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Uxutvi Kapdee

My name is Uxutvi Kapdee and I started my internship at Creative òòò½ÎÑÊÓƵ after graduating from my MA in Creative and Cultural Industries at The University of òòò½ÎÑÊÓƵ. During that time, I also completed a placement with Creative òòò½ÎÑÊÓƵ, through which I realised that this would be a good place to learn and grow early in my career. The Graduate Internship through  scheme has taught me a variety of skills, from events to marketing, admin to finance.

Social media marketing is at the forefront of all event and communications teams, including Creative òòò½ÎÑÊÓƵ’s. Through my placement and then internship here, I’ve had the opportunity to action campaigns and comms plans on multiple social channels, and through this, there are a few things I’ve learnt, which I will examine in this article.

Platform-specific audience targeting

Successful social media marketing happens where your target audience is the strongest, so it’s important to understand what each social media platform can do for you. Each platform attracts a different audience: is our most popular all around but especially with the Creativity and Innovation theme, seems to work really well for our Creativity, Health and Wellbeing theme, is aimed at a general audience and great for video content (though posts on the Creativity and Civic Futures theme do better on this platform, partly because of our active partner accounts). We are still building our account since we moved to the platform earlier this year.

By recognising these traits, we’re able to customise our communications plans for events; if the event is in Creativity, Health and Wellbeing we might focus more on Facebook output, with paid ads; if it’s a large event, we post more frequently on LinkedIn to reach our large audience there; each event is thought about more individually to maximise our possible event reach.

Anticipation and community through events

Marketing for events is more than just posting the event location and date. For audiences to be interested in the event, they also need to know why this event takes place, what this specific event is going to offer them? Our content strategy revolves around three phases: building anticipation for upcoming events, sharing relevant research, and creating meaningful retrospectives.

All our event posts have Business As Usual (BAU) posts which detail the event name, location and time, but there are also ‘Deep-Dive’ posts. These are posts that go further into the speakers, the theme or the research behind the event. They aren’t necessary for every event, but these posts create more interest and attract potential attendees who may not have felt addressed the business-as-usual announcements. And whilst we don’t create written or visual look-backs for every event, when we do put out post-event communications, they are well received, especially on Instagram.

Visual consistency

Most social media is image-led, so our graphics need to do three things: deliver the important details of the event, stay consistent and on brand for the platform and for the University, and also be visually appealing.

We have approved colour palettes and fonts that keep our brand image consistent, and professional, and we find images that relate to the event but are striking and appealing. And for events that are within a series or collection, we keep collateral visually consistent so they are easily identifiable. Strong brand image is essential for audiences to recognise the platform at a glance and be memorable.

Looking forward

Whilst this isn’t all I’ve learnt, I would say these three strategies have really shaped how I think about social media marketing. Success is found through consistency and constant evaluation, focusing on what works and what could be better.

As I move forward in my career, I'll carry these insights with me, knowing that effective social media marketing is about understanding your audience, creating valuable event experiences, and maintaining the right balance between promotion and genuine value.