Want your event to be successful? You’re going to need a successful social media strategy.

Gone are the days of finding out about events through a community events calendar at a local coffee shop, and now events heavily count on social media to get the word out. Not only is social media absolutely crucial to increase attendance but it’s also important to use social media to build engagement during and after an event. There were nearly as many posts leading up to an event as there were during the event itself (40% and 42% of total posts, respectively).

Today, the Florida Vintage Market held an outdoor shopping experience. This group frequently hosts this event in different cities across the state. A variety of vendors show up to this event with vintage garments, handmade goods, art, and food. It’s an event for those of all ages.

The first step to marketing this event successfully is even though the event is for all ages, considering the event is in Gainesville, the target audience I would keep in mind is college students since Gainesville is a college town. The tone for all the messages I would use be very a young voice and relatable. I would also make references to things that the age group would understand.

I would also suggest creating paid ads that target this group of people in Gainesville. My suggested ad format would be a video from a past event that shows all the vendors, highlights some interesting items, and shows people having a good time with trendy music over the video. I suggest video because this could be used on Instagram stories and the Instagram feed since Instagram is the most used-platform by this age group. Plus, videos are likely to get double the amount of clicks compared to photo ads.

Another suggestion I would make is to use the power of Facebook groups. Facebook groups have very engaged communities of people so your post won’t easily get as lost compared to it randomly showing up on people’s feed. The great thing about a college town is that there are so many Facebook student groups that this event could be posted in. I would suggest posting the event, whether it be a link to the event, the video, or different types of content posts several times a month leading up to the event.

Another way to build up hype to the event beforehand is by creating an Instagram giveaway. The giveaway could be a $50 gift card to be used at any vendor at the event and the requirement would be that people must be following you, must tag five friends in the post, and also share the post about the event to their story. This giveaway would further increase the reach and awareness about the event. Instagram accounts that hold a contest or giveaway grow 70% faster than those that don’t.

During the event I would suggest asking people to create posts about the event and use an event hashtag that way the brand can repurpose this event afterwards, the hashtag could be #FloridaVintageFinds. This hashtag could is a way to show off how this a truly unique shopping experience. I would also recommend sharing the stories of those that attend.

After the event, I would suggest making a thank you post to those who attended as well as create a highlight reel of the event to give those “FOMO” who did not and this would also be an opportune time to highlight the next city the market will be in so people can look forward to the next event.

How did this event market itself in reality?

Since this event is happening multiple times, just in different cities, they created their own Facebook page and Instagram account, which makes it easy for people to find out about the event. They made a unique flyer for each event that were going to be in and shared that across social media, each event poster tied into the city.

Prior to the day of the event, they highlighted each of the vendors that were going to be attending. They also posted about many of the questions people may have about the event that could deter their attendance, such as what age of people are allowed to be there, a map of all the vendors, where to park, etc.,. Florida Vintage Market also chose to highlight items from vendors that were unique and trendy that people would want, such as a crocheted Bernie Sanders in his iconic mittens and mask that was a viral meme.

During the event, they were sharing a lot of user-generated content from those who were attending and the vendors as well. They were also making last-minute calls for people to join the event since the event was 6-hours long. After their event in Orlando, they posted pictures of the event saying thank you and quickly moved on to promoting the following Florida Vintage Market.

So…

Social media is crucial to the event of your success. Considering how bombarded people are with information already on their feed, it’s important to make yourself stand out by creating unique content that people will want to pay attention to.