Groundbreaking ceremonies, ribbon cutting events and new construction and building dedications have traditionally been promoted using public relations and press release distribution services. Online ticketing services such as Eventbrite use social media and email marketing to get the word out to online subscribers. The next step is to use social media as an event promotion channel. As more business migrates onto the Internet, social media has become an important method for raising awareness and promoting events. Building and engaging an audience is a great way to promote your business and company events such as a new construction dedication ceremony.

Understanding the best use practices for social media engagement is an important step. By using social media to educate, inform or entertain your community, you can develop authority that can translate into more attendees for your events. By creating content that is engaging, you can encourage your readers to share your information on their social networks and can increase the reach of your message exponentially.

Let’s take a look at the best practices for using social media to enhance awareness and get people talking about your events.

Social Media Tips for Promoting a Groundbreaking Ceremony

When used effectively; social media can be a game changer when it comes times to promote your event. Here are ten tips to get you started on the road to social media success:

• Set goals and define your approach – Don’t underestimate the effort required to mount a successful social media campaign. Be realistic in your work estimate and your goal setting. Be prepared to spend time tweaking your message to achieve your stated goals. Growing a community takes time and effort.
• Choose social media channels that make sense for your event – Explore your options. Facebook and LinkedIn, for example, allow you to promote your event to your personal network while Twitter is a better way to reach the general public. Build and promote to your community, but understand where to target your message for maximum impact.
• Use  Facebook events to create a “home” for your event – Create an event on Facebook as a gathering place. If you use a site like Eventbrite, you can automatically create and promote your event on Facebook from within the site.
• Use LinkedIn to reach out to the business community – LinkedIn is a community of professionals and the perfect place to promote your event to the business community.  When you create an event on LinkedIn, it is automatically sent out to your connections.  Also find related user groups on the site to promote your event
• Create a Twitter profile – Because Twitter is an open forum, you can reach out to the general public. If your event is recurring, create a specific profile for that event. It is possible to engage your audience online and in real time on Twitter as well.
• Create the maximum buzz with a unique hashtag  –Twitter uses hashtags to sort information on the site. Hashtags also allow interested people the ability to interact directly and in real time to share information with each other. Make sure to create your hashtag before you begin promoting or others will do it for you and may create several different tags that can dilute your message.
• Create a Facebook page for your event – If you have a recurring or a large- scale event, it may make sense to create a dedicated page on Facebook. Here, you can post daily updates that can give your followers insight into the event’s planning and development. You can also promote speakers, entertainment, and post photos and videos to help build excitement. Get your community involved. Post questions, give away tickets or even solicit feedback directly.
• Reach out to fans, friends, and family and invite them to spread the word – Reach out to anyone interested and ask them to join you in promoting your event. Make sure to give them the pertinent links and information to keep your message on point.
• Reach out to the “influencers” online – Research the leaders in your field and reach out to them. Search the Internet for blogs and Facebook or LinkedIn groups that may be interested. Send an email and solicit their help. Encourage them to help you spread the word about your event among their communities. Also, get the people who are involved as talent or speakers to help you to promote the event.
• Build your community online – For larger more complex events, it makes sense to develop your online community. Consider the value you may be adding by asking people to set-up a profile and participate in your community. SXSW built a community where members can suggest speakers, customize the schedule and nominate topics for panel discussions. Get your community involved in the pre-planning and promotion of your event.

Social media is a tremendous outlet to use when planning, running or attending any event. A little pre-planning, goal setting and effort can produce tremendous, measurable results. While social media engagement isn’t a magic bullet to creating successful events when used properly, it can significantly increase awareness of your new construction project and increase occupancy and lease rates.

Social media is one part fo a triumvirate approach that also includes public relations distribution on a regional and national level as well as creating an event page that enables email marketing and promotion by geographic location. To learn more about PR distribution click here. To read about setting up an Eventbrite page click here.