One of the questions we here at ifairs get asked the most is how one goes about creating engagement around and during a hybrid event. Understandable. While event engagement isn't rocket science, it isn’t the easiest thing to generate. 

A little piece of the puzzle here can be found in social media. While you and your business might already be on social media, there are probably a few tricks you’ve missed. So, join us as we explore the impact the right use of social media can have on your hybrid event. 

1. Create a sense of urgency around your hybrid event

In this day and age, most people are on social media in one form or another. That makes it one of the best tools to reach your audience. When you have your hybrid event planned, it would be wise to construct a sense of urgency around it. 

If people feel something is urgent, then they are prompted to act upon it. Often, this results in them attending the event, and this is what we want. So how do we create this sense of urgency?

The great thing about social media is that you can have instantaneous communication with your audience. We recommend posting daily about activities relating to the event. 

This could be a competition to win something interesting. If the event is paid for, you can have early-bird tickets that are cheaper. Remember to emphasize when an offer like this is about to run out to really hammer it home. 

Intensify this practice the closer you get to the day of the virtual event itself. More posts, more countdowns, final offers being pushed out. This should yield noticeable results. 

2. Social media platform integration

We’re going to talk a bit about something more technical now. This relates to your hybrid event platform of choice. Most hybrid event platforms are capable of integrating plug-ins of many sorts. 

Some plug-ins that might be useful for your virtual platform are social media aggregators. They are able to curate and display posts relating to your event by sourcing them from various social media platforms. 

This will then typically become a unified feed that an event attendee will have access to by watching the live stream. Some hybrid events also have screens available at the physical venue where the feed will be displayed. 

So, make sure your virtual event platform provider’s event software is capable of integrating these plug-ins. They are very essential, and in the next section we will talk about their benefits for your hybrid event. 

3. Benefits of social media plug-ins for your hybrid event

The benefits of using plug-ins, like social media aggregators, for your hybrid event are numerous. 

You automatically enhance the virtual and in person virtual experiences for your attendees. A live social feed makes attendees able to see what people are discussing about the event, and they can join in themselves by using the right hashtags. 

You can use it to increase engagement by organizing interactive contests, Q&A sessions, fun games and much more by using hashtags. 

If you want to increase the revenue for your event, you can even sell ad space on the social feed of your event. This increases visibility for your sponsors, and that makes them happy and content. 

You can also promote your next event by creating an online community for your event. Here, you can keep the conversation between the attendees going, get feedback, and sell tickets once again. 

4. Master the art of hashtags

Many social media platforms use hashtags to sort and filter content. This helps their users find the content they are interested in, and avoid what they aren’t. 

That means if you want to reach your target audience and hype your event up, you need to know which hashtags they use. 

Once those hashtags have been identified, you need to target them, and make sure your content is visible and frequently posted. Use those same hashtags for your event as well to tie it all together. This is how you reach your audience, and why hashtags are so important.

It is often better to reach your audience organically like this rather than pay for advertisements. After all, what do you do when you see an ad? You most likely skip it out of habit. 

By seeing a normal post that frames the event in a good light, people are more likely to engage with it and grow interest.