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How to Use Influencer Marketing to Promote Events

Influencer Marketing

Influencers. The term conjures images of chic people who post perfect selfies (ahem #sponsored), travel the world for free, and stay in world-class resort hotels. As a JOB.

Influencer marketing, as trendy as it may sound, is a serious promotion tool for events. It is gaining ground as the most effective way to reach millennials and gen z, who distrust brands, don’t watch commercials, and are peer-driven.

It might sound expensive and complicated, but micro- and nano-influencers may be willing to promote your show in exchange for free tickets. Giving away a few free tickets for a bump in sales is well worth it.

Do you want awareness, engagement or ticket sales? What audience are you trying to reach? Have a clear vision of your goals before you begin your campaign. Also consider how you will measure those goals.

If you’re having a large event and a big promotion budget, there are agencies and platforms, such as Obviously that can help you select the right people, draw up contracts, and reach out to the chosen ones for a ‘collab,’ i.e. a partnership.

But there’s nothing stopping you from doing the research yourself.

Types of Influencers

Celebrities.You know, famous people. Modern celebrities include YouTube stars and other celebrities who made their fame online (RIP Grumpy Cat). They have the following of a small country, but that hefty following means a a single post could cost thousands.

Industry Experts/Thought Leaders. The ones that know their subject inside and out, who others in the industry turn to when they need advice. A great selection for those having conferences, leadership seminars, retreats.

Microinfluencers. Scrunch.com defines a ‘microinfluencer’ as someone with a following of 2,000 to 50,000.

Over half of US and UK marketers who use influencer marketing are now working with micro-influencers, because they are more cost-effective. Emarketer has more information on how brands are paying influencers.

Nanoinfluencers. If you’re just dipping a toe into influencer marketing, finding a nano-influencer may be where to start. They have as few as 1,000 followers and are more willing to accept free tickets as comps. Look for recent posts, a lot of real engagement on their account, and a line in their bio that says they’re open to collabs.

How to Reach Out to Influencers

Many influencers view their social accounts as artistic means of expression, rather than a stream of product promotion. Try to find ones that match your events’ brand.

Offer an incentive and be direct about expectations. Aim for a professional, long-lasting relationship.

Just No

Hey Influencer, I see you’re into music. Can you mention our Blue Bridge music festival? It’s coming up this September. XO – James

It’s vague, there aren’t any details or incentives, and it assumes that the influencer will post about the event just because you asked.

Better


Hey Sophie, We love the way you cover music and are interested in collaborating. We’re in the process of organizing the Blue Bridge music fest, which will take place September 9-12.

Would you be willing to promote our festival in exchange for free tickets/a sweet hoodie? We’re expecting one post at least a week before the event and one Instagram story from the festival. We would be able to give your followers a special discount code, offering $10 off $100 passes and we would like our collaborators to tag us @BridgeCityMusic and use the hashtag #BlueBridgeRocks

Please get back to us before August 22, if you’d like to work together.

Why this approach works: It’s friendly, specific, and un-bot-like. It offers the influencer free tickets and a coupon code for their followers.

Drawbacks

Influencers don’t always follow through. You get everything set up on your end, the big day comes and they don’t show up for their free tickets. Or worse, they attend your show but never post. This is why some marketing teams use contracts when working with influencers.

You only have so much control of the content. Give the creator space to do what they do. For example, “we’d like one close up of a grilled cheese, on a red plate in front of our food festival sign” is a little too specific. Trust that they know what they’re doing and that they know what their audience will respond well to.

Sometimes those followers are fake. Pixlee has an excellent article on how to spot a fake following.

Need advice on influencer marketing for your next event or some general ideas on where to start? Email our promo team at promo[at]brownpapertickets.com to set up a free consultation.

Event Tips >

To Boost or Not? Beginner’s Guide to Facebook Advertising

When it comes to your events, should you boost a post or set up a Facebook ad campaign?

Either way, in order to get some eyeballs on your event, you’re going to have to shell out some cash. Unless you have a super following of eager fans to like and share, simply posting your event on Facebook won’t do much.

The “free to play” days on Facebook and for that matter, Instagram are long over.

The good news is Facebook and Instagram advertising can be budget-friendly. Even just boosting a post a few days before your sales end can increase the excitement around your event and the ticket sales.

Get Your Facebook Pixel Ready

Before you start your campaign, consider using Facebook pixels to measure your campaign’s effectiveness. You can create a Facebook Pixel in Ads Manager.

Brown Paper Tickets offers the ability to add your Pixel ID with your account or individual events so you can track views and purchases. Here’s our tutorial on setting that up.

First Things First

Set up an event page in Facebook and have all of your friends like it, share it, and hit that sweet, sweet Interested button. You want to do this first, so that you’re not paying for what would be free clicks.

There’s a right way to announce events on social. Read 10 Crucial Steps to Announcing Your Event on Social Media.

Event photography is a worthwhile investment. Snap high-quality images at every event you put on.

First event? Use a photo of your headliner or even snag a stock image off Pexels or another quality stock photo site. Keep in mind that if you’re going to create a graphic, Facebook has rules about how much text can be in an image. You don’t want your ad to get stuck in the “review” process.

Use Facebook’s image overlay tool to make sure you’re within the limits.

Don’t forget to add your Brown Paper Tickets event page as the ticket link and include co-hosts (sponsors or others involved with your event) so that your event populates to their Facebook calendar.

Then you can do two things.

1. Boost the Post

While boosting a post is easier (just click “boost” and the system will walk you through turning your post into an ad), setting up an ad campaign will give you more options.

If this is your first time dabbling in paid digital advertising, we recommend boosting it for a small amount to get comfortable.

You can target your audience based on gender, age, location and interest. Link your Instagram and your Facebook business account so you can manage all of your promotions and placements in one spot.

Target the city that your event takes place and 25 miles out.

Boost it about two weeks before your event to get the most traction. Remember, with Facebook advertising you pay per click, so set up a lifetime budget and keep an eye on it.

Make sure your boosted post is relevant to your audience. Even though you think everyone will want to drive cross-country to attend your bread making class, it’s unlikely—the more people who interact with your ad, the higher your relevancy score will be and the more people will see your event, so targeting is super important.

Don’t waste time, effort, and money trying to reach people far outside your demographic.

2. Create a Facebook Ad Campaign

If you have a lot of events and a bigger budget, an ad campaign may be a better fit. There are better options in terms of audience targeting and you can select an objective. The platform can take some getting used to, so give yourself enough time.

One of the first things you’ll need to think about is your objective.

  • Choose Traffic to drive clicks to your website.
  • Choose Engagement if you just want a lot of social media likes and shares.
  • Choose Conversions to help increase ticket sales

Ad campaigns also allow more formatting and placement options. Show off your creative side with a carousel or video. Add a call to action button to “Learn More” or “Shop Now” and direct people to your Brown Paper Tickets event page to buy tickets.

If you decide to build an ad campaign, there are more also more options when it comes to audiences you can target.

  • Select Custom Audience to connect to people who already have an interest in your website.
  • Choose Lookalike Audience to find new people modeled after the ones who have interacted with your page.
  • Choose Saved Audiences to select from your commonly used audiences based on demographics, interests, and behaviors

Once you have a campaign and an audience, the platform will take you through setting up the ad creative, aka, the fun part. Choose between a carousel, collection, slideshow, or Instant experience. This article helps make sense of all the options.

Not sure how to get started? Just ask and our Promo Team can advise you on your Facebook advertising.

Event Tips >

12 Hottest Event Trends of 2019

event-trends_2019Don’t you love the new year? 2019 will be the year of the pig, the year of living coral, the year of amazing events and big moments.

Kick it off right with our annual trends list.

1. Fika

Hygge made our 2017 event trends list and we’re happy to report the phenomenon of knits, candles, and fireplaces is still going strong. Enter Fika – the art of the Swedish coffee break. Like Hygge, Fika is all about the simple things in life—a cup of joe, good conversation and a pastry to go with it. How will this make it into the events’ world? Fika is the perfect theme for networking events and conferences and sounds a lot cooler than “coffee and pastries.”

2. The Ultimate Experience

According to the CWT Meetings and Events report, “treehouses, rooftops, and even islands will become increasingly popular.” Attendee experience is everything and we’re seeing that reflected in 2019 event trends. Instagram use is on the rise and so are “experience” museums. Like the Museum of Ice Cream, the Rose Mansion and the Museum of Pizza (#MoPi). Because of this new er … culture, expect to see more uses of alternative and unusual venues.

If you have a space that sits empty some of the time, check out our webinar on transforming any space into a working venue.

3. Japan

CWT Meetings and Events also reported that the land of the rising sun will be hot, hot, hot in the coming year. Japan will host the Rugby World Cup in 2019 and the 2020 Olympics. Expect a surge of travel to the country and a lasting influence on event trends.

4. Themed Fitness

Goats and yoga. Beer and barre. Super hero 5ks. We’re seeing fitness events up the creativity with themes, beer, wine and/or animals. If it takes wine and mini-donkeys to get us all off the couch, so be it.

5. Wild Edibles

Mushrooms, truffles, fiddlehead ferns. Our Food and Beverage Coordinator reports that people are increasingly curious to try wild edibles. We will see this event trend appear in restaurants, but perhaps even more so at special dinner events and classes. It’s a re-connection to the natural world one plate at a time.

6. Supper Clubs

Many chefs are turning in their starched chef coats for an apron and forming supper clubs. And it’s not just the pros. Would-be home chefs are also hosting secret dinner parties. This is tied to the eat-at-home trend combined with a desire for slower, more intimate dining experiences. The overall appeal is interaction with the chef and other guests.

7. Dietitian-based Eating

With all of the special diets out there, families are looking for a custom meal plan to get them through the week. Those that seek to increase their productivity, stamina, lose weight, live longer, or just feel better are turning to both nutrition and biochemistry to get that edge. Not only will we see an up-tick in fad diets, dietitians and classes will be huge going into 2019. Specialty products in this arena have already started to creep into stores, and we should expect much more to come.

8. Culinary Cannabis

Cannabis, whether for recreation or medicine, will be on the menu in 2019. Legalization in many states has driven a huge influx of cannabis-based food businesses, including culinary schools. Those in the know have touted the health benefits of ‘sticky icky’ for a long time now, but the benefits are now recognized on a national level. We should see a rapid expansion of pot-based products, services, and events. Look out for tastings, pairings, pop-up dinners, and educational events.

9. Artisan Cooking Classes

We will see a rise in artisan cooking and maker classes focused on things like sourdough bread baking, cheese making, pickling, and curing meats. We aren’t talking about any old bread baking. We are talking about test-kitchen quality recipes taught by renowned artisans. With the increasing interest in eating at home comes the desire to eat well at home. This can be largely attributed to both economics and technology, such as home meal delivery services.

These events are popping up both in restaurant spaces as well as homes. Search for cooking classes near you.

10. Hotel Bars

Our friends at the Seattle Metropolitan spotted this event trend. Hotel bars are old-school glamorous. The martinis. The warm lighting. The mysterious guests: where are they from? Where are they going? Whether it’s a ground-floor bar or a rooftop terrace, hotel bars make a fantastic venue and offer exposure to a new, non-local, typically captive audience. Genius.

11. Video Event Promotion

If you want your event promotion to stand out, you got to have video. And no, shaky smartphone clips just won’t cut it. If you’re not a videographer, programs like Slidely can help you put together fun and interesting promotion videos for social media.

12. Chatbots for Event Organizers

Everyone is talking about voice assistants. Chatbots can help wrangle attendees and also assist planners in their own task management. Which is great because event planner consistently makes Forbes’ list of most stressful jobs. “Alexa, make my life less stressful please.”

That’s it for our event trends 2019. What do you predict as the next big thing in events?

Event Tips >

4 Simple Steps to your Brand’s Success on Instagram

Instagram Iphone It is widely known that Facebook and Twitter are incredibly important aspects of event promotion and brand marketing. Instagram, however, has grown so much in recent years that it is now the third piece – creating a trifecta that cannot be ignored if you want to build a successful brand in the long term. Instagram can feel a bit daunting at first, given that it is a strictly visual platform, but with the right guidance you’ll be an expert in no time.

Create a Separate Business Account

I often hear event promoters mention that they promote their events on their personal account, which is a great way to get the word out to a smaller group of friends and family. In the long run, if you don’t have a separate account for your events (and essentially your brand) you are doing yourself a disservice. A separate business account will showcase your efforts and streamline all of your past, present, and future events. Just be sure to post the event link in your account profile bio. Instagram limits sales capabilities within captions, so the only hyperlink text on accounts can be found within your main bio. When you caption a photo be sure to reference the ticket link and where to find it.

Post Relevant, Quality Images

You want to remember to post images that promote interest and intrigue around your brand and your events. You will want to decide on a theme or angle for your account as a whole for potential followers. The simplest way to go about this is to stick with a particular color scheme, filter, or even a similar angle or point of view.  When you think about certain professional accounts you follow on Instagram, chances are they all use this road map to some degree. Every image has a cohesive feel whether that be with content, color, or image tone. This cohesive nature and quality content plays a large role in gaining followers and continuing the long-term success of the account.

Build a Loyal Following and Hashtag with Precision

It sounds trivial, but the amount of likes and follows your account receives will likely determine how your brand and account is perceived by potential followers. You want your account to shine through and showcase your efforts to pull these followers in to increase your numbers.  Engagement is a crucial component to successful Instagram marketing in order to raise the amount of likes and follows your account receives. “Liking” and commenting admiration or praise on various user’s content (by way of applicable hashtags) will get you noticed by potential followers further.

Before hashtag-ing your content, do some research.  Take time to determine your target demographic and relevant hashtags for your events.  You want to hashtag your images so that they can be easily found on Instagram. All hashtags are grouped so if you tag relevant, popular content your image will get discovered by potential followers. You want your hashtags to get you seen, but you do not want to stray too far from the content.  If you’re hashtagging popular tags, but they are not applicable to your image, your credibility will be lowered. Once an image is located by a potential follower they will typically go to your main account and scroll through your images to decide if you are someone they wish to follow, which is why you want to make your account content memorable.

In addition to researching hashtags you will want to create and promote your own hashtag. By creating and promoting your own hashtag, it allows others to assist with content creation and will give you a chance to locate all fan images from your events. Make it something unique enough to only have images pertaining to your events, and remind followers to utilize the hashtag to continue building hype around your events.

Stay on your Attendee’s Radar

Continue posting content regularly to build your brand and excitement around your events. Posting during hi-traffic times will ensure wider visibility. Typically early morning and weekday evenings works best or maximum reach. Make sure you give your attendees all the information they need to consider purchasing tickets, and always reference that ticket link when appropriate. Feel free to keep your posts fresh by mixing up your captions a bit. Caption some of your posts with questions pertaining to the event, such as, “What song are you looking forward to hearing from the artist?” Or, what aspect they’re most excited for regarding the event. This type of engagement builds loyalty and gets your fans excited and involved with your content.

Keep in mind that this isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. It will take creativity and time to build your content and following. If you do it right and with passion, you will easily be able to build the hype needed to sell out your next event.

For more Instagram tips, check out The Event Organizer’s Guide to Instagram

Event Tips >

10 Crucial Steps to Announcing Your Events on Social Media

Event-Announcement-SocialMediaGot the event launching jitters? Sasha from our promo team gives solid advice on the most effective way to announce an event on social media. This strategy will help you get all those likes, shares, “going” and “interested” pouring in.

Use steps 1-5, before announcement and steps 6-10 at announcement.

1. Choose an ideal date and time to announce your event

Timing is crucial to ensure as many people as possible see your event. If you make your announcement at an hour when folks are likely asleep, at work or otherwise occupied, the announcement could flop.

The best time to announce an event on social media is generally in the morning around 11AM (in your event’s timezone), so that it will be up and visible when most people check their Facebook at lunch.  The day you choose is important as well. Monday through Thursday is ideal, as people tend to have more unpredictable schedule on weekends and may miss the announcement.

Be attentive to other factors: it is ill-advised to announce on a date when there is an event that is similar to yours, or if there is big news that day, e.g. World Series Game, eclipse, UFO sighting, you get the idea.

2. Create a Brown Paper Tickets event page

You will want to have your Brown Paper Tickets ticketing page up and ready to go so that people can purchase tickets when they know about the event. Our system makes it easy to schedule the date when your sales begin, so you can create the event ahead of time, and have sales go live automatically when you announce your event.

3. Create your flyer image, Facebook Banner image and IG Square image

Compelling visual images are essential for effective event promotion. Your flyer design is more than the who/what/when/where/why; it’s the face of your event, so you want to make sure it looks good wherever you post it.  The key is properly sized flyer images.

Create or ask your designer to create three versions of your flyer image, since they may need to adjust the layout for each one.  If three separate designs are a bit too much, it’s still advisable to create some version of your flyer that will fit each of these sizes with all text visible.

A banner image:

Size: 1920 x 1080

Uses: Facebook Business page banner image, Facebook personal page banner image, Twitter header

A square image:

Size: 1000 x 1000

Uses: Instagram posts, Facebook profile pictures, Facebook posts, Twitter profile photos, general social media sharing

A flyer/poster sized image for printing:

Size: 1650 x 2550px (11 x 17 inches)

Uses: Printing handbills and posters, general posting.

While the standard size for printing flyers is 5.5 x 2.125in (a quarter of a standard 8.5 x 11in sheet of paper), the size listed above is big enough that it can be printed onto a poster or a flyer.  However, because of the size of the image, the image will have a large file size. You may consider asking your designer to create a smaller version for social media posting.

4. Draft your announcement post for social media

Before you launch your event, write out the text you will post when you announce your event on social media.  This post should be clear, concise and engaging, and contain basic details to stir up excitement.

There are a few ways you can go with this announcement. There’s the basic: “We are proud to present a night of roots reggae one night only at the Crocodile.” And the involved and unique: “Some try to avoid hordes of the undead on their weekend, we say Bring it On! Three screenings of Dawn Of The Dead, this weekend only at the Balboa Theater.”

Your goal is to get people to like, comment, or share the post, so make sure the content draws people in while staying on-brand.

Be brief. While you want to provide the important details, you don’t want the post to end up too long. Aim to strike a balance between informative and concise.

5. Make sure everyone on your team is ready to announce

Event-SocialMediaThe whole point of a good announcement is to make a splash, and the best way to do this is by having as many people as possible posting simultaneously about your event to get the word out.

Make sure anyone helping you with your event or willing volunteers (coworkers, friends, family) are available, at their computers, are given specific instructions to post about the event and send Facebook invitations to their friends. This team who agrees to help you ahead of time are your primary promoters. As you’ll see, a number of the following steps require you to communicate and work directly with them to maximize your announcement’s impact.

6. Create Facebook event page

Learn how to create Facebook event pages with these easy instructions.

Some notes about adding details to your event:

Host: This field allows you to specify your event’s host.  If you have a Facebook business page, you will be able to select either your business page or your personal page.  You can always add other people as hosts later. Depending on your settings, hosts have the ability to edit the event, or to add other hosts.

Event Photo: Use this field to upload your event’s banner image.  The image will appear at the top of your event page.  If you don’t have a flyer, consider using an image related to your event, a photo from a past event or a stock photo of relevant subject matter. As mentioned in Step 3, however, having a properly sized flyer image greatly improves the look of your event page, catches people’s attention, and provides all the necessary information about your event in one place.

Event Name: Enter a short, clear name for your event.  Your event title may not be in all caps, and cannot contain excessive amounts of symbols.  It also helps to make your event title easily searchable so that people can locate your event easily. “The Beatles Live at the Showbox” is a good title, “***BEATLES LIVE SEATTLE ((@ SHOWBOX))!!!!” is not.

Location: Enter the exact location of your event.  Many venues will already have their information stored on Facebook, and will appear in the drop down menu as you type in the venue name.  If you see your venue appear in this menu, select it.

Tags: Type in tags for your event and select the results from the drop down menu.  These are based on things that people have selected as interested or “liked” on Facebook.  These tags can be specific or more general, but should always be relevant to your event. Examples: theater, wrestling, Seattle techno, hiking live music.

Ticket URL: Enter the URL for your Brown Paper Tickets ticket sales page.  This will provide an easy and direct link for people to purchase tickets to your event, and will appear near the top of your event page.

Co-hosts: If you would like to give anyone else access to edit your event page, enter their names here.  If you would like to add another business page as a host, first add the individual who is the admin for the business page, and then they will be able to add the business page itself.

7. Send as many Facebook invitations as possible, and have your friends do the same

Once your Facebook event page is created, invite your primary promoters to attend.  They will receive a notification on Facebook that they have been invited to the event, and this will signal to them that it is up and ready to be promoted.  Once you and your primary promoters have clicked “going” on the event, each of you should send as many invitations as you can to anyone on your friends’ list who might be interested.

This may be the most important step in the announcement process as it provides an initial promo blast across your networks as well as your friends’ and coworkers’ networks. Think of it this way: if you and 4 other people each invite 500 friends, you’ve just advertised to 500 people instantly, without spending a penny.

8. Make your announcement posts

Once you and your primary promoters have sent invitations on Facebook, it is time to post the pre-written announcement you drafted in step four.

Facebook uses a number of algorithms to determine how many people see posts that you make.  To make sure your post gets as much visibility as possible, keep in mind that the following post types get the best visibility:

  • Short (90-140 character) text posts
  • Posts with images, the less text on the image, the better
  • Posts that do not explicitly mention the fact that they are promoting an event and avoid using certain key words such as “event,” “buy tickets” or other terminology that clearly indicates your post is (essentially) an advertisement.
  • Posts that do not contain direct links to Facebook event pages or Brown Paper Tickets ticketing pages.

What exactly should you post?

Your square flyer image or a visually engaging photo of your performers (or press shots if available,) accompanied by your announcement text that you prepared earlier. Make this post from both your Facebook business page and your personal page.

How do you direct people to buy tickets if you can’t link them to the ticketing page in your post?

Put the link to your ticketing page or Facebook event in the comments of your own post, after the post has been up for a few minutes.

Facebook uses automated systems to detect when people are promoting their events, and if you’re not paying for advertising, Facebook will make sure your post goes to the bottom of your friends’ feeds.  Posts with just pictures or text tend to get more “likes” and comments, and are thus seen by more people.  You can use this to your advantage; make a post that doesn’t contain an event link–at first. Then add the link in the comments once the post starts to gain visibility.

Additionally, post a link to your Brown Paper Tickets ticketing page in the “Discussion” section of your Facebook Event Page, and pin the post (here are instructions).

9. Change your Facebook profile/Business page banner image, and encourage your friends to do the same

By changing the banner image on your page and on your profile, you are effectively getting an extra promo boost every time someone visits your page.  If you encourage your primary promoters to change their banner images as well, it will increase the number of people who see your flyer image across your promoters’ networks.

10. Make a follow up announcement for anyone who missed the boat

Once your Facebook announcement is done, you’ll want to make sure you follow up later in the evening with an additional post so that anyone who was busy or away from during your earlier announcement gets caught up.  The ideal time to make this post depends on your audience, but 6-9PM is usually a safe bet as a lot of people are home.

Announce on your other networks

Have a Twitter account?  Tweet out your square flyer image and a short announcement about your event.  Be sure to tag your artists or performers in the Tweet if they are on Twitter, and create a Bitly link to direct people to your Brown Paper Tickets ticketing page.

Read more on effective Twitter hashtagging.

To create a short link, use Bitly.

Got an Instagram?  Post your square flyer image there too, as well as a selection of hashtags relevant to your event.  Since Instagram doesn’t let you put hyperlinks in posts, put the link to your Brown Paper Tickets ticketing page in your Instagram Bio, and include a note in your post saying “Ticket link in bio.”

For more information on Instagram’s “Link in bio” and why it’s great, check out this article.

Don’t forget to cross promote across all your social media channels.  Occasionally post a link to your Facebook event page on Twitter, or a link to your Instagram on Facebook.  Sending traffic between your social media feeds will help boost your followers across all platforms.

Now that you’ve completed these 10 steps, you’re done for the day. From preparation to announcement to the follow up, by carefully planning your announcement you should see a solid response from your social media network.  Don’t forget, however, that promoting events is all about the long game. A strong announcement is important, but consistently posting about and promoting your event between now and the event date is just as important.  Make sure that the event doesn’t fade from your network’s memories—build hype as it gets closer and closer.

Interested in learning more about announcing and promoting your event?  Contact the Brown Paper Tickets promo department.

Event Tips >

How to Use Instagram for Business

ES_InstagramInstagram first exploded onto the digital scene as an iOS-only mobile app. Now it’s a massive social network with a web presence. Averaging 150 million active users, and more than 75 million daily users, it’s no surprise that organizations are searching for ways to implement strategic Instagram campaigns. As a brand, your efforts on Instagram, or any social media platform, should be tailored to your specific goals and audiences. We’ve gathered a few of our favorite tips to make sure your presence on Instagram is worthwhile and helps you sell more tickets.

Create A Unique Visual Experience
Instagram has the potential to take bland mobile photographs and transform them into beautiful art. Lighting, angles and filters are all things to account for as you snap your photographs. Natural lighting works well. Think about which filters would look best in which environments and pay attention to creative ways to showcase products and services. See tips on how to master the art of phone photography.

When To Post
It’s always tricky to test out what time to post your content. Luckily, tons of people have researched when people are most likely to engage with brands. According to TrackMaven, most successful brands on Instagram post their content on Thursdays. Because the application is inherently accessible 24/7, though, the most likely that a user will engage with you and your photo/video is Sunday. The time of day depends on your audience.

Tip: Limit your visual content to 1 or 2 posts a week. If you want to document an event with several images, live tweeting is a more effective method for not bombarding user timelines and being able to have a 2-way stream of communication. If your account has 200 photographs and 10 followers, rethink your frequency and photo content.

Hashtags Are Your Friend
While there is much debate on the use of hashtags for Facebook , the use of purposeful hashtags increases your engagement significantly. While there is no golden number, data shows that accounts with more than 1,000 followers received an average of 21.21 interactions per post while accounts with less than 1,000 followers who included 11 hashtags with their post received an average of 77.61 interactions (according to BufferApp). We don’t encouraging going on a hashtag binge. Use a few targeted, relevant hashtags to boost discoverability and engagement.

Capitalize On Your Current Following
Cultivating an organic, bot-free following can be tough, but doable. Facebook is one of the oldest social media platforms and likely where brands have their most loyal following. Instagram and Facebook are seamlessly integrated social media sites. Connect your accounts and share content across both platforms. Hashtags will transfer over to enhance your visibility on Facebook’s graphic search and fans that engage with you on Facebook will be alerted of your account and activity on Instagram.

Tip: Hosting photo contests on Instagram through Facebook has proved successful for many organizations. You can organize submissions through custom hashtags. Facebook has strict rules on hosting contests on their platform. Directing the interactions to Instagram through Facebook is an easy work-around.

The world is your visual oyster. We know you’ll be able to take the world by storm through Instagram. You can reference our simple Instagram Guide here for extra help. If you have any questions or concerns about getting started always feel free to shoot us an email at Promo@BrownPaperTickets.com or call (800) 838-3006 ext. 5.

Event Tips >