Facebook is one of the most popular places to be online, which makes it an ideal location to promote your company's events. However, Facebook doesn't always work in favor of event organizers or marketers. Luckily, there are a few marketing strategies that can help increase exposure and generate buzz around your event, which will ultimately result in a better turnout. Here we explore what Facebook event promotions are and how to effectively promote an event using this social media platform.
What Are Facebook Event Promotions and Why Do They Matter?
Facebook event promotion is a feature on Facebook that enables people, brands, and companies to promote their events using this social media platform. There are several reasons why a business may use Facebook event promotions, including to increase foot traffic to the business, to keep customers up-to-date on the company's latest promotions and events, and to increase awareness of the brand.
With more than 700 million people using Facebook events to find and market events on a monthly basis, this platform is one of the leading sources for setting up and advertising a business event. What's more, 35 million Facebook users view at least one event page on Facebook each day. This means that Facebook provides an ideal opportunity for companies of all types to market their events to an active and eager audience.
7 Strategies for Facebook Event Promotions
The following are proven strategies you can use to increase the effectiveness of your Facebook event promotions for the best results possible:
1. Make Your Facebook Event Page Exciting
Your Facebook events page is essentially the face of the event you are promoting. The page should be as optimized and exciting as possible to draw people in and keep them interested once they get to your events page.
Ways to optimize your events page on Facebook include:
- Choose an eye-catching cover photo that's as close to 1920 x 1080 pixels as possible.
- Use an event name that is short and easy to remember. The longer the name of your event, the more likely your event is to perform poorly, as many Facebook users use the site from their mobile phone and will disregard long or confusing promotions.
- Choose the right event category to ensure that Facebook promotes your event to the most promising users. Popular categories are meet-ups, festivals, and conferences.
- Include relevant information including the specific date, time, and location of your event. This allows Facebook to promote your event to people nearby and gives users the chance to easily get details and directions.
- Add tags that people may use to search for events like yours, such as "boutique clothing" or "technology."
2. Promote the Event with Your Company Page
Facebook event promotions pages are only relevant before and during an event occurs. However, your company page is static and likely already has an established audience of people who are interested in your services or products. Promoting your events on your company page can help further spread awareness of the event and keep your current customers up-to-date on upcoming events they can look forward to.
3. Cross-Promote Your Event With a Co-host
Working with other promoters on Facebook can also increase awareness around your event. Choose one or a few people or companies to act as a co-host for your event and have them add your event to their Pages calendars so their followers see your event. After a few people sign up as attendees, your event will begin to be seen organically by others.
4. Share Pre-Event Content
Share content leading up to your event to excite your current attendees and encourage them to share the content with others. This can help generate buzz and draw interest from Facebook users who may not have known about your company. One great form of content to use is Facebook Live Video. You can create a live stream or sneak peeks of what your audience can expect from your upcoming event to get them excited.
5. Use Facebook Ads
Facebook offers several advertising options for business pages that include ads that collect responses, ads that drive registration for events, and ads that target previous visitors to your page. Using Facebook ads can help you target a specific and larger audience for your event for optimal results.
6. Boost Your Event Page
Once you've created an event page, you can boost it as an ad. This helps to get more responses as well as increases awareness around your event. To boost your event, click on the "boost Event" button on your event page. Then, select "Reach More People." You can now select your target audience based on a number of factors. Choose your schedule and budget and then select "Boost."
7. Run a Retargeting Campaign
Retargeting campaigns can help re-interest your audience in an event. To run a retargeting campaign, go to your Facebook Ads Manager page and choose "Audiences." Select "Create Audience" and then "Custom Audiences." You can then choose to have the campaign reach people who have previously visited your page. You can also set up the campaign to target people who have visited your website in the recent past. Once you've set up the campaign, Facebook will promote your event to those who are already familiar with your company to pique their interest and potentially increase event buzz and attendance.
Having a good Facebook event promotion strategy in place maximizes the reach of your marketing efforts. This can ultimately result in a better turnout for your event as well as increased exposure of your company or brand.
