8 Genius Ways of Generating Buzz around Upcoming Events | Instagram Edition

Instagram has over 2 billion users, with average engagement rates between 2% and 4% across content forms. Whether you’re hosting a seminar or a corporate event that doubles as a team-building exercise, this visual-first platform will give you access to the features and followers you need to make your event a hit.

Here’s how you can hard-launch your upcoming event on Instagram to build excitement. 

1. Create Engaging Posts

Create entertaining and informative posts around your event, leveraging trends to increase the likelihood of clicks, likes, and shares. Part of the trick in drawing in potential event goers is using high-quality images, videos, and reels with top-tier aesthetic appeal—and the ability to communicate your message to the masses.

Get inspired by these tried-and-true post examples:

• Countdown to create a sense of immediate urgency.
• Introducing hosts and speakers to grow your registrations.
• A look at the many benefits to gain from joining your event.

Don’t know what will fly with your audience? Test it on your Instagram Story—it’ll disappear after 24 hours, leaving you with quality insights to inform future uploads. 

2. Show Your Venue with a Virtual Tour

Did you choose an accessible venue with an incredible ambiance?

Put it on display with an interactive virtual tour that enables the viewer to visualize every corner. Show it being set up for the event, playing around with lighting, camera placement, sound effects, music, and even text to generate excitement and interest. 

3. Use Event-Specific Hashtags

Posts with at least one hashtag bring 12.6% more engagement than those without.

And no, ‘the more the merrier’ does not apply here.

If you use one too many hashtags, it could make your content appear spammy—as if you’re posting for attention. This can harm both performance and reach.

Come up with a customized hashtag to increase awareness about your upcoming event. Do a quick Google search to ensure it’s unique, then post it everywhere: your posts, bio, email signature, and all other marketing materials to make it easy for people to find you. 

4. Collaborate with Influencers

81% of consumers trust influencers, friends, and family members over information that comes directly from the brand. Instead of tooting your own horn, collaborate with influencers that align with your brand voice, values, and mission to pique curiosity.

From posting photos and videos to taking over your brand’s social media accounts for a day (or week), there’s a lot they can do to increase interest and attendance.

Pro tip: Prioritize engagement rate over followers count for higher interactions. 

5. Put Up Flyers

Flyers receive a 3.5% response rate (Pfeiffer Report), an impressive achievement for direct mail marketing. They’re cost-effective, and you can further lighten the load on your marketing budget with upcoming events flyer templates.

You can customize them with your branding (logo, color palette, typography, event-specific graphics, etc.) to aid recall. 

6. Run a Giveaway

People love free things—and an expert marketer uses that information to their advantage by running contests. They help you receive 64x more comments and 3.5x more likes on average than regular posts. Launch a sweepstake to capture leads, offering free tickets and exclusive perks in exchange for likes and comments.

Here are some other great ideas to build anticipation:

• Complimentary ticket awarded to the winner of a photo contest
• Points that can be cashed in for VIP upgrades (reserved for previous attendees) 

7. Spark FOMO with Past Events

Have you organized a similar event in the past?

Share hard-to-resist glimpses of event coordinators in the center of the action, snippets of speakers—ideally, thought leaders in their industry—and candid photos and videos of attendees having the time of their lives during breakout sessions.

Also, share testimonials and user-generated content to maintain the momentum and set the tone of what to expect, encouraging potential attendees to book quickly and avoid missing out. 

8. Drop Some Money on Ads

Create hype for your upcoming event with Instagram Ads, which have an average click-through rate of 1.08%. Once you’ve narrowed down your target audience (custom works like a charm), take the time to familiarize yourself with the advertising options available: carousel, explore, photo, reels, story, and video ads.

You can also take advantage of the marquee ads for limited-time ticket sales.

You can then apply these genius tips to maximize your event’s visibility:

• Post aesthetically pleasing visual content.
• Harness the power of social listening to share the right content.
• Focus on cohesion; every design principle must work harmoniously. 

Take Home Message

Instagram has many event-boosting benefits, but going viral to attract attendees and drive registrations and ticket sales isn’t easy. The strategies we covered can undoubtedly improve your chances of securing a spot on the coveted Explore page.

All-in-one design tools like PosterMyWall can help you cut through the noise with graphics that grab eyeballs while stretching your budget as far as possible.