The success of your event depends on how well you promote it, and event promotion can be tricky. Social media helps, but there are some best practices to follow in order to get the most exposure for your event.

Here is a checklist of ways to promote an event with social media to get you started:

Create the accounts. When you promote an event with social media, you must first decide what accounts to use. Choose whether you will promote the event from your organization’s social media accounts, or if you will create new accounts for the event.

Come up with a hashtag. Brainstorm to come up with a hashtag dedicated to the event, and display it on all promo materials, and in all posts. Look for a hashtag that is simple, relevant to the event, and that isn’t used by anyone else on Twitter or Facebook.

Create a video. Create a short promo video for the event that people will want to share, & distribute it on your social media accounts. For more tips on how to distribute your video, see our blog on 7 Keys to a Successful Online Distribution Strategy.

Create graphics. Create graphics for your event to share on your social media accounts. This will require creating custom sizes for each platform. For example: Facebook Post, Facebook Ad, Facebook Event, Twitter Card, Instagram. Canva.com is a helpful tool for creating custom sized graphics for the major social media platforms.

Create a Facebook event. Create an event on Facebook with an image and as many details as possible, and ask your followers to RSVP.

Add social sharing buttons to online ticket purchases. If guests are buying tickets online, include social media sharing buttons for them to share their plan to attend your event with their friends.

Involve your speakers/performers. Ask your speakers to promote the event on their social media accounts. Provide them with the event graphics you created so that they can share them on social media for more engagement.

Buy ads on Facebook. Events are best promoted on Facebook through ads, especially if it is the inaugural event. Create visual, engaging ads that are targeted to your audience and location.

Do giveaways. Give away tickets to the event on social media. You can do this a number of ways, but try to make it an incentive for people to share the event with their friends.

Live tweet. Have a volunteer or someone on staff live tweet the event with lots of photos and the event hashtag.

Hire a photographer. Hire a professional photographer to take photos at the event so that you can share them on social media after the event to raise awareness and promote the next event.

Record testimonials from attendees. Follow up with attendees and hire a videographer to record testimonials for use in promoting the next event on social media.