How can you use social media for venue marketing?

Social media venue marketing is an important tool for all businesses. It’s a free way of broadcasting your brand to customers you wouldn’t be able to reach in any other way and build online communities. You can spread your venue’s message in a matter of clicks, so knowing how to leverage social media effectively is key. 

1. Choose your networks wisely

The first step to creating an effective venue marketing strategy is identifying the “who.” Your venue marketing needs to be highly targeted and speak to your ideal customer, so make sure you know exactly what type of customers you want to attract to your venue.
For example, if you recently launched a B2B focus for your venue, then Linkedin is the best place to promote your venue to attract corporate users.
Make sure you are posting regularly about your venue. Include any exciting events you may have coming up and any other engaging content. If it’s a B2C audience you want to attract, then create accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and post regular engaging content for that target market.
Once you know who the customers are that you want to attract, research where you find them. Is it Twitter, Facebook or elsewhere?
Speak to your customers directly or ask which channels they use on a feedback card or your website. Alternatively, seek the advice of a marketing consultant or members of your team who are particularly savvy on social media.
Another thing to always consider when looking at your social media marketing plan is what devices your customers are using. Whether it’s a smartphone, tablet or desktop computer, this could influence the type of content you decide to share.

2. Competitions

A great way to boost your social following, and engage with potential customers is to run regular competitions. Whether you want people to follow you, share your content or just give you a simple like you can achieve all of these goals through social media competitions.
Social media is vital for venue marketing, but you can’t just rely on your own account to spread the word. You have to get potential customers to share it as well. Competitions are the perfect way to motivate word-of-mouth promotion without a huge monetary investment.
Create a strategy that will yield the most engagement and make sure you are clear on what you want to get out of the competition. If there’s a new Space opening, run a contest for a free round of drinks of a money off voucher for your food menu. Think of something that will appeal and watch the new leads roll in.

3. Interesting Content

You want to make sure every post counts by making them interesting, engaging and unique – so they don’t get lost in the feed. Tailor content for each social network.
You want to keep in mind the different styles and audiences on each platform. On Twitter, it’s short, sweet, and sometimes quirky. On LinkedIn, you should steer toward a more professional tone.

• Photos

Invest in high-quality images of your venue and share them across all social channels. Good photos significantly increase the number of people that engage with your Space as it makes your venue seem more credible. Incorporate as many images into your posts as possible. Image posts are more engaging than plain copy.

• Videos

Video marketing should always be factored into your social media planning. Videos are really key for venue marketing as they give Guests a great insight into your Space. 
For every event you host at your Space, why not create a fun highlights reel of the day? Or look into a walk-through tour of the venue where Guests can really visualise the Space.
Build a community around your venue. Create video testimonials, interviews with staff or regular Guests – and create engaging video content surrounding any projects you may have on the go.  This can be a short 2-minute video showing all the stages of the event from the set-up and the reception to shots of the event in full swing.
Once you’ve got all this footage and edited it, you can upload them to Vimeo and Youtube as well as posting them all over your social media channels.

• Stories

Instagram Stories became the latest social media marketing craze at the end of last year, and they haven’t lost any momentum in 2018. They are a great way of experimenting with your venue’s social media marketing, giving you the ability to create 24-hour content
As well as the ability to create live streamed videos. This is a fun way of increasing the engagement with your venue and if you have your Instagram set up as a business account it also gives you great analytics to measure the results of this content.
Sharing behind the scenes footage of the team at work, exciting projects you are working on at the venue HQ, and footage of events being set up will all help engage Guests and any potential new customers.

A lot of work would have gone into running your fantastic venue, so why not show off? Give Guests a glimpse of all the exciting things that are happening behind the scenes. Be authentic, engaging and on brand with all the videos you post in order to attract new customers.

4. #Hashtags

When it comes to using social media for venue marketing, your use of hashtags is the key to the visibility of your venue-related content. When it comes to social media, the use of #hashtag is can be used to draw attention to a topic, or to promote something.
Hashtags got their start in Twitter as a way of making it easier for people to find, follow, and contribute to a conversation about that topic.

If you want to build venue awareness then using social media correctly is an essential component.
Hashtags, when used right, can help spark up conversations and engage with new potential customers who are interested in your venue as well attracting new followers to your account which will give you overall more brand awareness.  
Do some research into hashtags related to your venue industry. For example, if you are looking to increase the number of B2B event bookings a key one to include in the events industry is #EventProfs which is followed by some real movers and shakers in the field.
Get your venue in front of them and you could be onto a real winner.

5. Influencer Marketing

Before the world of social media, influencers were purely restricted to individuals with movie, TV, or radio access. So the number of people wielding influence was limited. Luckily for you, things have changed thanks to social media channels.
Every person with a social media account holds a portion of influence because every account has an audience. So do your research, find out exactly who your target market is and find those influencers.
The next step is simple, shower them with gifts – whether that’s a free meal, a venue collateral hamper, or an overnight stay. Whatever the gift may be, send this to the influencer of your choice in exchange for them giving you a shoutout on their social channels.
One of the biggest trends we can expect to expand in 2018 is the utilization of influencer marketing. So do your homework and get a solid plan of action.

6. Listen and Respond

Have a Customer Response Strategy – Whether your customers come to shower you with praise or provide some constructive criticism on your social media news feeds, make sure you have considered how and when you will respond.  Ideally, you should respond within the shortest time frame possible. Make sure you thank everyone for their kind or complimentary comments. And always tag their social media handles so they can see you have responded.  
Listen Proactively – Did you know that social media allows people to mention you without necessarily talking directly to you via your social media accounts?
In effect, thousands of public comments could be cropping up online without you ever knowing.
To remedy this situation set up Google Alerts which will instantly track when someone has indirectly mentioned you on social media. 
There you have it. A few top tips on how to leverage the power of social media for venue marketing to promote your venue in the most efficient way.

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