3 Things You Can Do to Keep Engagement Strong After Your Event is Over

In partnership with Eventbrite UK—who make it possible for event organizers around the world use to sell tickets and registrations—we have put together a series of resources to help you make events a successful part of your marketing strategy, including what to do before your event to boost engagement and RSVPs and how you can use social media to generate engagement while your event is happening.

Even after it’s over, an event can do a lot to boost visibility for your brand. After you give yourself and your team major congratulations on your accomplishment, you can do a status check and:

• Reflect on what worked—and what could have gone better at your event
• Review your Google Analytics to see if you met the goals you set out to achieve
• Keep the conversation going on social media with shareable, useful content based on your event

1. Following up with event attendees

Thanking your guests, sponsors, and supporters is a great way to wrap up your event. If you collected business cards or already have contact information, you can send thank-you notes in the mail, by email, or using social media.

Eventbrite make it super easy to sync your data with popular services like MailChimp and Aweber for larger event lists, or for smaller events you can send a thank-you email directly from your event management page.

Social networks such as Twitter or LinkedIn help you reconnect with everyone who retweeted your messages, shared your posts, or engaged with your #YourEvent hashtag. As a bonus, this shows other followers that you’re actively engaging and open to dialogue.

Tip: Unless you choose to connect privately through a Direct Message (DM), your social media thank-yous are visible to all, so be sure not to copy/paste the same message. Vary your text slightly to deliver that personal touch. “Thanks for coming, looking forward to the next one!” “Thank you for attending.” “Great seeing you there.”

If you have any Tweets that you assigned to yourself to follow up on later, now’s a good time to reach out, engage and answer.

• Get feedback

Depending on the type of event you had, you might also find it useful to learn what your guests thought by asking them to fill out a survey.

Use the SurveyMonkey app (which integrates directly with Eventbrite for ease of syncing your data) or the 123FormBuilder app for Hootsuite to create your survey and then share it with your social networks. You can also keep track of how many answers you have, the types of answers, and your results right from your Hootsuite dashboard.

2. Create a specific offer

The follow-up email is also a great place to invite people to take a specific action – possibly to trial your product or service for free (or at a reduced price).

Ideally, link it to the experience they had at the event, so it feels like a customer offer tailored to their interests.  With them high on good feelings after the event, this is the perfect time to present your product or service.

• Give your followers something to share

As a result of the work you put into promoting your event, you now have an engaged audience. Share slide decks, facts, event photos, or even animated GIFs. Check out this GIF about how you can add GIFs on Twitter.

Find and share user-generated content from your event (by searching for your brand name, #YourEvent hashtag, your event name) and use the Storify app for Hootsuite to capture and share your story by pulling together social content into a visual timeline that you can enrich with your own commentary.

Event attendees will enjoy having a look back at your event, and anyone who couldn’t make it might take away helpful information—and possibly make it a priority to attend your next event.

Announce the next event

‘Strike while the iron is hot’ goes the saying.  The best time to announce a follow-up event is either on the day, or the day immediately after, your current event.

Sometime a one-time interaction isn’t enough to close the deal with prospective customers, so line up a second, third or repeating series of events to keep them coming back, engaging with your brand and building up enough trust before they convert to becoming a customer.

Want more?

Learn which metrics you need to know to measure engagement for your event—before, during, and after—by downloading The Small Business Guide to Social Media and Event Marketing from Hootsuite and Eventbrite UK, which also includes:

• 5 ways you can use social media to boost engagement and RSVPs for your next event
• 4 things to do on social media while your event is happening
• 10 Steps To Running Successful Small Business Events
• Events Checklist: Tips and Essentials from the Pros
• How to Amplify your Business Events on Social Media
• 10 Stats To Help SMBs Benchmark Their Event Marketing Efforts
• 4 Affordable Event Marketing Ideas (With Examples)

Download the guide from Hootsuite and Eventbrite now!

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