Why should event professionals and marketers care about YouTube? The simple answer: reach!

YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world, processing 3 billion searches every month. The global video-sharing network is also the 2nd largest social network with 1 billion users, second only to Facebook!

And since YouTube is owned by the largest search engine (Google), YouTube videos get extra love in the search engine giant’s rankings, which means (you guessed it) even greater reach.

Big conferences, tradeshows, and festivals around the world recognise the power of YouTube for event promotion and marketing – and they’re doing a fine job of tapping into the video-sharing site’s potential.

If those figures got you excited, then this post will show you how to establish your presence on YouTube and use the world’s number one video-sharing site to build buzz, engagement, and attendance for your events.

What are YouTube viewers watching?

Here’s a hard truth: users don’t go to YouTube to learn about your tradeshow or conference. They don’t log in to the video site to hear your pitch or get bombarded by promotions. So steer clear from overly promotional content, as they will not succeed on YouTube.

Instead, you want to post videos that elicit an emotional response, as they are the most effective. It’s the reason why inspirational videos (and cute cats) are extremely popular online. What kind of emotions? Well it’s been found that positive emotions, such as happiness and humour, will generally drive more views and sharing.

Think back to your event: what parts of your festival or show can elicit a positive emotional response? Once you’ve found those golden nuggets, you want to get them on video.

However emotional videos aren’t your only route to success. YouTube has another core group of viewers – those who are looking for educational content.

Again, you want to think back to your event and find out what attendees want to learn from it. If you can wrap that educational content in a video tutorial (without giving away the farm of course), you’re on the right track.

With those basics covered off, let’s look at some YouTube promotion and marketing ideas that will work before, during, and after your event.

Before The Event

“I must go to this event!” That is the response you want to get from YouTube users during your pre-event marketing efforts.

You want to compile videos, photos, quotes, and other pieces of content from the previous event, which you can edit and turn to a highlight reel – one that gives your audience a clear idea of what to expect from your next event.

Offering a video tour is always a good idea. You can give your target audience a tour around the venue while your team is at work – and why not interview your staff while you’re at it?

Give potential attendees a sneak peek into this year’s speaker sessions, workshops, and topics for discussion. Or for a festival, gather interviews and behind the scenes footage of your artists so you give away a taster of what fans can expect.

You also want to collaborate with your sponsors and partners in creating video content for your YouTube channel.

Publicity and exposure are the primary reasons why they’ve decided to get involved with your event in the first place – and they’ll generally be more than happy to leverage their association with your conference, exhibition or festival by co-creating videos with you.

During The Event

With your show now taking place, it might be too late to accept new sign-ups or attendees. However, your job isn’t over yet. You still want to make the affair as exciting as possible for those who’re tuning in. This is your chance to create a sense of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) amongst those who didn’t register, so they’re more likely to buy a ticket to your next event.

Live streaming is one of the best ways to get onlookers as close to your event as possible.

And here’s the good news: YouTube offers a solid live streaming service and it works great whatever your budget. We take a look at YouTube live streaming in the Complete Guide to Video Marketing which you can download to the right.

And last but definitely not least, keep those attendee interviews coming! Nothing is more convincing than a testimonial from someone who was at the event.

After The Event

Once the show’s over it’s easy to relax and congratulate yourself and the team for a job well done. However, it’s never too soon to promote your next event! So instead of leaving the momentum to die, take advantage of your most recent event’s freshness by sharing more content on YouTube.

Why not create a video montage? Collect the video nuggets from your brand as well as videos shared by attendees. Compiling these into one crowdsourced video will showcase your event from different angles and perspectives.

Perhaps you can publish a time-lapse video that shows the waves of people coming and going to your main stage, or a Top 20 take-aways from your conference, where 20 delegates (or all your speakers), each provide a 10-second clip on their most valuable learning.

Publishing highlights from speakers, exhibitors, and sponsors can also extend the buzz generated by your event as it’s also very likely that they’ll share the videos on their social network, which means more views and engagement for your videos!

In summary

YouTube has a huge potential for both consumer and business events, with a massive reach and very engaged audience. However you have to earn their attention by creating emotional or educational videos they want to watch and share with their friends and colleagues.

If you get it right though, you can build a really valuable (and loyal) audience that helps drive more tickets sales for all your future events.

For even more in-depth tips on how to use video for increasing attendance at your events, check out our complete guide to video marketing for events. In it you’ll learn:

  • Practical, step-by-step advice on using YouTube and Instagram to reach your audience with event videos
  • Tons of best practice examples from events already doing a good job of using videos
  • How to turn the attention you get from video into ticket sales and increased revenues