Take a look at six popular social media networks and see which are the most effective for your event’s message.
Social media platforms are a powerful resource for any event planner. From marketing your event to communicating in real time with attendees, social media provides endless opportunities for interaction. However, with hundreds of social media platforms on the internet, how do you know which to choose? Each social network comes with different capabilities and a unique set of users. It’s crucial to focus your time and effort only on the social media platforms that will work best for your event.
Before you can determine which social networks will be the best fit, you need to take a look at your audience and your goals. Who is your audience? Consider details such as their age, gender, and education level. What are you goals? Think about not only the type of media you plan to share but also what value you hope to get out of your social media interactions.
According to CMO.com, Adobe’s site for digital marketing insight, there are four things to consider when weighing the value of a social network: Does it facilitate customer interaction? Will it provide brand exposure? Will it drive traffic to your website? And lastly, will it have an effect on SEO? It is not likely for one social network to excel in all of these areas. You will need to decide which of these added values is the most crucial to your event.
Once you have all of this information narrowed down, you can begin to compare your needs with each social network’s abilities.
Facebook, 1.11 Billion Users
| Gender | ||||||
| Women | Men | |||||
| 58% | 42% | |||||
| Education | ||||||
| Some College | Bachelor’s Degree | Graduate Degree | ||||
| 60% | 14% | 5% | ||||
| Age | ||||||
| 18-24 years | 25-34 years | 35-44 years | 45-54 years | 55-64 years | 65+ years | |
| 9% | 17% | 22% | 32% | 9% | 3% | |
Facebook is undoubtedly one of the largest and most popular social networks. With a large and diverse user base, it is an excellent social network for event marketing. Facebook’s easy-to-use platform allows you to share photos, videos, articles, and text. Facebook is best for increasing traffic to your website, brand exposure, and customer engagement.
Twitter, 500 Million Users
| Gender | ||||||
| Women | Men | |||||
| 62% | 38% | |||||
| Education | ||||||
| Some College | Bachelor’s Degree | Graduate Degree | ||||
| 61% | 16% | 6% | ||||
| Age | ||||||
| 18-24 years | 25-34 years | 35-44 years | 45-54 years | 55-64 years | 65+ years | |
| 15% | 24% | 23% | 23% | 6% | 3% | |
Twitter is one of the best social networks for attendee engagement. Don’t be fooled by the 140 character limit per tweet–it is a platform where conversation thrives. In addition to text, share photos, links, and videos with your followers. Twitter can also help boost traffic to your website and increase your event’s exposure.
If you are new to twitter, we suggest starting with a great #hashtag to identify your event. A hashtag will help grab attention and signal to users the topic of your tweet. Attendees are likely to pay attention to the tweets with your event’s hashtag. This makes it the perfect way to spread information pertinent to your event. Before you get started, check out this in-depth guide to using hashtags for your event.
LinkedIn, 225 Million Users
| Gender | ||||||
| Women | Men | |||||
| 50% | 50% | |||||
| Education | ||||||
| Some College | Bachelor’s Degree | Graduate Degree | ||||
| 45% | 31% | 13% | ||||
| Age | ||||||
| 18-24 years | 25-34 years | 35-44 years | 45-54 years | 55-64 years | 65+ years | |
| 4% | 16% | 31% | 31% | 12% | 4% | |
LinkedIn is a great platform for brand and event exposure. Create a company page, join relevant groups, and network with professionals in your field. LinkedIn allows you to share your knowledge and expertise in a way credible way. LinkedIn users can trust your content when it’s backed up by your personal and company pages which include detailed information on your background.
One of the best ways to increase exposure to your event is to participate in groups that are relevant to your event’s message. The more you participate and provide valuable information, the more likely LinkedIn users are to take notice. You’ll increase your network, and hopefully increase interest in your event.
YouTube, 1 Billion Users, 4 Billion Views per Day
| Gender | ||||||
| Women | Men | |||||
| 55% | 45% | |||||
| Education | ||||||
| Some College | Bachelor’s Degree | Graduate Degree | ||||
| 59% | 13% | 7% | ||||
| Age | ||||||
| 18-24 years | 25-34 years | 35-44 years | 45-54 years | 55-64 years | 65+ years | |
| 10% | 17% | 20% | 32% | 7% | 3% | |
With over 4 billion views a day, YouTube is a great way to get your message heard (and seen)! Creating and sharing videos on YouTube can engage your attendees, increase your event’s exposure, and improve your SEO. Video offers a unique advantage to attendee engagement—you can entertain as you educate and inform. However, this can also be a challenge; if you can’t entertain, your videos are not likely to be shared by your viewers. You must give viewers a reason to hit “like” and “subscribe.”
Video can be a great way to include virtual attendees in your event. Post videos that include speaker presentations and exhibitor demonstrations to help your virtual attendees feel like they are there. It will also give attendees something to reference after the event, keeping your event’s information on their minds throughout the year.
Pinterest, 48.7 Million Users
| Gender | ||||||
| Women | Men | |||||
| 79% | 21% | |||||
| Education | ||||||
| Some College | Bachelor’s Degree | Graduate Degree | ||||
| 66% | 15% | 6% | ||||
| Age | ||||||
| 18-24 years | 25-34 years | 35-44 years | 45-54 years | 55-64 years | 65+ years | |
| 7% | 27% | 26% | 24% | 7% | 3% | |
When utilized properly, Pinterest can increase both your event’s exposure and traffic to your event or company website. Visual content is easier and faster to process than text-based content; this makes this image-based website the go-to platform for sharing information.
Each pin is easy to “re-pin” or share and also includes a link back to the original source—enabling users to spread your content and drive traffic to your website at the same time. Pin images that link to your event’s website, blog posts, or registration form. The more visually interesting and exciting, the more likely your pin is to be clicked on shared.
Slideshare, 50 Million Users
| Gender | ||||||
| Women | Men | |||||
| 62% | 38% | |||||
| Education | ||||||
| Some College | Bachelor’s Degree | Graduate Degree | ||||
| 44% | 21% | 17% | ||||
| Age | ||||||
| 18-24 years | 25-34 years | 35-44 years | 45-54 years | 55-64 years | 65+ years | |
| 9% | 25% | 30% | 22% | 7% | 2% | |
Slideshare is a great resource for event professionals from planners to presenters and exhibitors. Slideshare allows you to share presentations on their site and embed presentations on your site. Communicate with attendees and encourage them to share and spread your message with their friends. Sharing presentations is also a great way to involve virtual attendees in your event.
The most important thing you can do when delving into the world of social media is to dedicate a certain amount of time each week to posting, interacting, and uploading content. Stagnant social media accounts won’t do much to promote your event. You need to consistently participate to reap the rewards.
The data for this article was collected from the following sources:
http://infographics.sg/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/ChoosingMostEffectivePlatforms.png
http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/social-media-stats/2012-social-network-analysis-report/
http://www.cmo.com/content/cmo-com/home/articles/2013/2/27/the_2013_cmo_s_guide.html
http://www.cmo.com/articles/2012/3/20/the-2012-cmos-guide-to-the-social-landscape.html
http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/resource-how-many-people-use-the-top-social-media/
