Using Social Media to Promote Your Event: Part 2
Leveraging your social community
Reach out to your network
The Lumberjack community has each other’s back. Don’t hesitate to reach out and ask for help when you need it.
Instagram: Engagement and Reposts
When you’re short on time
Sometimes you want to promote an event to an audience other than just your own. Get more eyes on your post and introduce yourselves to a larger audience with these tips.
- Send a DM to campus accounts and ask them to share on their story
- Post an Instagram story and tag campus accounts. Then follow up by sending a DM and asking them/thanking them for their help
The more, the merrier
Leverage the power of individual users — reach out to the clubs/orgs and ask officers to share to their personal accounts if they are willing.
Campus Happenings: Get into the mix
Every Monday, our NAU Social Media shares Campus Events to our stories. *This semester, we’re expanding this series to our TikTok account as well.
Ways to be a part of this series
- Send your information in an email to social@nau.edu with subject line: For Campus Happenings
- Send us a DM with your flyer
- Send us a DM sharing the link to your feed post that we can share to stories
Lumberjack Tip: Keep sharing and tagging accounts. Even if they don’t repost you, it will help people running the account to associate that event with an organization and provide a starting point for future collaborations.
Tag your posts
Tag our official @nauflagstaff Instagram in your posts. Although we don’t repost flyers, your post will show up in the tagged section of our Instagram and be tied to the NAU campus.
BONUS: Plan Ahead
Planning out your communication and marketing strategy?
Add a step for social media collaboration
- Reach out to clubs/orgs/accounts that you may be partnering with
- Plan a collaborator feed post (this allows the post to be seen on both accounts)
- Send out an email or DM letting your network know the post is coming and them to share on their social networks
- On the day of posting, get your post ready and don’t forget to tag accounts
- For feed posts: Select Add reminder function. This allows your audience to choose to get a reminder for your event
- For Story posts: Select the Countdown sticker
4. Make sure to accept collaborator invites so the post shows up on both accounts
POV: McKinley’s tips
Just like in real life, you get back the amount of effort you put in.
Engaging with other accounts, reposting other events, liking, following, and commenting are all very important.
This goes for ALL platforms.
On the Alaska Goldpanner Baseball Tik Tok , if I see another team follow, like, and comment on our Tik Toks, I will follow back, like, comment, and engage with their content.
On the Alaska Goldpanner Instagram, if another local business engages, reposts, and comments on my pictures — I will go out of my way to make sure I provide the same amount of engagement that is allowed with my account.
Keep in mind however, some things may not be relevant to your followers when reposting.
Followers
Another big aspect of reaching a larger audience is post amplification.
One of the most helpful things is when your followers like your content so much they share it with all their followers.
For example, on Facebook there are local event groups that normally have a huge amount of engagement. Having your posts sent to these groups by local community members can largely increase the total views and engagement your events post can attract.
Instagram story reposts are also a huge way to gain more awareness for events.
How can you make content that gets reposted?
Ensure your posts provide value. Include helpful information and captivating visuals. A good example of this is the Instagram Alaska Goldpanner post below.
- By posting a 10 photo swipe, I was able to include 10 pictures of different players.
- I then tagged the respective players and the photographer too.
This makes it easier for those in the pictures (in this case the players) to repost to their stories.
When the players share it — it opens up the post to a larger network. Thing players friends, family members and community members too. These additional viewers may then repost one to their story.
