Using Social Media to Promote Festivals and Other Events
An experienced event manager, Dan Silberstein has owned Drink Eat Play, a Los Angeles, California-based event management company, since 2006. Over the years, he has successfully extended the company’s events to cities throughout California and across the country to New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. Dan Silberstein handles all aspects of putting on a festival, including producing advertising and press releases for promotion.
In today’s Internet-driven world, social media is a great way to promote large festivals and events. Creating conversation about your event and maintaining that conversation through such sites as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube generates interest in your event. Once the conversation has started, continue maintaining it, even after reservations are filled and during the event. As more people talk about the event or tweet event-related hashtags, your event gains more exposure. Making the experiences of attendees sharable is a part of keeping the conversation going. Focus on creating highly sharable content before the event, and allow attendees to post pictures of themselves while at the event. Mobile check-in apps are also very popular and can be a great way of generating a wishful reaction of individuals who did not attend. Setting up check-in spots both before and during the event, as well as offering badges or prizes to attendees who check in, shows individuals at home exactly what they are missing. This is especially helpful for annual or regular events as it generates more buzz and desire to attend the following year.