Social media is a convenient tool for weddings. You can reach guests, find inspiring details, and hire vendors, but it’s also easier to spend too much, embarrass yourself, and offend your friends. Striking a balance between convenience and prudence is simpler than you may think. It’s achievable once you better understand your social media options and learn a few smart practices.
Which Platforms Have the Biggest Impacts?
Event management software provider Gather names Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook as three major influencing platforms. These three platforms, especially Instagram, are prime sharing spots for both wedding vendors and engaged couples. Both offer endless collections of ideas and visual inspiration ripe for the picking.
Facebook’s Events feature allows users to create pages for parties, invite their friends, share information and keep tabs on invitation responses. However, the 15-year-old network faces increasing scrutiny on issues ranging from censorship and truth in political advertising to racism and transphobia. Marketplace reveals that 61% of Americans are still on Facebook, but it may not reach your nearest and dearest when you’re planning your event.
The Right Tools for the Job
Getting the most from social media requires making good choices. Wedding Wire’s Kim Forrest discusses picking platforms that best meet your needs. When sharing the deets with your crowd, limit yourself to only one app and select the one that most of your social circle uses. You can still use Pinterest for planning, but create secret boards for storing your ideas. Don’t forget that you can invite people to see your secret boards, so you could grant access and share pins only with your close family, vendors, and wedding party.
If you have a wedding website, it probably provides event management tools for the big day. Those needing this functionality for pre-wedding parties still have plenty of options. Tech writer Katharine Schwab mentions Flyer, a new service from Paperless Post that allows you to share invitations, track responses, and follow up with guests. Flyer also lets you share links to your invites directly through social media, text messaging, or other messenger apps.
Wedding Hashtag Tips
No doubt you’ve seen plenty of talk about wedding hashtags, which allow your friends and family to exclusively track and view your content. New York Times writer Daniel Bortz comments that some couples hire professional hashtag writers, but you can use a few ideas to devise a memorable one:
- Creative rhymes or puns
- Combining your names
- Alliteration
- Including your wedding location
Shorter is better when it comes to hashtags, so try to keep yours under 16 characters. Also, make sure yours isn’t already in use. If #SmithAndJones is already taken, for instance, you could try #SmithAndJones2020 or #JohnAndMartin2020.
Social Media Traps To Avoid
While technology has streamlined wedding planning, it also poses its own set of pitfalls. First, Martha Stewart Weddings’ Yelena Moroz Alpert warns against oversharing. Save some suspense for the big day and resist the temptation to post about every single detail. Speaking of sharing, The Knot’s Ivy Jacobson stresses the importance of breaking engagement news to your family before announcing it online. Asking controversial wedding questions on social media will only cause drama you don’t want. Finally, recruit helpers to handle incoming text messages and social media posting. You deserve to enjoy your big day.
Smart Social Media Strategies
Every platform offers useful features for wedding planning. The key is learning how to leverage them wisely. Start with selecting apps and tools that meet your needs for communication, organizing, and sharing. A well-crafted wedding hashtag allows your friends and family to keep tabs on your journey. Sharing the details can be fun, but you must also be judicious about what you post online. Following these tips can make your wedding social media experience fun, useful, and rewarding.
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