Following on from our article 8 Tips to Promote your event using Facebook, we’ve produced this tips guide so you can make the most of publicising your event with Twitter to compliment your Facebook event page.
Twitter is a great way of communicating information about an event, particularly as you can use it in conjunction with your Facebook event page. Using Twitter you’ll be able to send out news, interact with partners, guests and organisers which will help drive traffic to your Facebook event page.
Tip1: Building up to your Event
Think carefully about what you’re likely to tweet about for an event, you’ll probably want to schedule your tweets to start a month or so before your event takes place. Some things that might be useful to tweet are about:
- Guest speakers
- Companies attending your event
- Any competitions you are running before or during the event
- Useful news about the event
- Frequently asked questions about the event itself
- Details about the venue
Warning: Be sure to check that other companies do not have any objections to you tweeting information or images from their participation at your event. Better to be safe than sorry!
Tip 2: Hash Tagging and Twitter Lists
”Hash tagging” is one of Twitter’s most loved features for its ability to get your topic ”trending.”
This is the easiest method of tracking any tweets and mentions of your events on social media. All you have to do is ask all participants to use a “#” with a chosen keyword phrase when discussing it, for example: #TipsToPromoteYourEventUsingTwitter
BONUS: by searching for your key worded hash tag on twitter, Anyone unable to attend the event can still keep updated with any information you decide to post!
You can easily use Twitter lists to include those involved in your event including participants and guest speakers. With Twitter lists you can tweet and re-tweet to people involved with your event.
Tip 3: Tweeting whilst your event takes place
When your event is running, regularly tweet news at it happens. Many organisations find it best to have someone dedicated to maintaining their social media profiles which will involve:
- Tweeting event highlights
- Re-tweeting tweets from participants
- Answers questions that come through social media channels
- Publishing photos and videos of the event
- Sharing content such as slide notes just after a presentation has taken place
All this will help generate a good buzz on social media as your event is happening.
Tip 4: Post Photos to TwitPic
Twitpic is a fantastic tool which enables users to snap photos with their phone/camera and upload them directly to their Twitter account (via shortened URL’s). Anyone who is following you on Twitter will then instantly be able to see your latest tweet and link to the image, all they have to do is click to view it.
Twitpic can also be used as a live stream for those who are unable to attend the event. This is a great way to show those people who can’t attend your event just what they’re missing! If you want to push the boat out and roll with the latest trend, why not instagram your photo with a cool effect before uploading it to twitpic!
Take a couple of shots every now and then with some descriptive captions in order to create a visual live streaming experience.
Tip 5: Ideas to tweet when it’s over
Once the event has finished be sure to post comments and pictures detailing the success of your event. Announce any competition winners and thank partners and guests for attending. It’s worth spending some time analysing what worked best and how the event itself was shared through social media channels; this will give you some great ideas for promoting your next event.
Tip 6: Making the most of SEO and Marketing
Social media shares can really help with your google rankings, but if you still use traditional link building tactics such as writing guest articles, check your Twitter and Facebook comments as they may give you good inspiration for your next guest post.
By analysing what worked well and received shares and re-tweets, it could easily give you a good angle for your next marketing campaign.