Event Marketing Using Social Media

My friend Janice at Pierpont Place asked me to help her put together a last minute social media blitz to help market her fundraiser/Halloween party.  I have a few days off before I start the next phase in my life/business so I said, “sure!”  I called Janet Thaeler because she recently put together a successful last minute event.

Here’s what I did:

You need a hub.  Where are people going to go?  In this instance, it’s Facebook…specifically an event page.  Because it’s a fundraiser, there’s a potential media hook, so here’s the press release.  I also paid to have the release distributed to local news people.  Additionally, it was sent to several local bloggers who talk about the local social scene along with some photos from last year’s Halloween event.

I also used Twitter to promote by creating a Twitvite that is easily shareable and a hashtag for the event: #spookbash.  During the event  Visible Tweets will be showing, so people will be encouraged to tweet their location while they’re there.  Attendees will be encouraged to check in on foursquare in hopes of getting a “swarm” badge.

Finally, I put together a paid search campaign for Facebook that targets people in Salt Lake with an ad for the event.  I created a custom landing tab with the event flyer and 140 plus visitors have been sent to that page so far.  The campaign will end tomorrow.

For me, this isn’t just about an event.  By using Facebook, Pierpont Place will be able to get better traction with their audience since people are engaging directly with the company by “liking” their page.  Janice will be able to send future events and news to people who actually want to hear about it.