21 Expert Tips for Social Media Event Promotion

Sweatpants or suits; it doesn't matter. A solid social media strategy is the real dress code for a successful virtual event, whether it's an invite-only webinar or a public trade show.

From hosting countdowns to sharing user-generated content, social promotion boosts the visibility of online events and helps you get more value from the content.

Get 21 of our best tips on how to promote an event on social media before, during, and after the event to create buzz, increase attendance, and build brand authority. Then, learn which metrics to measure to gauge success.

9 ways to promote an event on social media before it happens

Getting the word out about your upcoming event through event landing pages, event hashtags, or giveaways is the key to reaching a larger audience.

Here's how to get the most out of your pre-event social media promotion:

1. Add the event to your social profiles
2. Start a countdown
3. Make a shareable event landing page
4. Use polls to gauge audience interest
5. Post teasers of the event
6. Create an event hashtag
7. Set up a LinkedIn or Facebook event
8. Host a giveaway or contest
9. Team up with influencers

1. Add the event to your social profiles

Put your event front and center on each of your social media bios or about pages. Create branded headers to promote the event and boldly showcase the event name, dates, locations, and event-specific hashtags.

Link to the event’s webpage so prospects can get more information and create a pinned post as another way to share event-specific details. You can even pin an event countdown timer at the top of each profile page to help build anticipation.

2. Start a countdown

Use Instagram Stories to create a countdown to your event.

Customize the sticker with the event name, date and time, and your brand colors. When someone views your story, they can click 'Remind me' to be notified when the countdown ends.

They'll also have the option to share the countdown to their social networks.

If you’re hosting an invite-only webinar, where users have to sign up in advance, or running a contest with limited spots, this is a clever way to hype your event and get those registrations rolling in.

Pro tip: Add clickable links of your webinar landing page to Instagram stories and generate traffic and increase ticket sales.

3. Make a shareable event landing page

Add social sharing buttons to your event's landing page and post them everywhere. This is the first step to building your engagement funnel.

Use an online event platform like Livestorm, to can create custom registration pages that reflect your brand, complete with social sharing buttons.

This way, your audience can easily share your event page with their social networks.

Pro tip: You can track the source of all your registrations with Livestorm and see how many users have registered through your social platforms. Just check your analytics dashboard!

4. Use polls to gauge audience interest

Add Polls to your Instagram Stories or LinkedIn page to assess potential attendees’ interest in specific topics. You can also leave open-ended questions that allow users to provide their own answers. This can give you ideas and opportunities for collaborations and marketing angles to boost engagement.

Ask questions like:

• What type of virtual swag would you like to win?
• What type of post-event resources would you find most valuable?
• Which speakers would you like to hear from?
• What networking opportunities are you most interested in?

5. Post teasers of the event

Post sneak previews of the event’s lineup to build hype and spark interest. Use Snapchat, Instagram Stories, or TikTok to create short, engaging videos your audience can quickly view and share.

Here are a few teaser ideas:

• Behind-the-scenes preparations
• Quotes from speakers and panelists
• Images of virtual swag or giveaway announcements
• Event schedule or agenda
• Sponsor shout-outs

11 ways to promote your virtual event

Here are our top 11 ways to promote a virtual event.

Pro tip: Use social media metrics like views, likes, comments, and shares as indicators to see which posts are resonating with your audience.

6. Create an event hashtag

Think of hashtags like business cards. They're the ultimate social media event promotion strategies on platforms like X, Bluesky, Threads, and Instagram.

For best results, make hashtags short, easy to spell, and unique to keep the content relevant.

Here are some examples of branded event hashtags:

• #SXSW is the timeless hashtag used by the South by Southwest festival — easy to remember, recognizable, and all-encompassing.
• #CMWorld is the official hashtag of the Content Marketing Institute's annual conference — specific, short, and effective.
• #Brandweek is the hashtag of Adweek's Brandweek Conference — reflects the brand, catchy, and memorable.

7. Set up a LinkedIn or Facebook event

Make it official by creating a Facebook and LinkedIn event page as soon as possible.

Give it a catchy title, add some event details and photos, and don't forget to include speaker bios.

But most importantly; add a link to your registration page so that people can RSVP. If you’re using Livestorm, attendees can register by auto-filling data from their LinkedIn profile.

If it's a paid event, you can also offer a special discount code for the first 100 people who share the event page with their friends. This will help you to reach more potential attendees and increase the chances of filling up your virtual event.

8. Host a giveaway or contest

A great way to get your audience to attend your event is to host a giveaway or contest. Let’s face it: everyone loves free stuff—as long as it provides real value.

For example, if you’re targeting small business owners, you’ll get more qualified leads by offering a free trial of your product rather than a random free cooking class.

You can also ask them to tag friends in the comments, repost your event, or follow your account to participate in the giveaway. It's a fun way to add some friendly competition to your event and make it more exciting.

9. Team up with influencers

Influencer marketing is a smart demand generation tactic for improving brand awareness. By collaborating with relevant influencers in your industry, you can increase exposure and connect with an audience outside your own.

Consider recruiting social media influencers from your company or partner with brand advocates with expertise in your niche. Provide them with event collateral to get more eyes on your webinar or conference and drive event registration.

5 ways to promote an event on social media while it’s happening

There's no need to pause your social media promotion during the event. Use the ideas below to promote events as they happen to capture last-minute participants and on-demand viewers.

Here’s how:

1 - Live tweet the event
2 - Encourage user-generated content
3 - Offer a sneak peek backstage
4 - Livestream your event
5 - Interview attendees on Instagram Stories

1. Live tweet the event

Posting on X, Bluesky, or Threads during your event keeps the conversation going and helps you reach people beyond existing attendees.

Tag event speakers, use their sound bites or quotes, and add images to your social media posts. This helps build the hype around your event and may even draw attendees to future events.

Pro tip: You can share links during Livestorm events to help attendees engage with specific tweets or other branded materials.

2. Encourage user-generated content

Take the live content a step further by encouraging attendees to post their own takeaways on their social media channels.

User-generated content (UGC) is often considered more authentic and persuasive than branded content because it comes from a trusted influencer or personal connection.

Encourage UGC by creating photo opportunities, sharing hashtags, and responding to event engagement on social media.

Make sure to schedule breaks between speakers or segments so attendees can share content when they’re not distracted from the event itself.

3. Offer a sneak peek backstage

Give a behind-the-scenes look at what's to come.

Do a quick interview with speakers on Instagram or Facebook Live. Have the host ask questions from the audience so speakers can answer in an unscripted way.

Some audiences find this kind of unscripted content more authentic and engaging than a polished event.

You can also invite influencers to attend your event and do “takeover” social media posts.

This social media event marketing strategy gives your audience something to look forward to while keeping them focused on the event.

4. Livestream your event

Use social tools like Youtube Live, Facebook Live, or Instagram Live to reach a wider audience in real-time. This is great for anyone who wants to attend your event but didn’t register.

Livestreaming your event can also inspire other attendees to join in, even if they weren’t planning on attending.

Plus, you can leverage video engagement metrics during your live stream to measure views and interactions.

When you use Livestorm, you can host your virtual event on-demand, live, or pre-recorded. This way, you can manage your virtual event from start to finish, all in one place.

5. Interview attendees on Instagram Stories

Create a virtual red carpet for the event.

Select a few attendees and interview them about their experience or takeaways during breaks between speakers or segments.

This is a great way to leverage your attendees’ existing networks, make them feel involved, and ensure they repost your content.

7 ways to promote an event on social media after it ends

Your event was a big hit! Once it concludes, share all the moments that made it special on your social media accounts.

Here are a few more tips to spark excitement and get a head start on future event promotion strategies:

1. Repost user-generated content
2. Repurpose the event into a blog post
3. Save event highlights to your Instagram Highlights
4. Conduct a post-event survey
5. Create on-demand videos to replay and share
6. Use social media to continue the conversation
7. Turn event highlights into a meme or GIF

Let’s take a look at these in detail below.

1. Repost user-generated content

Event's over? Time to share the love! Gather any UGC from the event to show how successful it was.

If attendees used your event hashtag, their posts will be easy to find, respond to, and repost. It'll also give you a sense of which social media platforms your audience is most active on.

For example, if you notice that most of the attendees have posted on Instagram, you can focus your social media marketing efforts on Instagram engagement for future events.

2. Repurpose the event into a blog post

Transform your virtual event into a well-written blog post. When you repurpose content, you broaden your reach and appeal to an audience that prefers reading to viewing.

Then, promote your blog post on your social accounts to reach even more people and boost your social media metrics.

To turn your webinar or virtual event into a blog post:

1. Download a recording of the event
2. Pick out key takeaways and memorable quotes
3. Include any relevant statistics or data
4. Weave everything into a narrative for an engaging read
5. Add photos and embed the source video from the event
6. Include links to any post-event resources
7. Insert a call-to-action (CTA) to sign up for your newsletter or follow your brand's social media accounts

Pro tip: Use Livestorm’s automatic transcription software to quickly transcribe the audio from your event and repurpose it into a blog post.

3. Save event highlights to your Instagram Highlights

Creating an Instagram Highlight ensures that your content doesn’t get buried in the feed.

Instagram Highlights are pinned to your profile, so all the hard work you put into your Stories doesn’t disappear after 24 hours.

You can organize Stories into Highlights by:

• Theme: Highlight interesting topics that show visitors what your brand is all about.
• Sponsors and speakers: Share short videos from the event.
• Attendee engagement: Showcase interesting polls, Q&A sessions, or snippets from virtual networking sessions
• Audience demographics: Segment stories by the target audience—small business owners, C-level executives, etc.
• Content type: Group story highlights by keynote speeches, workshops, panel discussions, and networking sessions.

4. Conduct a post-event survey

Want to make sure your next event is even better? Simplify your event planning by asking attendees for feedback.

Use polls to gather their thoughts and opinions.

For example, post polls on LinkedIn or in Instagram Stories, inviting viewers to rate satisfaction with the event, the speakers, and the activities.

You can also ask open-ended questions like "What did you like the most about the event?" or "What can we improve next time?" Use webinar survey tools like SurveyMonkey to gather more in-depth feedback and make data-driven decisions for future events.

5. Create on-demand videos to replay and share

By making events available on demand, you can reach people who may have had tricky time zone differences or schedule conflicts.

Share event recordings to your email list and embed it on your website.

Repurpose your video into quick short-form videos and share them with your audience on social media.

Want to turn the recording into a lead magnet? Gate the full event to capture leads when people sign up to view.

Pro tip: Livestorm can automatically record your events and track virtual event metrics like replay views, average duration, and sessions.

6. Use social media to continue the conversation

After a successful virtual event, giving your attendees a place to continue the conversation is always a good webinar marketing idea.

Let your audience know they can post their takeaways or critiques in an open forum, like a LinkedIn or Facebook group, to dive deeper into their insights.

You can also use social media listening tools to gauge what people are saying about your event outside the group.

Make sure you’re open to all types of feedback to ensure you foster an open conversation.

7. Turn event highlights into memes or GIFs

Want to make your virtual event more relatable and shareable? Turn funny or memorable moments into memes and GIFs that resonate with your audience.

For example, if you had a speaker who made a particularly witty comment, you could turn it into a meme with an appropriate caption.

Or if you had a moment where all attendees were in sync, you can turn it into a GIF with a caption like "When you're all on the same page."

By making your content more shareable, you increase the chances of it being seen by more people and spreading your message.

Which social channels work best for event marketing?

With so many social media channels out there to choose from, it can be tough to take advantage of them all. If time, budget, or other constraints force you to limit your efforts, consider which platform is the best for your brand identity.

LinkedIn: If you manage a B2B brand

LinkedIn is the primary platform for working professionals. So if you’re trying to garner the interest of other businesses, LinkedIn should be a core part of your B2B event marketing strategy.

Keep in mind that you may reach a smaller audience on LinkedIn than you would on some other channels. However, that smaller audience is much more targeted, making it more likely to have a genuine interest in what you have to say.

SlideShare: If you like to show your work

SlideShare is a public platform that allows users to share presentations, infographics, videos, documents, and more. If your work is rather difficult to explain without some visual aides, this is the platform for you.

Like LinkedIn, SlideShare’s user base consists primarily of SMBs and larger B2B businesses. Therefore, it's ideal for B2B marketing strategies that prioritize educational content discussing niche skills and approaches.

Instagram: If you’re one of the cool kids

If your brand primarily targets millennials, Gen Z, or both, Instagram should be your top pick. The platform’s latest statistics confirm that its largest advertising audience is adults aged 25-34, followed closely by the 18-24 year old age group.

Just remember, if you choose to focus your efforts on the ‘gram, you’ll have to produce high-quality images and video content to be successful with social media event marketing.

X: If you’re one of the wise guys

By “wise”, we don’t mean wise in the traditional sense. Rather, we mean brands with a smart, witty, and perhaps even snarky personality. A brand that has its finger on the pulse of what’s happening right at this moment, and isn’t afraid to react to it.

Politicians, socially-motivated companies, software companies, and some food brands have managed to run great campaigns with smart social media content primarily through X. It’s not for everyone, but if you’re agile, reactive, and fearless, it might be for you.

Facebook: If you could only choose one

If you asked most marketing experts which platform they’d go with if they could only choose one, they’d probably select Facebook. The reason? More than 3 billion people around the world use Facebook, which is about a third of the world’s population.

In the U.S., this popular social platform boasts about 250 million members (or about 75% of America's population). With numbers like those, pretty much any marketing campaign is bound to achieve some success.

Which social media metrics should you measure?

Engagement metrics

Sharing metrics

Sharing metrics measure the relationship between shares per post, impressions, and reach.

There are plenty of ways to measure sharing depending on which social media platform you’re using. Whether it's Facebook, Instagram or others ask yourself these questions:

• How many people shared the post announcing the event?
• How many people shared the link to the live broadcast?
• How many people shared the link to the replay after the event?

Divide the number of shares (before, after, or during) by your impressions or reach. This will give you the rate of impressions that actually engaged with the event through sharing. You can apply this simple equation to many sharing and engagement metrics.

As you learn about your event’s sharing metrics, be sure to pay attention to whether the numbers changed before, during, and after your event. For instance, if your announcement post has a much higher percentage of shares compared to the post-broadcast link, you may want to consider the effectiveness of the event itself.

Or, if your initial announcement didn’t generate a significant number of shares but the replay did, it suggests that the event is effective but the way you promoted it probably wasn’t.

Engagement rate

Likes, clicks, comments, and favorites are all types of engagement. Measure your engagement rate by dividing approval actions by impressions, reach, or followers to understand how your content is performing.

Compare this engagement metric to content about your other events or to different content about the same event. For example, you may notice that giveaways that promote online events have very high engagement rates, but event announcements are lacking.

This may point to problems with the event topic itself, or maybe it means the giveaway was valuable to a wider audience than would realistically attend one of your events—or that you should always do giveaways in conjunction with event announcements.

Awareness metrics

Audience growth rate

This awareness metric measures how quickly your social media following is increasing. It’s easy to look at your number of followers and see that you’ve gained them steadily, but it’s better to measure how quickly you’ve gained them and see if growth correlates with events.

This is imperative for event managers because they can measure audience growth rate in relation to events, like right before or after a broadcast. Measure how many new followers you’ve gained over a certain period of time, then divide that number by your total number of followers to get your growth rate.

Impressions

Impressions are the number of times that a post appears to a user. Impressions should always be compared to engagement metrics in order to understand the effectiveness of your online marketing.

For example, low impressions and low engagement suggest that you may need to work on increasing your reach. Low impressions and high engagement suggest that your event is interesting and worthwhile, but you probably need to get the event in front of more people.

Reach

Although impressions and reach are often used in tandem, it’s important to remember that they're different. Reach measures the number of potential individual viewers on a post. If a follower shares your event, your reach increases by the number of their followers who could potentially see the post.

To increase social media reach, you either need to increase the size of your audience, create content that your followers are going to share with their friends, or invest some advertising dollars in promoting your event.

Social share of voice

Social share of voice measures how often your brand is mentioned compared to your competitors. Essentially, it’s how often you’re talked about compared to others in your industry.

Social share of voice is important for event managers because it gives insight into the visibility and awareness of your brand and event. If your social share of voice is relatively low, it means that your brand and related events aren’t generating much buzz.

If this is the case, you need to rethink your event and promotional strategies. It’s also helpful to look at this metric for competitors and similar brands or events.

Conversion metrics

Conversion metrics are measurements of how effective your social media events are in comparison to engagement and awareness. These metrics are the bread and butter of digital strategy and you should be tracking them.

Conversion rate

Conversion rate is the number of users who take action after engaging with a social media post. For event managers, the most relevant example is registration. How many people signed up for your broadcast after sharing, liking, commenting, or simply viewing a post?

If you have a lot of engagement and awareness, but very few conversions, it could signal that there are issues with your event registration page. Or it could be that there is a mismatch between your social posts and what people actually encounter on your registration page.

Keep in mind that the more worthwhile and interesting your posts are, the more likely users are to convert that action into registration, attendance, and shares.

Click-through rate

This metric refers to the rate at which users click on a link in a post, specifically to other content like your website or event registration page.

A low click-through rate suggests that your social posts promoting events aren’t particularly effective or engaging. When people see them in their social feeds, they simply aren’t interested enough to click.

Two simple ways to improve your click-through rate (CTR) are:

• Craft your social posts so that they more effectively highlight the benefits of the event and the pain points they help solve.
• If you’re using paid advertising to promote your event, make sure you're targeting the right audience. A low CTR indicates you’re targeting people who aren’t really interested in what you’re offering.

Bounce rate

Bounce rate is the percentage of users who click on a link, visit a single page, and then leave. If 100 people land on your event page, but only 20 register (which would take them to another page), your bounce rate is 80%.

Bounce rate is especially important because it directly relates to conversion rate. You’ve already achieved the click-through, and your goal is to turn the click into a conversion. If your bounce rate is high, it could mean that your post doesn’t accurately reflect the event you’re linking to, or even just that your registration page is too confusing or displeasing to use.

Amplify your virtual event with social media

Maximize the impact of your virtual event by using social media to promote it at every stage.

Plan posts to generate buzz before the event, engage attendees during sessions, and keep the conversation going afterward.

Make sure your event platform sligns with your social media strategy.

For example, you could capture the results of live polls or Q&As from the evnet to post online. You can also use built-in recording and transcription features to create on-demand content when the event is over.

Livestorm is a complete solution for hosting large events or webinars, capturing leads using integrations with your existing CRM, and helping you track event analytics to inform future events.

Use Livestorm to maximize the ROI of your webinar marketing efforts and make every virtual event a success.

Frequently asked questions about social media event promotion

When should I use LinkedIn to promote my event on social media?

You should use LinkedIn to promote your event on social media if you’re a B2B brand targeting working professionals. You’re likely to reach a smaller audience on LinkedIn, as opposed to Facebook or Instagram, but that smaller audience is easier to target and more likely to be interested in your event.

When should I use Instagram to promote my event on social media?

Use Instagram to promote your event on social media if your brand primarily targets millennials, women, or both. This is because global Instagram users aged 16-24, and women, in particular, prefer Instagram over any other platform. To promote successfully on Instagram, make sure you’re posting high-quality images and videos.

When should I use Facebook to promote my event on social media?

Use Facebook to promote your event on social media if you’re targeting a general audience. Facebook has approximately 2.96 billion users across all age groups, meaning any marketing campaign can see success on the platform based on users alone.

When should I use Twitter to promote my event on social media?

You should use Twitter to promote your event on social media if your brand has a pulse on what’s happening right now and you’re not afraid to react to it. Tech industry giants, socially motivated companies, and food brands have managed to use Twitter exclusively to run great, agile campaigns.

Which social media is most widely used for event promotions?

The most widely used social media platforms for event promotions are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. You may find that one platform works better, depending on your target audience. So if you’re targeting a younger demographic, then Instagram may be the best option, or if you’re targeting working professionals, then LinkedIn would be the ideal platform to promote your event.

How can social media be used to promote an event?

Social media can be used to promote an event in several ways. You can post engaging content leading up to the event, create a hashtag for your event, and use targeted ads to reach more people with your message. Additionally, you can use social listening tools to monitor conversations about the event and create a dedicated event page that can be shared across all your channels.

What are the advantages of using social media for event promotion?

The advantages of using social media for event promotion include:

• Target specific demographics based on their interests, behaviors, and location.
• Boost engagement with interactive elements such as polls, Q&A, and live video.
• Answer questions and address concerns in real-time.
• Create a community around your event.
• Track the success of event promotion campaigns.