How to Promote a Virtual Event on Social Media

Launching a virtual event is one thing, but getting people to actually show up is a whole different challenge. Your social media feeds are the front lines of promotion, where hype is built, tickets are sold, and a community forms long before the first speaker ever takes the virtual stage. This guide will walk you through a complete social media playbook, broken down into what to do before, during, and after your event to get maximum attention and deliver an unforgettable experience.

Before the Event: Building Hype and Driving Registrations

The pre-event phase is where the magic happens. This is your chance to build momentum from a faint whisper to a roaring crowd. Your goal here isn't just to announce the event but to make people feel like they’ll be missing out on something big if they don't attend. Neglecting this stage is the number one reason virtual events fall flat.

Step 1: Define Your Audience and Find Them Online

Before you post anything, you need to know exactly who you're talking to. Don't waste energy trying to be everywhere at once. A B2B tech summit will find its home on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter), while a watercolor workshop for creatives will thrive on Instagram and Pinterest. Ask yourself:

• Who is my ideal attendee? Get specific. What’s their job title? What are their pain points? What social platforms do they use to learn and connect professionally?
• Where do they hang out online? Your audience’s "digital watering hole" is where you need to focus your efforts. Running a developer conference? They're probably in specific subreddits, Discord servers, and technical forums. That’s just as important as the big social platforms.

Once you know who you’re talking to and where they are, you can tailor your content and your messaging to resonate with them directly. Generic promotion is forgettable promotion.

Step 2: Create a Striking and Consistent Visual Identity

In a scrolling world, visual consistency makes you immediately recognizable. Your event needs a brand identity that’s strong, professional, and consistent across every single social media post. This includes:

• A Main Event Graphic: One key image that communicates the event's name, date, and core value proposition. This is your foundation.
• Branded Templates: Create professional-looking templates for speaker announcements, session highlights, quote cards, and countdown graphics. Services like Canva make this incredibly easy, even without a design background.
• Uniform Color Palette and Fonts: Use the same 2-3 colors and fonts in every graphic. This subtle consistency ties everything together and makes your campaign look intentional and high-quality.

People should be able to see one of your posts in their feed and instantly know it’s for your event without even reading the caption.

Step 3: "Tease" Your Event, Don't Just Announce It

A single "Registration is open!" post is not a strategy - it's a hope. Instead, build suspense and intrigue over several weeks with a coordinated drip campaign of content. Think of it like a movie trailer that gives you just enough to want to buy a ticket.

• Speaker Reveals: The most valuable asset you have is your speakers. Dedicate an entire post to each one. Share their headshot, a compelling bio focused on what they'll teach, and tag them directly. This turns a single announcement into a multi-week campaign.
• Session Deep Dives: Don't just list the session titles. Create a post specifically about the problem a session solves. For example, instead of "Session on SEO," try "Join Jane Doe to learn the three-step framework that took her client's organic traffic from 1k to 50k in six months."
• Behind-the-Scenes Content: People connect with people. Use Instagram Stories, Reels, and TikTok to show the real work happening behind the curtain. Share a video of your team scrambling to fix a tech issue, laughing during a planning call, or unboxing swag. It humanizes the event and makes your audience feel involved.

Step 4: Leverage Your Speakers and Community as Amplifiers

Your speakers, sponsors, and early registrants are your secret marketing army. You just need to make it incredibly easy for them to spread the word.

• Create a Speaker Kit: Don't just ask your speakers to promote the event - give them the tools. A great speaker kit includes pre-written posts for all major social platforms, custom graphics featuring their headshot and session title, the official event hashtag, and a direct link to the registration page. The easier you make it, the more likely they are to share.
• Start a Branded Hashtag: Create a unique, memorable hashtag for your event (e.g., #VirtualMarketingSummit2024) and use it on every post. Encourage everyone involved to use it too. This creates a central hub where you can track all event-related conversations.
• Incentivize Sharing: Run a contest rewarding people for sharing that they've registered. You could offer a giveaway for a free VIP upgrade, a gift card, or a one-on-one session with a speaker. This encourages user-generated content (UGC) and lets your attendees do the marketing for you.

Step 5: Master the Platforms’ Native Features and Paid Ads

Organic promotion is the foundation, but using platforms' specific tools - and a small ad budget - can significantly boost your reach.

• Countdown Timers: The countdown sticker on Instagram Stories is a powerful tool for creating urgency. Use it in the last 72 hours before registration closes or the event begins.
• Facebook &, LinkedIn Events: Create an official Event page on these platforms. It acts as a mini-hub with all the details, allows you to invite people directly, and notifies them when the event is about to start.
• Run Targeted Ads: Paid ads allow you to cut through the noise and get in front of your ideal attendee. Start by retargeting people who visited your event registration page but didn't sign up. Then, create a Lookalike Audience based on your email list or past ticket buyers to find new people with similar interests.

During the Event: Sustaining Energy and Sparking Conversations

The event has started, but your social media work isn't over. Your goal now is to serve two audiences: the people attending the event, fostering a sense of community for them, and the people *not* attending, showing them what they’re missing (hello, FOMO!).

Live-Tweet Key Takeaways

Even if people aren't at your event, you can provide them with immediate value by sharing nuggets of wisdom. As speakers present, share powerful quotes, insightful statistics, and actionable tips. Always tag the speaker and use the event hashtag. This turns your social feed into a valuable resource and keeps your event’s name at the top of people’s timelines.

Go Live Strategically

You don't want to give away the farm by streaming the entire event for free. Instead, use short live-streaming opportunities to create a sense of immediacy and exclusivity. A few ideas:

• Go live on Instagram for a 10-minute "Ask Me Anything" session with a speaker during a scheduled break.
• Stream the first five minutes of your keynote on LinkedIn to pull people in.
• Post quick behind-the-scenes Stories showing your team managing the stream.

Become a Community Engagement Powerhouse

This is your most important job during the event. Monitor your event hashtag obsessively. When an attendee shares a photo of their setup, a screenshot of a slide, or their biggest takeaway, respond immediately. Thank them, reshare their post (on Stories or as a quote-tweet), and like their content.

This validation means the world to an attendee. It makes them feel seen and encourages others to start posting too. Every attendee who shares is creating social proof on your behalf - your job is to amplify it.

After the Event: Keeping the Momentum Alive

When the last session ends, the conversation is just getting started. Don't go dark. A smart post-event strategy turns attendees into lifelong fans and provides you with powerful marketing material for your next event.

Share a "That's a Wrap!" Highlight Reel

Within 48 hours of your event ending, post a high-energy recap video. It doesn’t have to be long - 30 to 60 seconds is perfect for Reels, Shorts, and TikTok. Combine epic screenshots of your speakers, the best quotes, and clips of attendee chat reactions. Set it to some upbeat music. This video serves a dual purpose: it’s a feel-good piece of nostalgia for those who attended and a potent piece of FOMO-inducing marketing for those who didn't.

Collect Testimonials and Social Proof

Scroll through your event hashtag to find positive posts from attendees. Reach out via DM and ask for permission to use their words as an official testimonial on your website or in future promotions. You can also post a final "Thank You" graphic and ask people to share their single biggest takeaway in the comments. These soundbites are social proof gold.

Promote the Next Step

Every event should end with a clear path forward. What do you want your audience to do next? Share session recordings? Announce the dates for next year's event and open a waitlist? Invite them to a private Slack or Discord community to continue the conversation? Give your excited and engaged audience a clear next step so you don’t lose the momentum you’ve worked so hard to build.

Final Thoughts

Promoting a virtual event is a marathon, not a sprint. A successful social media campaign requires thoughtful strategy before, during, and after your event to build real buzz, drive engagement, and turn attendees into vocal advocates. It’s about building a community, not just broadcasting an announcement.

Pulling off a multi-phase promotional plan with dozens of pieces of content - from speaker reveals to highlight Reels - can feel overwhelming without the right support. When we built Postbase, we were reacting to years of wrestling with unreliable tools that made planning big campaigns more difficult. Having a visual calendar to lay out your entire pre-event, during-event, and post-event schedule is a game-changer, and our rock-solid video scheduler ensures your all-important recap Reels and session clips publish without a hitch.