Use social media to pack your next event

You’ve got an event coming up, and you want to fill every seat. How do you throw a champagne event on a beer budget? With social media!

Here’s how.

• Have a unique, event-specific hashtag. The key here is to research it first. You need to make sure it hasn’t been used before or associated with something negative.
• Encourage attendees to tell the world they’re going. After they register include a “share on Facebook” button. Or write a tweet for them — with a call to action, like “Click to Tweet.”
• Answer back when your biggest supporters talk about the event on social media. Engage them in conversation.
• Offer discounts through social media and create social contests.
• Before the event interview the speakers or attendees and post those interviews on all your social media platforms. Ask the interviewees to post on their platforms, too.
• During the event give people a reason to take photos and share, share, share. For example, have a box of cool photo props available by the step-and-repeat.
• Give a sneak peak behind the scenes by sharing snippets of video.
• After the event, put any presentations up on SlideShare, releasing them once a day to keep people engaged.

With these easy tips, your next event is sure to be a success.