But there are a lot of soft costs associated with social media as well. The chief among them is of course your time, and when you’re in the midst of trying to get the most people to your event, this is a resource you don’t have much of.
So how can you make sure that your social media marketing is going to be effective? The best idea is to startlong before you need to market your meeting. And that work starts in one place:
When you ask most businesses why they are on social media, they use a lot of buzz words. They want to increase reach, engage with their customers, etc. In the end, however, there is only one reason to be on social media: to bring more business in the door. If your event marketing is not doing that, it is not worth your time and effort. Social media should not be any different.
So set your ultimate goal around real business objectives. Whether it’s selling more tickets, memberships or another product, make sure this goal is actually moving your business forward. Then continually refer back to this goal. If you are not selling more of your product, then elements of your event marketing needs to change.
Once you have your goal, the next step is to be truly honest about who your audience is. If you say, “Everyone is my audience,” then you are going to waste a lot of time on people that will never buy into your event.
Is your audience predominantly male or female? Do they have kids? What age range do they generally fall into? What are their interests? What motivates them? Understand your audience as much as possible and create a persona around them.And there is no reason to have just one. Your event may attract a few different audiences and you should create a persona for each one.
Now that you've created these personas, you need to to tailor your content for social media.
First, you have to be sure that all calls-to-action go back to your first step: your goal. Make sure you are consistently trying to generate business with each piece of content.
Next, look at the interests and motivations of your audience. How can you connect with these in a meaningful way?