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The first and foremost point to be noted before employing Social Media to promote your event is that none of this will happen overnight. It involves a deeply researched process and is not just used to combat lagging attendee numbers. So, have a planned outlook and start activities weeks prior to your event

Basically, a three-step process can be employed to deal with event marketing – Pre-event, During the Event and Post- Event.

Pre-event (Start the buzz and build your brand)

(i)     Establish credibility

It is very important to build a brand surrounding your event. It is important to address how this event is different from the others and why people should be attending it. The event should give its attendees a sense of exclusivity. It requires a trademark element which will cause excitement to its audience.

How to use the website/ blog

The most important step to establish credibility is to create a blog/ landing page for all information regarding the event. This will be the one stop place for all information and developments.

• Make sure that you web page carries a good design. Our suggestion is to use Wordpress and pick any one of the free wordpress themes which are specific to events
• Every little bit of new information regarding the event should find a mention on the blog. Everywhere else a link to this page needs to be shared.
• Invite a wide range of content creators to participate. Everyone your show involves has the potential to write new material. So involve employees, exhibitors, sponsors, attendees, customers, speakers, and the press.
• If event is regularly occurring, illustrate and showcase previous occasions’ success stories

Use Event Tools

• Event Tools like bookmyshow, ayojak and meraevents are convenient places to list your event
• The advantage of using these tools is that you don’t have to worry about keeping track of the booking and this also ensures free promotions

(ii)   Create Community

The online world is all about community creation. Do not forget that there are way too many platforms out there which can be used to massively collect people.

Use the Bloggers’ community

• For starters identify star bloggers related to your event and create an outreach program.
• Get in touch with them and ask them to be involved with the event.
• Distribute Event Badges and it can be displayed on the respective blogs
• Reach out to people that are genuinely interested in your event and feature their posts/ videos. For e.g., when TEDx Hitech City was happening, we asked fans to take part in our TEDx Hitech City Fan videos. This enables you to understand who are interested in the event and how to bring them together as a group.

How to use Facebook

• First of all, create a Facebook page. (Earlier it was called a Fan page!)
• Make sure at least people immediately involved with the event – participants, employees, sponsors, speakers are invited
• Speakers and participants can use this page to promote themselves
• Create a Facebook event and link it to this page
• Include the fan page link in your mailers and other communication
• Keep the ‘likers’ engaged. Provide content that will make them come back to the page. Ask them questions/ opinions/ ideas.

How to use Twitter

• Ensure there are individuals in your organizations who have signed on and who agree to provide regular content-based tweets
• Establish a hashtag for your event and use it
• Use Twitter Search for keywords of titles, content, etc. keyed to your event and see who is talking about them – and follow them.
• Include your Twitter identity in all communications – emails, the Web, collateral.
• Most of all – Tweet. Consistent, quality tweets will build up quality followers.
• As you build followers, include event-specific information – both content and promotional – in the flow of Tweets.
• Ask questions – and solicit responses – from followers as a way to engage
• Organize contests to encourage re-tweets and use of hashtags. For eg, we organised a Twitter contest for TEDxHitechCity. We encouraged people to come up with more and more interesting tweets using the hashtag #TEDxHitechCity, and distributed free passes to winners. This encourages more people to recognize the hashtag and use it more regularly, so that a community gets formed around it and all tweets can be tracked.

During event

• Live blogging and live tweeting by your own team is a must
• Use posts, tweets and facebook updates to keep attendees informed about keynotes, networking opportunities – basically, add value to the attendees
• Ask attendees, during the registration process, for their Twitter IDs and encourage them to follow yours for updates, information, etc.
• Encourage participants to share their experience real time – especially on Twitter. Ask them to use @ and the hashtag to keep track of the communication. Use it as a feedback mechanism
• Make sure your “Follow us on Twitter” message is well publicized: signage, collateral, screens, agendas, and session slides.

Post-Event – Keep the engagement going.

• After the event, keep the community active and still together by posting pictures, news and videos from the event. The event has provided sufficient material which can be packaged into video clips, presentations and white papers which can be used as content on the blog and other social networking platforms
• Use the time after the event to get feedback. That way you will have a better understanding of how successful the event was.