of the event.

Build conversation before the event

It is important to start early. Don’t leave it until the day of the event to engage with your audience! Not only does this give your audience more time to put it in their diaries, but it gives you more time to target them. Posting a teaser on social media can increase users’ interest. Simply posting “We’re busy planning something great for June… any guesses?” can generate discussion and curiosity.

As a general rule the larger the event the longer the lead time. A small 1 day conference can be left until 4-6 weeks beforehand. But larger scale event want to be signalled 6 months in advance.

With plenty of time to promote, it is possible to create posts across a range of social platforms in a number of ways. Twitter and Instagram could be used to push a hashtag, and LinkedIn and Facebook could be used to create the event pages. The combined effect is always going to be more effective that a single platform approach.

Use contests and competitions

Contests on social media are a great way of increasing followers, engagement, and event audience. Whether you offer free tickets, meals or exclusive packages, the attraction that comes with the chance of winning something is large. This will create more attention and conversation around the event. The more ‘valued’ the item, the more interest you will create. It can also highlight who will be at the event and what will be available on the day.

Engage during and after

Engagement during the event is forever growing. Because your audience is all in one place, it can spark fun and creative conversations. Integrating a live tweet screen will encourage your attendees to get involved in tweeting. Let’s be honest, everybody wants to see their name on a big screen.

When the event has finished, don’t switch off. If you’re planning to hold a similar event in the future, now is the perfect time to get feedback. To boost participation in the survey, organise a prize draw from those who complete it.

Make sure that all of the visitor contact details have been kept – but those Facebook likes from this year’s event will be very useful when you announce next year’s date.

But of course, creating a buzz about your event is all very well but will the event live up to the hype?

A bad event will be mentioned on social media – and there is nothing that you can do about that apart from hosting as good event as possible.