Marketing and producing a successful event is a different game today. It you are not using social media, streaming and Influencers, you are losing attendees as you read this. In today’s busy business world with shrinking budgets, you need to learn the best new ways to leverage digital marketing.

To help with this, we share our unique proven steps to put butts in seats, boost engagement and attract sponsors. With a plan and a few key steps, we show you how to get started on your path to success.

Step One – Marketing Prep

To start preparing your event, you need to do a marketing inventory of all content items you have. This inventory includes video, images, blogs, PR efforts and of course, social media. Another key component for your event is to have a branded hashtag and let everyone associated with the event know- this is extremely helpful for producing pre-event buzz, free promotion, as well as connecting everyone at the event and after the event! Always utilize hashtagging!

Another thing that you will need to prep for your future events (honestly, the most important thing!) is your networks! Make sure you know your attendees, speakers and sponsors for your event, so you can tag them on your social media platforms. By connecting to all the Influencers at the event on social media, it boosts your network by putting your brand in front of the eyes of people that don’t already follow you! Influencer Marketing Pro Tip: Our team likes to have event attendees sign media releases upon arrival to the event so that we can use their pictures and video for social media. In knowing who will be at your event, you can plan out this content and make the most of it. Any videos and pictures you get can be repurposed on social media, the website, etc.- this is a great asset!

Step Two – Influencer Marketing

The next step is to activate this network. In this step, you measure who you are dealing with for events and rate them. If someone is an “A” Influencer, it means that they have a large amount social media Influence in their area of expertise. You can have someone from a Fortune 500 speak at your event, but if they don’t have any social media presence, they may not have the Influence needed to really bring in a crowd. You’ll want to use a scoring system for EVERYONE related to the event (even yourself!) so you know how to make the best out of your network.

Step Three – Commit To Engage

Now you can make all the content you want for an event.  However, unless you engage with others, interest for it simply will not happen. At the very least, you should be leaking your event out on Twitter for people to engage it. You should also do live social media when you are at an event because that generates INTEREST for it. The thought behind engaging and “playing online” using the network and hashtagging is to make people who didn’t attend follow the event. This boosts interest for future events you may hold, as well as recognition for your brand!

Influencer Marketing Pro Tip: You can also have Influencers of your event do a “take-over” on your social media channels. This could be something as simple as a video with said Influencer saying what they will discuss, an “interview” if you will. This can also help you do pre-event promotions to increase the hype and get people to come to the event. The Social Jack academy is full of resources for taking and utilizing video marketing if you ever need any tips.

Also, remember that streaming is your friend. Doing videos before the event and live videos of the event will make people want to really be there and get in on all the fun.

Step Four – Go Mobile

Another thing we love is using mobile apps for events. When people log into an app made for the event, they can engage further and even answer questions, complete, polls, and really stay locked in the entire time.  One thing that our team likes to do with our Social Jack app is a matchmaking feature that allows pre-networking for events. This feature pre-matches attendees to referrals that were hand-poicked for them- how cool is that? Before your event even happens, people can already be engaging through the app.

Besides matchmaking, mobile apps have plenty of other features to use as well; you can store presentations, contests, promo videos, and image gallery, etc. on the app. You want people to utilize these apps to see what is happening and, most importantly, HAVE FUN!

Step Five – Post Event Follow Up

It goes without saying, but you need to follow up on anything you promised after an event ends. If you have any post-event deliverables you need to send to people, make sure you do that no more than 24 hours later. Staying connected with your Influencers is also key to this follow up as well.  You can re-post content all year for these events, so if you want to share something from the event you should be tagging the companies, Influencers, and attendees that came.  This keeps engagement with the event going long after its ended, and generates buzz for any future events you may hold.

Bonus Tip – Team up with your Sponsors

A sponsor can add existing value to events.  As you get better with social, you will get better sponsorships and packages from them.  This adds some notoriety to your events which will get more people talking about them.

In Summary

While this seems like a lot of work to get an event noticed, Influencer Marketing has to be a part of enhancing it. Remember that a lot of the marketing work for the event will happen before the event so you can execute everything perfectly when it starts. Events are always fun, so you should have fun while preparing them.  Even when the event is over, your engagement with it doesn’t stop. You can share content throughout the year or even start increasing hype when it comes back for the following year!  If you need further resources, check out our Free Resource Center at Social Jack. You can access our Free Resource Center by signing up for a Basic Social Jack Account plus browse the worksheets and classes currently available.

We will see you (and your event) online!

We hope to see you in one of our next classes! Check out the full list at www.socialjackflash.com