Written by ContentPowered.com
Running an event is hard work. It’s difficult enough to keep details from slipping through the cracks without having to worry about running a Facebook event page and marketing it as well. Thankfully, it’s not all that hard to get a grasp on a Facebook event, get it started, and then integrate it into the rest of your marketing.
Fill Out the Event Profile
When you want to run a Facebook event, the first step is to create an event listing. You can create this through your business page or your personal profile, if you have access to both. It’s a good idea to only create events with your business page when your business has a vested interest in the event. A company barbecue, a company sponsored outing and so forth. By contrast, an event for your daughter’s dance recital should be created by your personal account.
When you create the event, you’ll need to put in the name, tagline, location, start time and end time for the event. You should have all of this information on hand before you create the event. You can then set the event type.
- Open events are visible to anyone and anyone, regardless of their connection to your page, can register.
- Closed events are visible to everyone, but only those users who have been invited by guests can register.
- Secret events are invisible to everyone except those who are invited.
You have a number of other options you can use, including whether or not you want your event to have a wall. You almost always should. Likewise, you should probably allow the posting of photos and videos, so users can participate as much as possible.
Make sure, once you’ve created the event page, that you fill out all of the optional information sections. This includes the event description and uploading an event cover photo.
Invite Friends Selectively
You can only invite up to 100 people to your event at a time. This means you need to be somewhat selective in the people you invite. Don’t scattershot invite everyone on your friends list from the top down; that’s a sure way to clog up your invite list with people who will neither RSVP nor respond. Instead, focus on identifying the people who will be most interested in the event, and inviting them along the way. The more people you get, and the faster you get them, the better off your event will be.
Run Participant Interviews
If your event is the kind of event that has people participating in it – almost every event is – you can gain some additional publicity and goodwill by interviewing the people involved. Start your promotion early and interview a fan or participant every week. If you have a band playing, you might be able to score an interview with members of the band for additional publicity. Interviews can be a great source of emotional connection for your event.
Host Free Giveaways
Everyone likes free stuff. You can give out free stuff to the people who RSVP for your event. For larger events, you probably have merchandise, such as shirts or pins. You can set aside some of that merch as incentives. Each week, pick a random user from your RSVP list and give them one of your pieces of merch. They’ll thank you for it, and they’ll become a walking advertisement for your event when they wear the event item out of context. If you would prefer something a little more hands-on than a random giveaway, you can hold trivia contests, caption contests or any other simple contest you can dream up.
Publish a Compelling Video
Videos can be edited together to make interesting trailers or highlight reels from past events. Want to drum up enthusiasm? Remind people how much fun your event was last year, or last time it happened, however frequently that may be. It’s not always possible, particularly if it’s a new event or an event centered around a sobering cause, but you can do a lot with videos when they’re available.
Show Off Winner Prizes
Is your event the sort of event that has a winner at the end? A tournament, a competition, a race, that sort of event? If so, you have a prize for the winner. Maybe it’s a basic trophy or medal. Maybe it’s a prize product or sponsored package from a partner. Maybe it’s something awesome, like a new car. No matter the prize, show it off! Your users will be enthused to see it visibly, eliminating any doubt that you actually have the prize.
Use Offsite Facebook Connection Plugins
When you’re advertising your event off of Facebook, you’re going to want to integrate it with your social sharing plugins. On any page where you promote the event, use a plugin that links to the event page rather than your business or personal page. You probably want to use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram linking for maximum social effect.
Entice Registrations with Facebook Offers
Facebook Offers is an app that allows you to require a user do something – like RSVP for an event – and give them something in exchange. The most common offer is a simple gift certificate or discount coupon to your store. A limited quantity, limited duration coupon can entice a reasonable number of people to check out your event.
Use Facebook Comments for Extra Word of Mouth
Facebook comments have a number of advantages, and their one primary drawback – the iframe rendering that hides them from Google – can be minimized easily with a little code. A user is given the option of posting their comment to Facebook or not; if they do, you get that much extra publicity from users who comment on your event off-site.
Get Partners to Advertise on Their Facebook Pages
Unless your event is a small, in-company event, you probably have other sponsors and partners in fundraising and running it. Leverage that partnership to get these other partners to publicize your event on their own Facebook pages. You can earn a significant amount of interest and traffic through such posts, and you can double it back by using these partner accounts to link to your blog, where you post about your event and funnel traffic back to your event page itself.
You can also advertise on your personal Facebook page and any other Facebook accounts you operate. Make use of every form of Facebook advertising you can, to spread word around as much as possible.
