How to create a social media marketing plan for your event
To drive business growth, the importance of hosting events cannot be overstated. Successful business events help build connections with current and prospective clients and customers, lead to increased brand awareness and professional credibility, provide ample networking opportunities, and, of course, give guests an entertaining, enjoyable experience that they’ll go on to associate with your company.
There are a number of ways to measure the success of a corporate event, but there’s no denying that a well-attended event is better than the alternative. But how do you get the word out to ensure an impressive turnout? One key aspect of successful corporate event planning lies in the event marketing strategies you choose.
Deciding how to market a business event is a multifaceted process that involves landing on a specific event type and professional goals, honing in on an ideal audience, and analyzing the best methods of outreach to connect with your target demographic. It’s undeniable that in today’s increasingly online world, one of the most effective methods of outreach occurs on social media. Social media event marketing is one of the most impactful (and achievable!) ways to promote any professional gathering.
From deciding on the best social media platforms for your brand and audience to putting together a content plan to keeping in contact with guests after the big day, social media marketing for an event goes a long way. Read on for our guide to creating a comprehensive and tailored social media plan for your next professional event, whether you’re hosting a fundraiser, art gallery exhibition, launch party, open house, or any other corporate gathering.
Table of Contents
Social media strategies before your event
The lead-up to a business event is an imperative time to generate buzz and get the word out far and wide. Figuring out your specific plan for event promotion on social media depends on many factors, from your goals to your branding to your ideal customer profile. Start planning your event with plenty of advance notice, if possible, and focus on determining the best social media plan for your business with these pre-event ideas and tips.
1. Pinpoint your event audience
Figure out who the target audience is for your event, based on your business’s goals and ideal customer profile. Are you throwing a retail store grand opening and want to connect with fashion-forward women in a specific city? Hosting a black tie gala and silent auction for a nonprofit organization? A virtual conference on innovations in the tech industry? Your event type and ideal audience will inevitably determine the course of action for your social media event marketing plan.
2. Research your demographic
Once you hone in on your target brand audience and ideal guest list size, you can begin researching the specific social media platforms that your demographic engages with most. Does your audience tend to post frequently on LinkedIn? Or are you hoping to connect with a young, hip guest list who tends to be more active on sites like Instagram or TikTok? Understanding your audience and their online habits will help your brand achieve the most successful professional event possible.
3. Gather all your event details
Before you can start promoting your event, you’ll need to finalize and gather all the relevant details to share with your prospective guests. Create sleek, professional invitations with Paperless Post that you can customize with your company’s branding, including your logo, colors, and photos, and add all of your event details in helpful Blocks to your event page. Include a schedule of events in a Schedule Block, a hyperlink to purchase tickets in a Links Block, a slideshow of images from past events in a Photo Gallery Block, and more.
Edit your event page to match your invitation and branding as well, select a Page Style, and choose a Custom Color using a hex code or color picker. Build excitement for any gathering with an on-brand, informative invitation and event page.
4. Create social media accounts
One of the first steps in any event marketing social media plan is, naturally, setting up your organization’s social media profiles. If you haven’t already, create unique accounts across all of the social media platforms that you’ve determined to be the right fit for your brand, and establish your presence on each respective platform with easy-to-remember usernames, on-brand profile images, and informative company bios. You’ll also want to start following relevant accounts on each platform, such as brands and companies in your industry, influencers, colleagues, and any other connections with a relationship to your business.
5. Determine event branding guidelines
As you begin laying out your social media event marketing strategy, it’s important to establish branding guidelines that align with your business. Incorporate your brand’s style and voice into all your event marketing materials for professional and consistent messaging. Staying on brand is important for all aspects of running a business, but when marketing an event on social media, it’s crucial that guests are able to identify and associate the visuals and tone of your business right off the bat.
You may want to determine a go-to color palette for your marketing materials, set specific fonts to use, visually reflect the formality level of your event, incorporate your logo across any promotional materials, and decide on a tone of voice for your marketing copy. You’ll also be able to easily add all of these branding elements to your business invitations, event page, and Custom Email with Paperless Post’s intuitive editing tools that keep your brand top of mind from the very first open.
6. Set a posting schedule
Decide on the frequency, cadence, and schedule for posting about your event on social media. Social media marketing for an event requires sufficient lead time to build excitement and generate buzz—simply posting once on the day before the event may not quite cut it to achieve the outcome you’re hoping for! Create a content calendar complete with a day-to-day social media plan, with a range of posting types covered.
Decide when it would make sense to post teaser content to pique curiosity and when it’s time to communicate all the event details as clearly as possible. Timeline each post in advance to take away the guesswork of your event planning and stay on top of everything in an organized manner. You’ll also want to post frequently enough that guests are sure to come across your social media marketing, but not so often that it feels oversaturated.
7. Share your event page link
With Paperless Post business event invitations, you can share all your event details however you prefer, either directly through our platform via email or text message, or by creating a shareable link with a Custom URL that you can share anywhere on the web. If you create a shareable link, you can post it directly in your social media bio, embed it in an Instagram story, share in a Facebook, X, or LinkedIn post, or wherever makes sense for your business.
For larger events that you share publicly, you may also want to consider setting a maximum capacity to ensure you have enough space and refreshments for everyone who attends. Set an RSVP deadline as well to give yourself enough time to plan all the details once you know the guest list you’re working with.
8. Post teasers
In the lead-up to your event, get guests excited about what’s to come by posting plenty of teaser content across your chosen social media platforms. For visual previews like photos of swag bags, sneak peeks of the décor, behind-the-scenes setup photos, and new product launches, platforms like Instagram or TikTok may make the most sense to garner attention in an eye-catching way. You can also post content teasing any event speakers or notable guests to build anticipation and drive attendance, and share those speakers’ or guests-of-honor’s photos, bios, and website links in a Speakers Block on your invitation.
9. Start a countdown
Add some fun to your social media plan by creating an event countdown clock to post on Instagram story, X, or Facebook leading up to the big day. Make sure to share the link to your event page when you post your countdown to keep guests informed of all the pertinent details as you build anticipation. You may even want to create a countdown timer in the lead-up to announcing your event in the first place, to start garnering curiosity amongst your followers.
10. Cross-promote with event sponsors
If you’ve been fortunate enough to secure corporate sponsors for your business event, you can help promote your event on social media by using those sponsors’ existing credibility and built-in audience. Make sure to tag your sponsors in any social media posts leading up to the event, and encourage them to post and re-share content about it as well. They may even be open to creating their own promotional materials that you can cross-share, as sponsors will be invested in the success of any event associated with their brand. Thank your event sponsors for their generosity by spotlighting their logos in a Sponsors Block on your invitation.
11. Conduct interactive polls
Get your guests involved in planning decisions to make them feel like your event was tailored just for them. Post interactive polls on social media with yes or no, multiple choice, or open-ended questions to gather your audience’s opinion on anything from signature cocktails to swag options to playlist requests and more. You can also enable Guest Questions on your Paperless Post invitation to ask guests about anything else that could be helpful to your event planning, like dietary restrictions or meal preferences.
12. Decide on an event hashtag
A simple yet critical aspect of event promotion on social media is the hashtag. A memorable and catchy hashtag is a way to brand your event and provides a way for your audience to discover and participate in content surrounding your gathering. Create a hashtag that’s informative, communicative, compelling, and memorable—and try to keep it relatively short, if possible. For example, hashtags such as #CostumeCon2025, #FortGreeneFilmFest, or #SallysSpringPopup are to-the-point and easy for guests to recall and post about when they attend.
13. Utilize influencer marketing
Reaching out to influencers in your specific industry is a great way to share your event details with a broader audience who may be especially interested in attending. Connect with any contacts you have online with a large social following, message popular content creators and micro influencers who share target audiences with your brand, and offer an incentive to post sponsored content about your event. Any participating influencers may also draw more of a crowd if you advertise their attendance at your event and ask them to share their excitement.
14. Host a contest or giveaway
Another interactive idea for social media event marketing is to host a contest or giveaway. Build excitement, draw attention, and entice social media engagement by posting about branded merch, free tickets, or any special prizes that guests can enter to win. Encourage followers to share your event details on their social media pages or to tag a friend in the comments to be entered into the contest, or ask them to post their unique content or photos that you’ll then judge and announce a winner for at the event.
Social media strategies during your event
Once the big day finally arrives, there’s still plenty of social media marketing to be done during the event itself. Drive traffic to your social media accounts, encourage guest engagement, and set your business up for continued success by creating a smart and strategic social media plan to incorporate as the night unfolds.
15. Post in real-time
Plan to post plenty of social media content during your event to keep both guests and those who couldn’t attend engaged. Post photos on your Instagram story in real-time (with guests’ permission), post live updates on X, or share anything you like on other platforms as the event progresses. Guests who make it into the photos you share from your business’s account will be enticed to reshare the content and follow your profile, if they aren’t already.
16. Display your hashtag
Make sure to visibly display your event hashtag clearly for all your guests so they can incorporate it into any of their social media posts throughout the event. Keep an active tab of posts using your event hashtag as the night goes on, and stay up to date on resharing or liking any content shared. You can make sure guests are aware of your event hashtag by projecting it on a screen in your event space, displaying it on signage at the front entrance or bar, or even creating personalized cocktail napkins or souvenir matchbooks with your branding.
17. Livestream
Embrace the livestream functionality of a range of social media platforms to broadcast footage from your event for virtual attendees and followers who couldn’t make it. Post live video on sites like Instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok, or YouTube, highlighting special moments from the event as they happen, like any notable speeches, awards, official launches, or announcements. If your livestreaming allows followers to post comments in real-time, try to interact with them and respond to their messages and questions as you stream.
18. Provide photo ops
Guarantee plenty of social media content from your event by providing a photobooth or branded photo backdrop for guests to pose in front of. Create a step-and-repeat with your logo on the walls, or provide a fun booth with props and your event hashtag baked into the images. Encourage guests to share their photos, tag your account, and use the hashtag in captions. Everyone loves to share fun memories from an entertaining evening, so set guests up with everything they need in order to do so.
19. Capture content to post later
In addition to posting pictures and updates in real-time, make sure to bank plenty of photos and videos throughout the evening that you’ll go on to share in the days and weeks to come. Record video footage to edit into a montage, snap photos to create a collage or slideshow, and capture content of all your thoughtful branding and visual details, like the decorations, refreshments, merch, and anything else that helped set the scene.
Social media strategies after your event
Your event has now come and gone, and was (hopefully) a smashing success! But your social media event marketing doesn’t end when the final guest walks out the door. There are still plenty of ways to continue capitalizing on your event to help grow your business and increase brand awareness, even after the big day.
20. Reshare guests’ content
Keep an eye on any posts that your guests share in the days following your event, regularly search for your event hashtag across all social media platforms, check geotagged locations from your venue, and monitor any posts from corporate sponsors, event speakers, influencers in attendance, or any other guests who may have a sizable social media following. Engage with—like, comment, and share—any event content that lines up with your branding, and send a follow-up broadcast message via Paperless Post to guests asking them to send any event photos your way!
21. Write a blog recap
If your business has an existing blog or company website, consider writing an event recap, complete with photos, quotes, and event highlights for an on-brand piece you can share with a wider audience via an email newsletter and social media sites. You can also utilize SEO keywords within your blog to drive more traffic to your website.
22. Post a slideshow or video
Gather all the best snapshots and footage from the night and put together one or multiple sleek, branded posts on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Post a longer-form event video on YouTube if your social media plan aligns most with that platform. A compelling mix of imagery and videos can be made into several posts recapping highlights from the event, in the form of montages, collages, slideshows, reels, and more. Make all your guests nostalgic for the night, keep your brand in your audience’s mind, and get those who couldn’t attend excited to RSVP for the next time!
23. Gather quotes and testimonials
Reach out to your event’s guests to gather quotes and testimonials to use in your post-event social media marketing. You can ask them if you can quote them on any captions or posts they’ve already shared, or see if they’d be willing to provide feedback, favorite memories, or general comments on their overall experience. To help with this, you can send guests a post-event survey or reach out in a follow-up broadcast or direct message through Paperless Post. Any glowing testimonials you receive will be a great way to market future events, too.
24. Follow new connections
Keep in touch with any connections and contacts made at your event, both directly and on social media platforms, to grow your following and attract engagement. Follow any accounts that tagged your brand before, during, or after the event, and search for your event hashtag to follow accounts that posted content. It’s important to stay in touch with event attendees and maintain lasting connections to develop a loyal, passionate audience.
25. Promote your next event
Now that you have so much great content surrounding your recent event, keep it all on hand to help market the next one! Incorporate photos and testimonials from the event into your business’s future event promotion on social media, and include the photos in a Photo Gallery Block or video testimonials in a Video Block on your next business event invitation.
What social media channels should you use?
Choosing the right social media platforms to market your business and events can seem daunting, especially with so many options available in today’s ever-evolving digital landscape. While each social media channel brings its own unique benefits to the table, embracing a combination of a few, many, or even all of the platforms available to you may be the ideal choice for your company. But to help select the specific platforms to focus on for your social media event marketing, read on for each channel’s respective advantages and tools.
LinkedIn is a professionally-focused social media platform, serving an engaged audience of corporate accounts and business-minded individuals looking to make connections in their industry. Event marketing from your brand’s LinkedIn page is a great option for promoting networking events, conferences, panel discussions, and other B2B outreach.
Facebook is one of the most popular and established social media platforms, and provides a great event marketing strategy option for a wide range of business types. With an expansive reach as well as paid and targeted social media advertising options available, Facebook can be the best platform to advertise corporate events like launch parties or charity galas, and post engaging content in the form of photos, videos, written posts, and external links.
While Instagram may lie under the Facebook ownership umbrella, it brings its own unique vibe to the table in terms of event social media marketing. Instagram’s audience can skew a bit younger, leans into trends, is highly engaged, and appreciates feeling personal connections to brands they choose to follow. The ideal medium for stylish, artistic, and other visually appealing brand marketing, like art gallery exhibitions or pop-up stores, Instagram has tools to help edit content, establish brand consistency, and engage with audiences through grid posts and stories.
X (Twitter)
X encourages individuals and brand accounts to share content and react in real-time, whether it’s live posting from an event or sharing witty reactions to current events. If your brand voice embraces humor, politics, pop culture, or just benefits from being a part of the conversation, X may be the preferred platform to communicate that voice with a captivated and interactive audience.
YouTube
With the flexibility to post both long and short-form video content, YouTube appeals to an expansive audience and provides a space for your business to experiment with several types of event marketing, from post-event testimonials and montages to livestreams to pre-event product teasers and demonstrations.
TikTok
Geared towards shorter, snappier video content and younger audiences, TikTok can be the perfect platform to encourage organic discovery from audiences scrolling through their feeds. If it’s on-brand for your organization to experiment with current trends, viral challenges, and other contemporary content, TikTok may be a great place to spread the word about your business and professional events.
Plan events that make an impact with Paperless Pro
Whether you’re hosting a professional conference or a company holiday party, make sure it’s on-brand and successful with the help of Paperless Pro: our subscription that unlocks unlimited access to all our customization tools, management features, and premium invitation designs. Give your social media event marketing a leg up with sleek, professional invitations you can share with a customizable URL on any social media platform. Choose the best subscription plan for your business, and start inviting guests to events all year long that build connections and grow your business.
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