I hate that…..  I hate reading it, and I hate creating it. Check me out! Look at this! Check this out! etc….  I feel these phrases are most commonly used when events are being promoted via the social web-o-sphere. So, I would like to offer my opinion on how to not make me hate you, cause I will hate your entire organization in the end if you continue to try and lure me with such phrases. This is most likely deeply rooted in my disdain for the singles bar scene, aka sausage fests, that seem to be a rite of passage for your early 20’s.

So let’s say you have an event happening soon, and you want to use the power of social media to help promote it. You see a potential in creating awareness for the event, which you hope will translate into some type of sales, like tickets. If you think that just creating awareness by simply letting an audience know of the events existence will translate into robust sales, I think you have a better chance playing lotto scratchers. 

What can you do? You need to sell tickets. As we have learned, there is really only 1% of the population who wouldn’t care about having to sell tickets, but then again how did they get to be the 1%? You must develop a strategy. How do you develop a strategy? It can get complex but the essence is to simply think of your event as a story. The basic elements of a story are a beginning,middle, and end.  All too often campaigns will find themselves spending most of their time and energy on the beginning and little to none on the middle or end. The middle and end of the story are just as important as the beginning. Think of creative ways to talk and educate about the event for the beginning portion. Think about ways you can incorporate using social media either during the event or the day of the event. When the event is over don’t let the campaign be over, this is an opportunity to illicit valuable response from your audience about the event which you can then use in the beginning stages of your next event.

There are many unintended benefits to reap when you have a promotion strategy for an event by using social media. Well thought out strategy will increase your chances of your event getting word of mouth recognition as well as being put in front of people that may not have even been on your radar screen. It can also give your base a reward for being invested in your event by allowing them to feel personally connected to the entire process of the event because it has a beginning, middle, and end.

Sound complicated? It can be. That’s why it helps to have an outside eye collaborate with you on a comprehensive strategy for your event. Remember, you are telling a story about your event not renting a billboard.