This is lesson 3 in the ‘Marketing your Quicket Event’ course.
Click here to go back to the previous lesson, click here to skip to the next lesson or click here to go to the start of the course.
Welcome to lesson 3 of our ‘Marketing your Quicket event’ course. At the end of this 10-part course you’ll have all the tools you need to market your event effectively, ensuring you have as many ticket sales as possible.
This lesson covers:
Facebook is a must, but other social channels might also be important for you to focus on, depending on your event and who it’s aimed at.
This lesson will walk you through these, how to choose which of them are right for your event, and where and how to set them up in a way that benefits your event.
Tip: If you already have any of these platforms set up for your event brand, great! The rest of this lesson has information that is just as relevant to you, so we’d still recommend working through it.
What other platforms do I need?
Lesson 3: Social Media Building Blocks (continued) - Section 1
There are myriad platforms out there - from giants like Facebook to more niche community-focused spaces - and where you tell people about your event is entirely dependent on your event and your target market.
Here’s a top-level low-down about each of those you should consider. Read through these, decide what you need, and follow to the next section of this lesson to set them up effectively.
Tip: If you’re unsure whether to include any of these platforms in your setup, rather err on the side of caution and make sure your event is visible in more places than not - you can always test and see what works best over time and cut down the channels that don’t serve your event well.
The demographic of people that use Instagram is significantly younger than other platforms, but even if a younger audience is not your market, don’t let that be a hindrance.
There are an ever-increasing number of people using Instagram. It’s an incredibly visual platform - and with events being as visual as they are, it’s a no-brainer to use Instagram as a fantastic tool to communicate what your event is about and get people excited about it.
If there’s anything specifically visual about your event - for example an art event with all visual content - Instagram is a must.
Even if your event is not as visually-focused as an art event, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a sea of visual content that’s perfect for Instagram. You have many options here - this is by no means a comprehensive list, but here are a few to spark some thoughts:
- People at your event having a wonderful time
- People learning from speakers and/or teachers
- People engaging with what you’re offering
- Food and/or beverages
- Outcomes of the event such as what people have made, or happy beneficiaries from charity events
- Scene and setting of the event
- Submitted content from guests
- Infographics and how-to guides
Despite its active audience being significantly lower than other platforms, in some markets, Twitter is king. If you’re starting out and don’t know already know for a fact if it’s a relevant platform to your specific event, we encourage you to test how it works for you. You can then make a call on whether it’s worth the effort of maintaining it as a social platform. (Later in this course we’ll show you you can very easily track and isolate your marketing efforts using Quicket to make decisions such as this.)
Take note though that at the end, you may not have as good results as you hope depending on your event and its intended audience. Certain markets such as Eastern and Western Africa have a relatively high percentage of engaged users when it comes to events. Comparatively, in South Africa, Twitter is effective when it comes to certain markets, but sometimes may not the case for others. Many organisers who advertise their South African events on Twitter do so to make sure they cover all their bases, despite those marketing efforts not necessarily yielding a large portion of their ticket sales.
YouTube
YouTube still ranks high in terms of video content, and with events, video content it key and very easy to capture with available cell phone camera technology.
Regardless of the nature of your event, it's likely you're able to create relevant and interesting content for it at different stages. Anything ranging from promo videos in the lead up with people talking about their past experiences at the event, to a post-event video of the event itself to boost your brand that allows people to reminisce about the event, or refer back to for useful information from the event.
As you might assume, LinkedIn is great for company- and business-related events. Training courses, conferences, industry networking, and B2B events, etc. that you’re wanting to market publicly should absolutely be talked about on LinkedIn.
If you don’t already have a company page, you should consider one, and should absolutely be talking about your event and other interesting yet related topics on your own personal profile on LinkedIn as well.
Niche channels
Some of these are not necessarily regarded as social platforms, but depending on what the nature of your event is, there are likely to be a number of niche channels you can market your event through.
Perhaps you’re running a school event and you have a portal where parents log in to check what’s happening. Or perhaps you’re running a barista course and can connect with a Facebook group of coffee enthusiasts. Only you will know what these are - think of Whatsapp groups, Facebook groups, and research other communities where you can advertise your event.
Often these are less stringent on the required specs for content, so you’re likely to be able to use the same content as you create for other platforms here and won’t need to create content specifically for it.
Your personal profile
Regardless of which platforms you use for your event brand, if you have a personal profile on any of the platforms - specifically on Facebook & Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, and LinkedIn - you should use each of these to extend the reach of your event and connect with your own existing social network.
Setting these up
Lesson 3: Social Media Building Blocks (continued) - Section 2
Now that you know which other platforms you need, go ahead and set them up. Like Facebook, each platform has specific things to be aware of. We won’t go into as much detail as we did with Facebook, but there are some important things to do when promoting your event.
For each of your platforms, including Facebook, here are our 10 golden rules to implement.
10 Golden Rules for when you set up social profiles for you brand
✨ It’s much easier for people to find you if your social handles (a.k.a. usernames) are the same across platforms. This is not always possible, so you may have to settle for a version of your name based on what’s available, but see if you can make that the one you use across the board so it carries your brand.
Your page’s name and your username can be the same, but it doesn’t have to be. See what makes the most sense for your brand. Your page’s name might be something like “Exciting Events South Africa” and your username might be “@excitingevents” or “@excitingeventsza” since you're not allowed spaces in it.
✨ This helps carry your event brand strongly and makes it memorable.
✨ Hashtags only work if people know about them. It should be simple and catchy, and part of your visual header material. This way, more people are likely to use it to find out more or to talk about your event.
✨ People are incredibly visual and your ticketer’s logo is likely to stick in their minds when they’re trying to remember where to buy tickets. Click here to download the Quicket logo pack and usage guide.
✨ This ensures a professional look and feel that’s well-thought out, looks good, and engages your audience.
We’ve broken the specs down per platform image for you in our Image Specification Cheat Sheet. Click here to check what the dimensions for these images on each platform need to be. If you’re working with a designer, as we recommend, you don’t necessarily need to understand these required specs, but do pass them on to your designer.
✨ People may come to your profile to look for tickets, so make sure they can get to them as quickly as possible.
✨ Many people might visit your profile to find out more about your event, so your About section might be one of the first things they see. Keep in mind, different platforms have different character limits on these fields.
✨ One of the quickest deterrents to booking tickets is not being able to find more info. Although we try to handle as much of your ticket buyer support as possible, make it easy for your guests to contact you in case they have event-specific questions we may not be able to answer.
✨ Different people prefer different social platforms, and this makes it clear to them that they can connect with your event in other places that they may prefer. Some platforms such as Facebook have special fields that allow you to link to your social profiles on other platforms.
✨ Video is far more eye-catching and a well-crafted video that’s relevant to your event can do wonders for engagement. Think of it as an event poster in motion!
Click on any of the following links to jump to the specific specs and set up links for each of the platforms. Follow these to ensure you set up your social accounts effectively and professionally.
Once you’re set up on each platform, start posting content, following people and engaging with other accounts to start building your audience. We’ll cover content creation and posting in the next lesson.
Take note of the below, then click here to follow Instagram’s how-to for setting up an Instagram profile. Edit and flesh out your Instagram account as you like, and when you’re done, come back to this lesson.
Take note of the below, then click here to follow Twitter’s how-to for setting up a Twitter profile. Edit and flesh out your Twitter account as you like, and when you’re done, come back to this lesson.
YouTube
Take note of the below, then click here to follow YouTube’s how-to for setting up a YouTube brand account. Customise and flesh out your YouTube channel as you like, and when you’re done, come back to this lesson.
Take note of the below, then click here to follow LinkedIn’s how-to for setting up a LinkedIn page (a.k.a. company page) for your brand. Customise and flesh out your LinkedIn page as you like, and when you’re done, come back to this lesson.
Ready to create some content?
Lesson 3: Social Media Building Blocks (continued) - Section 3
Later in this course, we’ll go into more detail about strategies and running paid ads. But first, we cover other content creation and management.
Ready for the next lesson of our Quicket Event Marketing Course? Click here.
Nina is the Marketing Manager for Quicket and is passionate about growing a community of event organisers into one that is empowered to create incredible experiences. An event organiser herself, she’s also worked across brand marketing, social media, and in the non-profit world. She’s a burner (AfrikaBurn) at heart, an avid baker, loves a good hug, and cooking dinner for friends over a glass of good wine.