It may fall of short of Facebook’s massive 1.4 billion monthly users, but LinkedIn is a powerful, fast-growing social media network that shouldn’t be overlooked by event planners. LinkedIn can be used to network with other like-minded event planners while also promoting events and parties to your target audience.
Update Your Company Page
Assuming you have a company page on LinkedIn, why not use it to promote your upcoming event? Company page admins and users with admin privileges can post updates that are seen by the page’s followers. You can use this platform to announce key information about an upcoming event, such as name of the event, venue location, date/time, dress code, whether or not food will be served, and how to RSVP.
Create a Showcase Page for Your Event
In addition to updating your company page, you can also spread the word about an upcoming event by creating a showcase page on LinkedIn. While company pages are used to display general information about a company, showcases pages are used to present a specific theme or topic, including events. So instead of simply mentioning the event on your company page, you can create a showcase page that’s dedicated to the event. Keep in mind, however, that showcases pages have different followers than a company page.
Here are the steps to creating a showcase page on LinkedIn:
- Log into your Linked account.
- Click the “Edit” menu on your company page.
- Choose “Create a Showcase Page.”
- You can now create and publish content about your upcoming party or event.
Spread the Word to Groups
One of the defining characteristics of LinkedIn is its groups. There are groups for just about everything — and there’s probably a group in which your target audience is located. Event planners can use this to their advantage by promoting their events to the right groups. Once you’ve found a group with your target audience, post updates about your event and encourage them to attend.
You can also create your own group specifically for your event. This is a great way to keep track of who’s planning to attend your event if you aren’t using registration forms/signups.
Paid Advertising
If you really want to generate more signups and boost attendance rates for an upcoming event, try promoting it on LinkedIn’s paid advertising platform. The professionally driven social media network offers two primary forms of paid advertising: sponsored content and text ads. Sponsored content is really effective because it allows users to target their updates to anyone on LinkedIn (e.g. by job title, location, industry, etc.). Normally, updates are only seen by your connections, restricting their reach. By using LinkedIn’s sponsored content, however, you can spread the word about an upcoming party or event to anyone on the social media network, not just your connections.
These are just a few ways to promote an upcoming event or party on LinkedIn.