Social Media is such a blessing to the online marketers that could be availed in several ways. You can build relationships, you can reach your target audience much faster, you can expand your reach of audience, promote content, and influence your buyers. All of these could be achieved by social media, only when done right. The point to be considered is how much right that should be so that social media contributes to your business.
In our latest blog, we discussed webinars, and how you can improve your webinars in 5 simple ways. Today we are going to discuss how you can leverage social media for your webinars.
Today, as you see, the world of digital media and Internet has undergone a significant metamorphosis, and each passing day is coming up with various new innovations to contribute to the digital marketing effort of the Internet marketers. Videos have entirely taken over the whole Internet domain, with live streamings being the vital branches of the big digital tree. And digital videos are no more just confined to YouTube. Webinars have emerged as a prominent tool.
A recent report by ClickMeeting, a customized webinar provider, brought out that 554,000 webinars were held in 2016; a 35% increase over 2015. Not just the popularity of the live video did the magic, but also the reuse value of the old videos and recorded versions of the previous webinars. Each of those possesses the potential to drive traffic, acquire emails, drive sales and conversions, etc.
Before hosting the webinar, you must plan it accordingly. And what comes while planning something big online? Of course, that’s none other than social media. Social media has been tremendously effectual for marketing, and it does not cost you much to do social media marketing in a cost-effective way. Before promoting your event, start creating a hype around it. Ask questions, and thoroughly involve in the comments section, answering to every question they have for you. You may also publish blogs that address the problems your audience needs an answer for. You can also include a CTA at the end to guide your audience in signing up for your webinar to know more. The word-of-mouth phenomena in social media is unbelievable. Once a topic reaches Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, that is sure to be famous overnight.
Once the buzz is created and people talk about your upcoming webinar, start publishing social posts on your social media channels, and give more information about your event. Create engaging social media graphics that give out the sneak peeks of your webinar and post them across multiple social media platforms. Use short URLs like Bit.ly to make it easier for your Twitter followers to share the post all over on Twitter. Also, shorter URLs will help you get analytics about the clicks received from each social media channel, and for you to determine which channel worked best. Give unique URLs for each platform you want to promote your webinar on. Though hashtags are not so much popular on Facebook, you can freely utilize hashtags on Twitter. This will boost your chances of visibility.
Your social media graphics must abide by the size dimensions and restrictions of each social media platform, besides being compelling and apt. This size limitation varies across the platforms. Here are a few for your help to avoid size distortion:
- Facebook: 1,200 x 628 pixels
- Instagram: 1,080 x 1,080 pixels
- Twitter: 1,024 x 512 pixels
- LinkedIn: 700 x 400 pixels
You can also check this, this, and this to get a better idea.
Social media ads are not just some mere giveouts of information related to your webinar, but also a potent tool to drive registrations. Structure the ads in such a way that contributes to your promotional effort, and also brings more sign ups. Give the topic of your webinar as the intro text, also show the benefits the attendees will receive, if there would be any guest speaker, the procedure of signing up, etc.
Paid social ads are useful enough to increase the visibility and sign ups. You can target the interested folks based on their location, age, interests, and other options. You can also take help from Facebook by directing your efforts towards the recent visitors of your website, your email list subscribers, or are like-minded people. Short video ads that could be streamed online are also effectual to get you views and sign ups.
Online videos are mostly live-streamed on mobiles than on desktops or laptops. People want to relax on their beds, and couches, and watch their favorite videos. Commuters while traveling to and from office, want to check live video updates. So there’s no more the dependency of laptops or desktop. So as mobile phones/Smartphones have become the primary driving force for the demand for online videos, your webinar must be optimized for mobiles. Approximately 25% of the audience comes from mobile devices. Use large images and avoid small texts.
When structured and promoted with a correct approach, webinars can be immensely useful in bringing in leads, escalate rate of conversations, spread awareness about your brand, and build a strong email list. With the insights shared above, you can now go and create a compelling webinar that will drive you tons of sign-ups and boost your business. Now it’s the time to start leveraging the power of social media to craft a strong and effective, webinar!
