Tips on How To Effectively Market a Business Networking Event on Social Media

Whether you're planning to host an online (webinar, teleclass) or offline event (summit, expo, conference, etc), social media marketing is an effective and cost-efficient way to reach your target audience. The trick is to know which online channels to use and when to use them.

The first things you need to do is pick out 3 or 4 social media platforms where you’re likely to get the most engagement from your target audience, and focus the bulk of your marketing efforts on these platforms. Remember that you must have a different approach for each platform to make sure that you’re engaging your audience the right way.
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Here are smart tips on how you can maximize online exposure for your networking event on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn:​

Twitter 

On Twitter, you can either create a separate account for the event (with the event name as the Twitter handle) or opt to just use your existing business account to promote the event. 

For example, I could have created a Twitter account for our Annual MACsWomen’s Summit and use @macswomensummit as the handle. I prefer not to do that because MACsWomen’s Group current twitter account and its handle,  @MACsWomen, is branding enough and I'd rather manage everything in one place.

As for tweets, make sure that you are not just tweeting about the event all the time because that would just annoy your followers. A 1-4 ratio would be a smart strategy – for every 1 event-related tweet, you send out 4 non-event tweets.

You should also ask people to share your event by asking them for a re-tweet.  

Get "A Framework For Success: The Ultimate Twitter Planner" to help you get more clients from Twitter.

Facebook

You can do a range of different activities on your Facebook pages to drum up interest and excitement about your upcoming event.

These include:

• Posting/announcing sponsors and speakers just as soon they are confirmed
• Highlighting discounted ticket promos using images
• Posting a series of marketing images about the event, like past event photos, behind the scene, etc.

***Always include links in your photos/images.

Just like on Twitter, you can also make a dedicated Facebook page for you event, but for the same reason state above, I just used MACsWomen's official Facebook page and opted not to create a separate, dedicated account for the MACsWomen’s Summit.  Create an event from your business page to help promote the event and allow attendees to share and invite their Facebook friends, easily.

Also, make sure that you create an RSVP and invite your friends weeks before the event. This will attract more interest and engagement.

Linkedin

Most often than not, you and the people in your network already share the same interest or are already in the same niche. This means that it would be a lot easier for you to reach out to them and invite them to join your event.  LinkedIn is an excellent platform to connect with other professional women and share your upcoming event.  One of the neat features about LinkedIn is that you can extract your level one connections email addresses into a .csv file and send them a more personalized invitation to your event. 

Hashtags

To increase the discoverability factor of your event, don’t forget your hashtag. Put a hashtag on all of your promotional materials (if possible). Even when the actual event is already over, people can still use hashtags like #macssummit when they have something to say about their experience at the event. Hashtags are incredibly useful especially if your event is recurring. 


If you would like to get help with promoting your next event or your business using social media. Purchase a 90-minute session here to get the winning strategy you need for your business to succeed online.

As an online visibility coach, I help my clients get results through strategic planning and positioning to create profits. I'd love to help you do the same. ​

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