Are you taking advantage of Facebook to spread the word out about your events?  In this article you’ll find out how to effectively promote your event on Facebook to improve attendance and deliver maximum ROI to your organization.

Tip 1: Create a Facebook Event

According to a survey conducted by StubHub, 62% of consumers discover an event through Facebook, which exceeds any other social platform.  To effectively promote your event on Facebook, creating an event page is key. This may seem like common sense, yet a lot of marketers don’t do it.

 There are a few great attributes that come along with creating an event page. First, you are able to invite all your fans and friends. If they register for you event, they are then able to invite their friends; which you should encourage them to do. As the date gets closer, Facebook conveniently notifies the attendees so they don’t forget about the event. Last but not least, when someone registers for you event, it gets a free placement in the newsfeed and has the potential to be seen by that person’s Facebook friends.

 When you create your event, be sure to share key information with Facebook, such as location, time, and category so that Facebook can properly promote the event to the right people. It is also important to make sure that the cover photo adheres to Facebook guidelines. Use the cover photo as a visual way to present key event details including date, time, location, and the URL to register or purchase tickets.  

 Tip 2: Share content to generate pre-event buzz

Creating purposeful content will get attendees excited about your upcoming event. Make your attendees feel like insiders by sharing behind the scenes photos and videos of event production. Get creative with announcements for special guests and speakers. This will create buzz and boost conversion and engagement.  

Don’t feel the need to post several times a day on the event page, instead figure out when your audience is most active and schedule posts for those times to make the most of each update. Rather than bombarding your attendees with posts about selling tickets, share content that is helpful, like blogs relating to the topic of your conference or photos and videos from the last year’s event.

Consider going live on Facebook the day of the event, especially if you’re holding an event that happens annually. Live video is a cost effective way that has been shown to grow attendance. According to Facebook Live, 30% of people who watch a live stream of an event will attend that event the following year.  Using live video is also a great way to engage people who didn’t attend the event considering users spend 3x more time watching and comment 10x more during a live video.

Tip 3: Hold a contest

Holding a contest is an engaging way to effectively promote your event on Facebook. You can run a variety of different contests such as surveys, quizzes, and sweepstakes. Whichever you choose, make sure to consider your audience, make it relevant and make sure it’s getting you registrations.

For example, if you are holding a conference related to social media marketing, quiz people on their social media marketing knowledge. Take advantage of this opportunity to drive social followers to further engage and potentially click through to your website. For instance, use the results from the quiz to promote relevant blog content on topics they may not seem to know much about (e.g. "Looks like you don't have a clear view of Facebook's algorithm, here's everything you need to know"). Once they complete the quiz, invite them to share the contest and invite their friends to the event page to complete their entry. This is relevant, engaging, and will overall boost awareness for the event.

Tip 4: Take advantage of Facebook advertising

As many know, Facebook has become a pay-to-play platform. It is a good idea to invest into Facebook advertising to spread awareness about your event or conference. Create an effective advertising campaign by targeting people who have visited the event website, specific demographics, and even friends of friends who are interested in similar events. When promoting your event, you can create sponsored ads with a “Buy Tickets” button which will boost traffic to your registration page.

Protip: Multichannel is key.

While social media is important to market your event, remember to utilize offline channels to reach multi-device buyers. Considering that people consume content differently, it is important to be consistent and market across a variety of different channels.

Conclusion

Facebook is one of the best social channels to promote your event for a few different reasons: you can create an event page that allows you to easily update and connect with attendees, promote your event to your target audience with highly targeted ads, and push engaging content regarding your event like live video and contests.  Facebook is the largest social network with over 1 billion daily active users and is not something that should be ignored when marketing for your event.

Ryan Gould is Vice President of Strategy and Marketing Services at Elevation Marketing. He helps Elevation’s clients solve their problems and achieve their business goals through integrated marketing solutions distinguished by research, storytelling, engagement and conversion. With a proven track record of energizing brands and having worked with a variety of Fortune 500 companies, Ryan is a respected expert in achieving consistent results through creative design, thought-provoking narratives and innovative problem solving. Connect with Ryan on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rygould/