Social media can play an important role before, during, and after a financial seminar. Using the power of social media in conjunction with direct mail, seminar organizers can see an increase in seminar attendees. There are several ways you can use social media for your seminar, here are a few suggestions.
1. Maximize RSVPs
The simple, straightforward format of social media platforms makes online event planning preferred by both attendees and organizers. Organizers are able to see at a glance who is attending, keep them engaged, and send reminders through online and SMS notifications.
Social media also allows a wider audience to be reached. Free event listings may be created on Facebook, Eventbrite, LinkedIn, and several other websites.2 A financial seminar event should be listed on as many different websites as possible, in order to reach financial seminar attendees that frequent different websites.
2. Retarget Prospects
Sometimes, people will not register for your seminar the first time they hear about it. This is why retargeting can be very effective at acquiring their information. Facebook’s Custom Audiences gives you the option to show ads to potential attendees who have already visited your landing page.2
Another means to retarget prospects is by including social media on the registration page. A lot of free promotion can come by asking attendees to share that they are going to your seminar on Facebook. This increases the likelihood of prospective attendees signing up for the event, as well as individuals that weren’t aware of the seminar before.
3. Engage with Polls
Maintaining interest in the financial seminar can be achieved with polls and other forms of feedback. Most recently, a popular way this has been done is through gathering feedback on the programming. A few platforms used for event crowd sourcing include Tweetpoll, Crowd Campaign, and PollDaddy.
Involving seminar attendees and potential attendees greatly increases the hype around the event. Giving an online audience the power to vote for the theme, speaker, talk, etc. that they’re most interested in creates a buzz around the seminar from the very beginning. The famous cultural festival, SXSW, excels in this field by allowing potential attendees to select over 30% of its programming.2
4. Keep Interest with Contests
Prospective attendees can become actual attendees by keeping this in mind: people love winning. Intrigue potential attendees by starting contests with appealing prizes. For example, start a contest through Twitter that awards free registration for individuals that can correctly answer a set of trivia questions related to the event. This is a popular way to maintain the buzz around the event and to encourage discussion among potential attendees. It also puts the seminar on the radar of the entire network of people that follow contest contestants – more free marketing.3 Although the contest will cost the price of however many tickets that are given away, the promotional benefits are definitely worth it.
5. Highlight Your Seminar Speakers
Showcase your speakers throughout the registration period to persuade people to sign-up for the seminar. Pictures of the speakers with powerful quote overlays hint that there are invaluable teachings to be learned at the seminar.2 It also gives prospective attendees a sneak peak of the financial seminar and the speakers’ personalities.
Another way to highlight your speakers is through a simple video posted on several social media platforms. Speakers can either create new material specifically for the video or clips from previous events can be stitched together in a highlight reel format. Either way, the video should feature effective teaser content.
6. Harness the Power of Visuals
Continuing with the effectiveness of videos to showcase speakers, videos can also be used to market other aspects of the financial seminar. Videos are easily shareable and rank highly in Internet searches. They are a cost-efficient way to grow anticipation and buzz leading up to an event.1
A highlight reel from prior financial seminars is simple and easy to put together. Registration will surely increase when a video that is pleasing to both the eyes and ears is released to your Facebook and Twitter pages. It creates a rare opportunity to communicate the energy of a live seminar.
7. Create a Unified Hashtag
Hashtags are a way for attendees to interact with one another and also, a means to get potential attendees more interested in your seminar. Keep in mind, the shorter the better.1 Hashtags organize the discussion and make it easy to follow the conversation.
8. BONUS: Social Media Advertising
In some industries, social media channels such as Facebook are often overlooked as a platform to market. Creating top-notch advertising initiative across social networks can be tricky but the benefits can be grand. When used in conjunction with direct mail, we have seen an increase in attendees for many clients.
