As someone who has been on the experiential and social media circuit for as long as I have, I picked up a few things along the way. Today we go through the top 5 things I learned as an experiential (event) and social media marketer.

The importance of a social media presence before your event

I cannot stress this enough, even if it’s your first year you need to start building a social media presence. Rewind Brewery showed that you can build a social media presence before you’re even open. The bigger pointer I would give to anyone who is starting a brand new event is don’t be afraid to show off all the things you’re working on before the first year. Behind-the-scenes footage can be extremely powerful and shows the love and care you put into the event and staff.

I highly recommend that you start building the presence at least 6-months before the event date. A great social media strategist will be able to build you a strategy that supersedes 6 months and help you with the other stuff I talk about below.

Unique hashtags

We’ve heard it all before about how important hashtags are for some social media platforms (Twitter, Instagram and TikTok). However, I wanted to talk about unique hashtags and some of the best practices for the hospitality industry.

Be consistent AF about using it and make sure it’s easy to spell/use, don’t make it super long. Ex if your event is called Spooky Hops use #SpookyHopsYEAR
- Yes, you can have the general one and then the one with the year added at the end. This will help you categorize later
Put it EVERYWHERE at your event. If you want people to use that hashtag put it EVERYWHERE, and make several posts about how you want your community to use it. To further encourage the usage, you can make a game out of it and create an in-house scavenger hunt
Set up Social Listening to capture all the usage, this will also allow you to see all the UGC (user-generated content) and if your doing influencer marketing, see how that performed as well
For all that UGC that has been created, reach out to those community members and see if they would be okay with you reusing the content. This helps builds a solid relationship between you and your community at large

Speaking of community building, something that I learned while working as a Tour Manager is that you can never underestimate the power of SWAG and building the goodwill of your community. They are the very lifeblood of your event, invest in a little bit more.

Set aside SWAG, tickets, goodies, etc for social media outreach.

I know in the first year of the event it's pretty bootstrap with costs, but going back to building goodwill and relationships, a little can go A LONG WAY. You would be surprised how excited people get by something as simple as a unique buff, bracelet, or mug (for beer events). If someone is promoting and getting excited about your event online, think about their reaction when they show up and get something unique. If it's an item they can use consistently and right away, then people at the event see it and it generates even more noise.

Little gifts like this are cyclical and build on themselves over time. It starts with a conversation and now suddenly 20 people want to know how to get one for next year. Now, you’re building a brand and event that has elements of FOMO and exclusivity.

Geotagging is a key factor in your social media strategy

Whether we’re in our first year or fifth year of the event, we want to sell out and for things to run smoothly. For your social media strategy, something as simple as tagging your location can go a long way. Another step above that is tagging areas that you “service” for the first few months, before switching back to the location where the event will be held.

Tagging the location where your event is being held does a few things:

Gives people the opportunity to plan ahead of time from transportation to possibly finding a nearby hotel to stay overnight
Plan around the weather, it rains notoriously here in Vancouver. We all plan our outfits accordingly to that weather style. If your event is outside (and it's not summer), people are going to want to know more about the grounds to plan accordingly
Again, bringing up transportation, as getting there will always be a key logistical factor for every event. Questions like is there free parking, how accessible is it to public transportation, etc

Hiring a social media strategist and manager

Listen, social media managers, are a dime a dozen these days. But finding and hiring a social media strategist can do everything I mentioned above and more. A great social media strategist will understand that for events particularly, you need someone who understands more than just top-of-funnel marketing work.

Finding someone who knows how to create an omnichannel experience and drive decision-making can service you and the business, long-term. They will understand the different platforms you should be on and create an actionable plan and social media KPIs that align with your business goals. They will also be able to tell you when you can turn down the social media efforts, have it go on autopilot, and when to switch it all back on again.

Events and hospitality are one of Social Brewings' specialties when it comes to social media marketing. We love the data and the energy that comes with events and hospitality. It will always hold a very special place in our hearts.

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