Most event planners dream of making their event go viral. The massive reach, explosive brand recognition, and the street cred that go along with marketing a viral event are powerful temptations to do everything you can to “go viral.” But here’s the thing: event planners don’t make events go viral. Attendees and social media users make events go viral.
So, the event planner’s job is to create a killer social media campaign that puts into place all the elements that encourage users to create, share, and engage with your event’s campaign. In this article, we share five social media strategies to help you do just that.
1. Use Social Media Marketing to Tell a Story About Your Event
Storytelling is a powerful marketing strategy, and social media is an ideal medium to tell your event’s story. Top social media marketing campaigns in 2024 used storytelling to reach their audiences. For example, Airbnb leveraged storytelling by inviting photographers to document their family vacations during their stays.
To use social media marketing to tell your event’s story, first establish the following:
Your Event’s Origin Story As It Relates to Its Values
Every event represents a set of values rooted in the beginning of its story. For example, a rock music festival fundraiser that supports the preservation of a historical prison taps into the story of the former prison’s “rebellious” residents.
Or an event planning conference may have its roots in an events company seeking to bring together professionals and vendors in the community. Values such as collaboration and an abundance mindset relate to the origins of that event conference.
Whatever the values and beginnings of your event, weave them into the story of your social media content. Think beyond the event when creating content. For example, Patagonia engages its audience with social media content focused on environmental issues, in addition to content featuring the brand’s products.
Assign a Personality to Your Event’s Brand
Giving your event a personality will help your audience create an emotional connection with your event. And any marketer today worth their salt will tell you that buyers buy emotions, not products (or event tickets).
Your event brand’s personality will be closely related to the personalities of its attendees. According to marketing firm March, examples of brand personalities include The North Face as an explorer, Disney as a magician, and Harley-Davidson as an outlaw.
Take Your Hero On a Journey
In your event’s story, your attendees are the heroes. Making your attendees the heroes of your event’s social media marketing campaign reinforces their central role in your event’s success. You’re creating a storyline in which your attendees go on a journey to solve a problem, and they find the solution at your event.
In the example of a music festival at the historical prison, the story is of outcasts finding their tribe. Or in the example of the events planning conference, the story is of entrepreneurs finding support and connection.
A real-life brand that made its customers the heroes of its marketing campaign to great success is Proctor & Gamble. The brand’s Thank You, Mom campaign honored the mothers of Olympic athletes by making them the heroes of their campaign.
2. Create the Kind of Content Users Love to Share
While telling you to create share-worthy content may be filed under “no, duh,” when it comes to advice, it’s clearly easier said than done. What, exactly, constitutes, shareable content? Marketing expert Noah Kagan has some advice for creating viral content rooted in science.
Essentially, people share content that makes them feel positive emotions, especially awe and amusement. Here are some other reasons users share content:
- To define and express themselves
- To offer value and entertainment to others
- To nurture relationships
- To feel involved and connected to the world
- To spread awareness about local causes they care about
3. Invite User-Generated Content
The beauty of social media marketing is that it allows event planners to interact with and engage with their audience in a way other marketing tools can’t beat. Specifically, social media marketing opens the doors to user-generated content. As a powerful way to tap into your audience’s creativity, humor, and excitement, user-generated content can help your event go viral.
Brands can draw upon user-generated content with great effect. The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas encourages its audience to post photos of their experiences on the luxury hotel’s Instagram account. So far, the campaign has garnered 250 million impressions.
Event planners can harness the power of user-generated content in an endless variety of ways. Here are a few ideas.
- Create a selfie contest in which attendees post selfies at your event under a branded hashtag. Award prizes based on votes to encourage participants to share their content.
- Display a social media screen that displays real-time user-generated content to encourage all attendees to get in on the fun.
- Create epic photo ops attendees can’t resist. Organize meet and greets with industry leaders or event entertainment during which attendees can take selfies to share. Create a stunning photo backdrop, or offer up fun, oversized props attendees can play with.
4. Create Content That’s Easy to Digest
Infographics and lists are the most shared types of content on social media. The most probable reason is that these formats are easy to read. The lesson to take away is to create content that is easy to skim and includes plenty of visuals. Small paragraphs, bullet lists, and visual representations of data are great ways to make your content more shareable.
5. Use Simple & Easy-to-Use Hashtags
Hashtags are the seeds that make events go viral. Everything on social media that relates to your event is tied together by hashtags. However, as attendees revel in the fun, they’re prone to misspelling or forgetting your hashtags entirely. Help your attendees make your event go viral by following these hashtag tips.
- Keep your branded hashtags simple with just a few short words. Brand24 did a roundup of eight of the best hashtag campaigns. None of them were over four words, with seven being only three words.
- Make your hashtags actionable. The best hashtag campaigns encourage user-generated content in fun, innovative, or challenging ways. Disney’s #ShareYourEars and Apple’s #ShotoniPhone makes unmistakable calls for specific user-generated content.
- Display your hashtags everywhere at your event. Make sure your attendees can’t forget your hashtags by displaying them throughout your event.
Learn What It Takes to Make Your Event Go Viral When You Attend The Event Planner Expo
Crafting social media campaigns that help your event go viral is an art and a science. The tips above will help you along. You can learn even more when you attend The Event Planner Expo 2025. There, you’ll learn from industry leaders about the latest trends in the events industry. Buy your tickets today.
