The Role of Social Media in Event Marketing

Event marketing on social media can be quite useful for all different types of events. Social media events can help to attract individuals and attendees, build relationships with customers, stimulate engagement, and extend interaction beyond the duration of the event. “Event marketing is a strategy marketers use to promote their brand, product, or service with an in-person or real-time engagement” (Instapage). These are important factors in a successful event. When it comes to events, it’s important that those in charge follow a social strategy, just as any brand would. As always, the goal must be determined to begin. Next, the event planners must decide which social media platforms are going to be used. Finally, the last step would be to create a content calendar and determine the plan for the social media advertising budget, and execute these plans.

Social media can assist with events in many ways including marketing tactics, customer service, reputation management, sales, and so much more like event engagement and feedback. “When it comes to social media event marketing, that means knowing what to post and where to post it in order to reach potential attendees”(Grate). I believe that social media is important in events because there are so many ways to come across them on social media platforms. I think that this can help several audiences hear of events that they may have never heard of, had they not seen them on social media.

One of America’s biggest events of the year is the Super Bowl. I find it important to utilize social media for this event before, during, and after it has occurred. The first step in utilizing social media for this event would be to create content and plan the campaign. This is the time to lay out the core touch-points, assign social media value, and map out potential social platforms the Super Bowl would work well with. This is the perfect opportunity to come up with a hashtag and get a conversation started. “According to our data, there were nearly as many posts leading up to an event as there were during the event itself (40% and 42% of total posts, respectively). This makes the buildup to an event a prime time to engage both potential attendees and those who’ve registered” (Grate). Therefore, it is important to implement a strategy and get the conversation going before the event takes place.

Utilizing social media during event is much simpler than before and after, simply because usually even attendees enjoy capturing the moments that take place during the event. It’s important that the event itself is highly promoted while the event occurs. Additionally, it’s important to encourage attendees to opst during the event, which is where th hashtag can take place. “So yes, while the highest percentage of social media event posts occur during the event itself, far and away the largest type of event post was multimedia-based. Eighty-five percent of the in-event posts included multimedia elements, such as images, videos, and quotes” (Grate). With an event as big as the Super Bowl, being able to spread it’s publicity through social media is crucial for those who may not be “football fans.”

Finally, utilizing social media after an event has occurred is the most difficult, in my opinion. However, this is the best time to ask for feedback and celebrate the event. Just because an event is over, does not mean that the social media presence should be as well. I think the Super Bowl does an excellent job of utilizing social media after the event, because it’s a yearly event so they have time to get the audience excited for next year.

The Super Bowl is such a large event that utilizing social media only continues to remind the entire world and excite them for what’s to come. I think they do a fantastic job of utilizing social media before, during and after their events. “Talkwalker has done what we do best: monitoring social media to learn and share insights from the Super Bowl” (Rafael, 2020). They are able to learn conversations that the audience is having around the game, teams, player, and more. Additionally, they can keep the conversation going after the Super Bowl ends, and get the fans excited for the next year. I believe that any event can strongly benefit from utilizing social media.

Sources:

Grate, R. (2020, June 30). Event Marketing on Social Media: How to Make Your Event Stand Out. Retrieved November 19, 2020, from https://buffer.com/library/social-media-event-marketing/

Talkwalker.com, R. (2020, January 28). Super Bowl LIV Social Media Stats. Retrieved November 19, 2020, from https://www.talkwalker.com/blog/super-bowl-liv-social-media-stats-2020

What is Event Marketing? (2019, September 18). Retrieved November 19, 2020, from https://instapage.com/what-is-event-marketing