Author, Speakers, Coaches and various other Business Owners will often use various Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to promote and advertise their upcoming events which is a good idea, but one important thing to note when using social media to promote events is that, visuals are key for success, as you can actually show your audience what to expect from your event and even provide more of the information they need to make up their minds about attending your event in a visual manner with the use of pictures of satisfied attendees, video testimonials and much more.
Instagram is a great tool and social media platform to promote your upcoming events as it provides an avenue for you to use visuals (Photos and Short Videos) for your event promotion in an uninterrupted manner as Instagram itself is a mainly visual platform.
In addition, Instagram is now seen as the “King of Engagement” with the rate of engagement in the form of Likes and Comments on Instagram Posts surpassing what is seen now seen on Facebook and Twitter several times over.
So why not promote your event on a platform where you can attract your ideal clients with visuals and also get them to engage with you and your content!
Here are a few tips to get you started:
Decide on your Goals
Before you start promoting your event on Instagram, It is important that you decide and write down specific goals at to what you want to achieve?
Are you looking to increase ticket sales and registrations or to simply inform and create awareness of the event? Are you looking to simply educate others?
Know what your event promotion goals are and write them down so that everyone including you know what you are trying to achieve.
Remember that well thought-out goals and a strategy will allow you connect with your target audience, inform and educate your followers of the benefits they can get from attending your event, increase the number of registrations and sales of your event and even encourage some of your followers to join in, in the promotion of your event, depending on event promotion goals.
Start Posting
Being active is a key to success on any social media including Instagram.
It is important to stay active on Instagram while promoting your event (and even when you are not) by taking pictures as many as you can, that are relevant to your event such as venue and event preparation pictures and posting them to your Instagram account.
You can also share pictures of past events, happy attendees, short video testimonials, pictures of speakers, exhibitors and stakeholders, event e-flyer and nuggets from past events.
Do not spam your followers with too many photos, rather, stick to a posting schedule.
Use Call-to-Actions
Although your event might only be for a few hours or days, start to connect with your audience well before the time of the event to increase their awareness of your upcoming event and encouraging them to make plans towards attending the event.
Instagram only allows you 1 clickable link, which is the link in your bio, so take advantage of that feature and tell your audience to click on the link in your Bio that will lead them to register for, or join your event.
Although you can’t include clickable links in your Instagram posts, you can add a caption in your posts saying “Click on the link in my bio to learn more about this event”.
Tell A Story
Allow your audience to be involved in the event by creating a story / stories around the event through your Instagram posts. Boost excitement by sharing stories through your posts that would fascinate your audience to look forward to your event. Post the latest updates on your event from planning to preparations to increase their excitement in joining your event.
Be Creative on Your Posts
Instagram allows you to use several photo and video applications to make your posts more attractive and fun.
You can start by creating a colour or style theme for your event and incorporating this theme into posts that are about the event. In this way, your audience will start to recognise your event by your event colours and / style.
Instagram itself has filters that can make your pictures look even more beautiful, some examples of additional tools you can use include WordSwag and Canva.com. If you need more ideas of tools to create beautiful Photos for Instagram, I share 99 Apps (including Apps for Photos and Videos) for your Instagram Success in my Online Instagram Course InstaBizGrowth which can be found at InstaBizGrowth.com
Use Hashtags
It is very important and highly recommended that you create a unique hashtag for your event, for example, #BigSocial was the unique Hashtag for the Big Social Media Conference I recently attended in Manchester, UK.
Your event’s unique hashtag will enable people (your target audience, especially) discover your event, create awareness and recognition wherever people see the hashtag.
Your Hashtag will also encourage others to add your event hashtag to their own posts where relevant.
It’s OK to Cross-Promote
You can share your Posts promoting your event from your Instagram account to your Facebook Personal Profile Page, Facebook Business Page, Twitter and few other platforms. You can also include links that drive your audience to your Instagram account to find out more about the event.
Promote Venues
You can promote the place of your event on Instagram through your posts and hashtags, and in return, you can ask the owner or the manager of the venue to promote your event too on their Instagram account. It can increase the number of people that get to know about your event.
Promote Speakers
Having speakers in your event is a great way to make your event even more successful. Your speakers will help you influence more people to join your event and follow your brand. You can promote your event speakers by posting photos of them to your Instagram account, tagging their Instagram accounts and using your event Hashtag. In like manner, the speakers can help also help you in promoting your event on their Instagram accounts.
Organize a contest
You can consider hosting an Instagram contest to further increase the excitement and buzz around your event!
For example, you can create a photo contest that will require people to post photos on how they are preparing for your upcoming event using your unique event hashtag, and whoever’s Photo gets the most likes, wins the contest.
This technique is a fantastic way to build more awareness of your event as well as, encourage others to share your event on Instagram.
Instagram is indeed an excellent tool to promote your events as an author, speaker, coach, consultant or any owner as there are so many actions you can take on Instagram that will allow you have a very successful event and I share a number of them in my Online Instagram Course, InstaBizGrowth at InstaBizGrowth.com
Instagram is now is the fastest growing social media platform and you have a chance to reach out to as many people as you want to promote your brand and events.
To enquire about our “Do it for You Instagram Management Service”, simply Email Tobi@TobiAwoyemi.com