Social Media Promotion For Events

I’ve been having lots of conversations about LinkedIn for events from organisers wanting to drive visibility and engagement, to exhibitors heading to upcoming tradeshows, and everyone in between. Whether you’re hosting, exhibiting, or attending LinkedIn can help you get more out of every event: ✨ More visibility 🤝 More connections 📈 More business outcomes Yet LinkedIn is often underused in the event space. A one-and-done post. A quick thank you. A flurry of activity... then silence. But here’s the thing: the event isn’t the beginning and it shouldn’t be the end. To get the most value, LinkedIn should be part of your strategy before, during and after the event. Here’s how to make the most of it: 🌠 1. Be LinkedIn Event Ready Your profile and company page shape your first impression often before anyone meets you. They should tell a clear, credible story that aligns with your event involvement. Organiser Tip: Create a LinkedIn Brand Kit for your speakers, exhibitors, and team – banners, hashtags, talking points, and example posts. Exhibitor Tip: Use an event-themed banner to show your stand details or branding. 🌠 2. Build Relationships Before the Event The most valuable connections rarely start cold on event day. The lead-up to the event is prime time to increase visibility, build familiarity, and position yourself as someone worth connecting with or visiting at the stand. Organiser Tip: Spotlight speakers, exhibitors, and sessions early and use tags to amplify. Exhibitor Tip: Shortlist people you want to meet - clients, prospects, collaborators, media and start connecting early. 🌠 3. Maximise the Event Experience Use LinkedIn to take people behind the scenes, amplify moments as they happen, and make your presence visible to those who couldn’t attend. Organiser Tip: Have someone live post from the floor, tagging participants and sharing session soundbites. Exhibitor Tip: Make it easy for people to connect with you it creates immediate pathways to keep the conversation going. 🌠 4. Keep the Momentum Going This is the stage where most people go quiet, but this is when the real relationship-building begins. Use LinkedIn to keep the conversation going. Share your takeaways. Follow up with new connections. Repurpose content into future posts. Organiser Tip: Share a highlight post and set the stage for what’s next even a “Save the Date” works. Exhibitor Tip: Send a personalised follow-up message referencing your chat. 🌟 Key Takeaways LinkedIn is one of the most powerful tools you have to extend your event beyond the room. It allows you to build relationships before the first handshake, stay visible throughout the event and strengthen credibility and connection long after the banners are packed away. And if you'd like support to develop your own LinkedIn event strategy that's more than one and done, I’d love to help. Because showing up is just the beginning. #linkedin #events #eventmarketing

I’ve been leading demand generation strategy for events at Microsoft and these are the top 3 key audience marketing strategies: First step when assigned to an event 🔍Segmentation and Targeting: It’s super important to understand the audience by breaking them down into specific segments based on their unique needs and behaviors. This enables us to deliver tailored messaging and campaigns. For example, we might segment our audience into "enterprise customers," "small businesses," and "individual users." By customizing our approach for each group, we ensure our marketing campaigns resonate and address their distinct challenges thus drawing them in as registered attendees. Secondly, a focus on ✍🏿Personalization and Engagement: As a demand gen lead, I want to make our interactions feel personalized to ensure our target audience engages with any content we put out so we can foster deeper connections. This includes personalized email campaigns, product and event recommendations, and targeted ads. In our touch points we also showcase various other pull-through methods such as interactive content such as webinars, surveys, and live events to keep our audience engaged. By understanding and addressing individual needs, we create a more meaningful and impactful relationship with our customers and partners. Last but not least 📝Storytelling and Content Marketing: As a storyteller myself, it’s important to me that we craft compelling narratives that showcase the benefits of our products and services through our events. Through a mix of content formats like blog posts, whitepapers, case studies, and social media updates, we tell stories that highlight how our solutions solve real-world problems. For example, we might share stories about how our cloud services have transformed businesses, or how our AI technologies are driving innovation, or how AI-skilling is making an impa on real people. This approach helps build an emotional connection with our audience, making Microsoft a trusted and relatable brand. These are only a few key strategies, but, by implementing these strategies, we drive demand generation and build lasting relationships with our customers and partners through our event experiences. As a demand gen lead, my workstream is the first touchpoint to the potential attendee — and I love to make it a magical one. Are you an event marketer? What are your marketing tactics? Share below. Here's to successful marketing! 📈🚀 #theBOLDjourney #audiencemarketing #eventmarketing

Investing in an exhibition stand? LinkedIn® needs to be part of your marketing before the doors open. That was our conclusion during a recent Disruptive Business Leadership event exploring LinkedIn’s True Role in the Age of AI. Roy Kowarski, exhibition specialist and Lynnaire Johnston, LinkedIn and AI visibility strategist, identified a significant missed opportunity. Companies invest heavily in exhibition space, displays, collateral and staff time, yet many fail to use LinkedIn to build interest, demonstrate expertise and encourage people to visit them before the event begins. Simply turning up at an exhibition is not enough. Before an event, an organisation and everyone representing the company need to know what it wants to achieve and how their activity contributes to it. LinkedIn can then support the strategy before, during and after the exhibition. Before the event, organisations should use LinkedIn to explain: 🔷 Why they are exhibiting 🔷 What they will be doing there 🔷 Why people should visit them As Roy puts it, “The trick is before the event to tell people on LinkedIn what you’re going to do and why they should visit you.” That requires more than a solitary “Come and see us” post. The marketing options include posts from the personal profiles of those exhibiting and from the company page. The organisation could also create a LinkedIn Event, publish an article demonstrating its expertise or feature the exhibition in its company newsletter. People can also be invited through the LinkedIn Event page, but the aim is not simply to increase attendance. Sharing genuinely useful information can position the company as the go-to organisation in its industry. That content might answer questions attendees are likely to have, share insights connected with the event theme or give people a compelling reason to seek the team out once they arrive. During the exhibition, personal profiles and the company page can continue working together to share expertise, conversations and insights from the event. Afterwards, LinkedIn can extend the relationships and visibility created, instead of allowing the entire investment to end with a celebratory photograph and a “What a great event” post. There may also be an AI discoverability benefit. When personal profiles, company pages and published content clearly associate people and organisations with an event and its subject matter, they create evidence of that involvement and expertise. That could increase the likelihood of those people or organisations being surfaced when someone asks AI about the event, its exhibitors or the specialist topics it covers. But this requires a coherent body of evidence created before, during and after the event. We explored this and more during the panel discussion which you can watch at the @LinkAbilityNZ YouTube channel. #LinkedInStrategy #EventMarketing #AIDiscoverability

Social doesn't start at creating social cuts after a panel or event has ended. Social starts at: → Identifying social opportunities while planning the panel or event itself → Outlining brand awareness moments before the event even starts → Weaving shareable moments into the event design—decor, aesthetics, attendee prompts → Identifying who can attend the event/panel that would increase it's visibility → Making sure the room is set up to inspire posting, not just consume it If you're only looping in social after the event wraps, you're already behind.

Why building anticipation is key if you're planning to launch soon. If you’ve ever found yourself counting down days to a product release, a concert, or even Black Friday then you’ve experienced this powerful mental trigger in action. It’s called Anticipation and it’s one of the most effective tools you can use in your launch cycle. The human brain loves to look forward to something. When people expect something exciting, their emotions rise, curiosity grows, and connection deepens. And that’s exactly what you want before your launch. Here’s how to use this trigger the right way 👇 1. Start teasing early Don’t wait until you’re ready to sell. Start sharing little glimpses a behind-the-scenes photo, a screenshot, a “something big is coming” message. The goal is to plant a seed of curiosity. 2. Build a story around the wait Talk about why you’re creating this product. What inspired it? What gap are you filling? This creates emotional investment long before money enters the conversation. 3. Create milestones leading up to launch Let people feel the build-up: We’re 7 days away Waitlist closes tonight Tomorrow we open doors Each message raises the emotional temperature just a bit higher. 4. Reward the ones waiting Give early access or bonuses to those who’ve been following the journey. It reinforces their belief that waiting was worth it. The goal isn’t to pressure people into buying it’s to invite them into a journey that they don’t want to miss. And when done right, anticipation doesn’t just get people to buy It gets them to believe. If you’re planning a launch soon, don’t skip this part of your strategy. Anticipation isn’t noise it’s emotional marketing at its finest.

We’ve managed $100k+ ad budgets promoting online and in-person events and here’s what we’ve learned: 1. Timing matters. The majority of ticket sales or registrations happen in the weeks leading up to the event. We account for this by allocating the majority of the spend closer to the day of the event. 2. Social proof converts. For one client, we searched LinkedIn for anyone who posted about the event after the fact and ranked them by engagement. We then promoted those posts as thought leader ads in anticipation of the next event. 3. Promote transparency. If you are at liberty to do so, why not give away the attendee list? If you have a high value audience and have your targeting dialed in, try a campaign where you gate the attendee list. We’ve seen this tactic promote great conversations that directly lead to ticket sales. 4. Ads that feature as many speakers as possible tend to perform the best. Generally we see ads with faces perform well, so try combining all the speakers into one post. You can then split those ads up into individual speaker ads, use them in carousels, etc. Above all, we’ve learned that preparation is key to promoting these events. For one client, we put together a schedule of ads that would go out as we got closer to the day of the event. This included “countdown” ads where we’d say “the event is 1 month out!” etc. as we built a sense of urgency. Because we put together this plan we were able to get creative requests to our designers early. We had all the creatives ready to go months out from the event and had all the campaigns built and scheduled so that they would pause and activate as the countdown got closer. We’re always testing new strategies to promote these events and it’s impossible to fit all of our experiments into one post. For example, LinkedIn has built in event ads which allow people to register for a LinkedIn event directly from the ad. The key to improving performance for that ad unit is to build up as many organic registrations as possible. Since you can see how many people registered directly on the ad, we’ve seen that a higher number of organic registrations directly impacts the conversion rate on the paid side. Interested in hearing more about how we promote events via ads? Feel free to reach out. We have a ton more ideas we’re looking to test. 🧑🔬

If your plan this weekend is to blast 3-4 disconnected promotions in the next few days, STOP and rethink your approach. Let me explain. Here's what most brands do: Thursday: "NATIONAL DONUT DAY SALE!" Friday: "FREE SHIPPING SALE!" Sunday: "FLASH SALE!" Monday: "20% OFF PANTS!" Your customers and prospects? They're drowning in discount fatigue. Try this instead: Create a cohesive event, not random promotions: Thursday: "Announcing our Biggest Clearance Event (Early Access Tomorrow)" Friday: "The Clearance Event is LIVE" Sunday: "Clearance Event Update: Top sellers almost gone" Monday: "Final Hours: Clearance Event Ends Tonight" But the real magic isn't just in connected messaging. It's also in strategic audience narrowing - here's an example: Send 1: 120-day engaged + all purchasers (cast wide net) Send 2: 60-day engaged + clicked previous email (tighten focus) Send 3: 30-day engaged + didn't purchase yet (target the interested) Send 4: Engaged with previous emails but haven't purchased (final push) Then segment further by: First-time buyers vs. repeat customers Price-sensitive vs. premium shoppers Category preferences And layer in SMS for high-intent signals, less batch and blast. Only text people who clicked but didn't purchase Or for time sensitive messages: Final "hours left" reminder From my experience, this approach doubled the average click-through rate and revenues. Stop treating each promotion as an isolated discount. Start creating a narrative that builds anticipation and focuses on your most engaged audiences. Leverage the power of event marketing in email and sms. Real strategy will increase your revenue. What's your go to for your email and sms marketing strategy?

If you think your trade show starts when the hall doors open, you’ve already lost the game. Many brands treat their three days on the floor as the entire event. They spend 95% of their energy on the booth design and worrying about logistics to only spend 5% on what happens before and after. Zero to poorly planed pre and post show strategy can ruin ROI and end up being costly. If you want to move from exhibiting to performing, here are 5 clear and proven tactics for your pre-show and post-show playbook... Win before you arrive: PRE SHOW ☑️ ABM Tiered Outreach: Stop the "come see us" blasts. Identify your Top 50 must-see prospects and send them something personalized. A physical mailer, a custom video, or a calendar link. ☑️ Create a compelling and valuable offer. Why should someone come to your booth or experience? Use this for marketing and invitations. LinkedIN, emails, social, etc. ☑️ Sales & Marketing Alignment: Your booth staff shouldn't be winging it. Run a pre-show workshop. Define exactly what a qualified lead looks like and ensure everyone knows the playbook for the customers experience at the event. ☑️ Digital Geo-Fencing: Run targeted social ads. Plenty of ways to get creative with this is you explore ALL digital options; airport, uber, taxi, billboard, hotels, etc. Some of these are better for larger brands with massive audiences and brand recognition. ☑️ Leverage the event app: Messaging in the app is a great way to set appointments. The key is to send pleasant, specific, and value driven messages, not spammy messages. POST SHOW is all about converting and carrying on opportunities: ☑️ The 48 Hour FollowUp Rule: Speed to lead is everything. Your tier A prospects and leads should have a personalized email, message or phone call before they even get home. If you wait a week, you’re a distant memory. I love tying this to your offer and having a clear reason to follow up. ☑️ Personalized Video Recaps: Instead of a generic "thanks for stopping by" email, have your sales reps record a 30-second Loom video mentioning a specific conversation point. It’s un-ignorable. ☑️ The Content Goldmine: You just spent three days surrounded by experts and customers. Record content for repurpose; booth interviews, demos, and man on the street interview clips into a 6-month social media strategy. ☑️ The Data Debrief: Don’t just count leads; analyze them. Where did they come from? Which demo sparked the most interest? Use this data to justify your spend and sharpen your strategy for the next show. ☑️ Lead Handoff Audit: The biggest ROI killer is the black hole where marketing leads go to die. Schedule a meeting one week post-show with sales to ensure every high value lead has a clear path forward in the CRM. The bottom line is, trade shows are one of the most powerful physical touchpoints in the customer journey, but they only work if you treat them like a strategic campaign.

How I raised engagement by 50% at my client’s marketing/corporate events. By the way, this all happened BEFORE THE EVENT 1. Enhanced Communication Channels We streamlined communication by promptly addressing inquiries on social media, sending regular email updates, and offering clear instructions for registrations. 2. Leveraged Social Media Platforms By creating dedicated event pages and sharing engaging content, including behind-the-scenes glimpses and high-quality videos, we sparked conversations and heightened interest among potential attendees. 3. Implemented Countdown Campaigns We built anticipation through countdown campaigns, emphasizing unique event features and exclusive experiences, which motivated prompt registrations. 4. Personalized Invitations Sending personalized video invitations made attendees feel uniquely valued, fostering a sense of connection and commitment to the event. 5. Pre-Event Surveys and Polls We gathered insights into attendee preferences through pre-event surveys, allowing us to tailor content and activities to their interests, enhancing relevance and engagement. By integrating these strategies, we not only increased engagement but also created a more personalized and memorable experience for attendees. Your engagement plan starts BEFORE the event. Set the standard from the start! #EventPlanning #CorporateEvents #EventStrategy #marketingevents #eventmarketing #eventproduction #houstontx #houstontexas #houstonbusiness #executiveassistants

Managing social for a 300-person event isn’t just about showing up with a camera and a phone. Here's my checklist for creating an experience that connects through the screen. ✅ Develop a Storytelling Guide I map out the key stories to tell during the event. What themes or moments should shine? (FOMO is always the vibe!) ✅ Define Goals and Strategy Pre-event = build hype. During = real-time engagement. Post-event = recap magic. I also adjust content plans for each platform (Instagram, Threads, LinkedIn, etc.). ✅ Create Content Templates Using tools like Canva, I prep story and post templates so my team can easily create dynamic content on the fly. ✅ Coordinate with the Media Team Collaborating with photographers and videographers ensures I capture high-quality moments for both immediate and future use. (Bonus points for those iconic crowd shots!) ✅ Assemble and Brief the Social Media Team Everyone needs to know their role—who’s posting where, who’s covering what, and what key moments to capture. ✅ Set Engagement Plans I prepare prompts to encourage interaction: polls, quotes, and questions. Think, “What’s your biggest takeaway from today’s panel?” ✅ Monitor and Respond Once the content goes live, the job isn’t over. There's active engagement with comments, questions, and reactions to keep the energy high. ✅ Document Analytics Lastly, I track engagement metrics in real time. This helps me adjust if a certain type of post (e.g., quotes vs. behind-the-scenes moments) is performing better than others. It also helps to source areas of engagement for later. Pro tip: The real MVP? Having backup batteries, bricks, and a mobile hotspot because technology.🔌