12 Social Media Ideas for Events

When you’re brainstorming social media ideas for events, go for tactics that will get the most engagement.

You know how to plan an event and get people in the door. You can talk up the excitement, create a buzz, and get attendees energized. Social media, though? That can be a bit trickier.

Selling tickets is great, but you have to engage your audience from start to finish and brainstorming social media ideas for events is one way to get people in the door. You aren’t looking for one-time attendees; you want people to feel a connection to you, your company, other attendees, and the event itself.

“The [event app] by itself is yesterday’s news. What are you going to do to enhance the overall attendee experience beyond the app and the agenda? How are you going to use other technology to get their feedback?” says the 2020 Meetings & Events Future Trends report from CWT Meetings & Events.

How can you get your attendees talking—and keep them talking when the event is over? You’ll need a tactical social media plan for before, during, and after the event.

If you’re under pressure to increase attendee engagement at conferences, Everwall can help you increase engagement by showing social media on screens at your event, on your event’s website (or live stream page), and in your event app. Learn more about Everwall’s social wall for events.

Social media ideas for events: Before the big day

Some event coordinators only focus on engaging attendees when they’re physically at the event—and that’s a tremendous missed opportunity. Psychologists have found that not only does an experiential purchase (money spent on doing something—like attending an event) provide more enduring happiness than a material purchase, but the anticipation of these experiences is more pleasurable, as well.

Bottom line: Engage your audience on social media and build anticipation. By the time they arrive at your event, their energy will be electric.

1. Share event details

Create an event on Facebook, share links and info on Twitter and Instagram, and encourage people to mark themselves as “attending” or to like/retweet your posts. The social sharing helps get the word out, and people can connect with other possible attendees.

2. Create an event hashtag

From the second you announce your event, use a hashtag you’ve created specifically for the occasion. This will help keep the conversations streamlined, and get attendees comfortable with using the hashtag all the time, especially if you are planning to use a social media wall during your event. Keep it short, unique, and easy to remember. Before it goes public, make sure it isn’t already taken and doesn’t have a double (possibly offensive) meaning. Check My Hashtag, a free service by Everwall, can help with some of this.

3. Post polls or questions

Wondering what your attendees are most interested in or excited about? Speakers they can’t wait to hear from, or technology they’re jazzed to experience? Create an official poll to post on social media, or ask questions. (You can post the results on your social wall at your event.) You may realize that the charging stations are incredibly crucial to attendees, or that your meat-heavy menu may not go over well with respondents who say they’re vegan. Either way, it’s always a good idea to show you value their opinions and to get them talking to each other.

4. Promote your speakers or performers

Each speaker or performer that you’ve booked comes with their own set of social media followers—followers that may want to go to your event. Do quick intros about your speakers and performers, share their social handles, and encourage people to start following them and talking to them.

Social media ideas for events: The big day

You’ve planned this day for a while. Make sure it all goes off without a hitch and integrate some social media into your itinerary. Not everyone is great at networking and talking to total strangers in person—but social media can make them feel connected.

5. Create a social wall

A social wall is an event planner’s best friend. Post one screen in the lobby, or many displays in different areas, and create a real-time feed of the conference’s social chatter. Using your event hashtag, attendees can see their Instagram and Twitter posts appear on the social wall. Presenters can use it to ask questions or take polls, and you can use it to run contests and post reminders. It’s like command central for your entire event.

6. Encourage live streaming and live tweeting

By giving social media followers a glimpse inside your event, you can draw in future attendees and get them to join the conversation as well. You can help facilitate this by ensuring your event’s hashtag is displayed prominently around the venue, you use it in each of your own posts (and maybe designate some to do the live tweeting from your official handles), and have the emcee (if you have one) verbally remind people to use the hashtag in their posts. For virtual events, you can embed a social wall, include call to actions in emails to use it, and include messaging on the page around the embedded social wall to post to social media using your hashtag.

7. Do your own Tweeting

This is an extension of point 6 above, but it deserves to be called out again—Twitter isn’t just for your guests. Share pictures during the event. Share quotes from speakers—or even whole conversations and ideas using Tweet Threads. Twitter is the go-to social media channel for events, so your additions won’t seem out of place. On the contrary, they’ll add to the energy.

8. Reply to posts

Don’t just set up this social community leading up to the event and then abandon them when it’s going on. Station someone on your social accounts to answer questions and interact with attendees’ posts. Think of it like your customer service department.

The event is over—but it’s still important to keep the conversation going

If you’ve done your job well, the people who attended your event are going to go home and sing your praises from the mountaintops. They’ll be running on adrenaline and want to keep talking about what a great time they had.

Here are some ways you can whet their whistle until next year:

9. Make a Spotify playlist

If you had some great music playing throughout your event, bring it all together into one big playlist. Send it out to attendees and let them relive all the fun they had. Also, let them know you’re taking music requests for next year!

10. Create a video montage

You likely got some killer shots during the event, but your attendees probably got some, too. Take photos and videos that were posted during the event and turn them into a video montage. Try to get as many different people in the montage as possible, because more people equals more sharing (And, don’t forget to tag anyone whose photo you use). If you’re using Everwall at your event, we let you download all the photos and videos, which will make things really easy for you if you want to do this one.

11. Post testimonial graphics

Hopefully, you sent out a post-event survey to see what everyone liked (and didn’t like) about your event. Take a few of the funny, interesting, or sincere quotes and turn them into attractive, shareable graphics for social media.

12. Share an infographic

People love stats. Pull together stats from your event and create an infographic that your attendees will love. Include basic info—like how many people came, how many states or countries were represented, how many speakers you had—and then random fun info, like how many Tweets went out during the event using your hashtag, how many bottles of water were consumed, or what the favorite session was (based on your survey results).

When it comes to social media ideas for events, the sky’s the limit. Get creative and think about what you’d love if you were an attendee. Instagram and Twitter tend to be the most hashtag-friendly platforms (which is great for your social wall), but Facebook is also frequently used for large-scale events that can make use of Facebook’s ad targeting. Choose the social platforms that make the most sense for your event, and have fun engaging with your target audience.