10 Tips for Using Facebook Event Pages

Facebook event pages still get the job done. I’m a fan of Facebook event pages for smaller events that attract 5,000 or less people. Just this year I’ve used Facebook event pages to promote Reno Mardi Gras, the Rotary Club of Reno Fundraiser, and Brew HaHa the fundraiser for Sierra Arts. Both pages were very successful and helped spread the word about the event without spending too much money on advertising.

The event page offers some great benefits including giving invitees a link to see all of the other events you’ve created, a link to your page, a link to your personal profile or company profile, and the ability to directly message and invite your personal profile contacts to the event.

Here are 10 tips for using a Facebook Event Page:

1. Make it easy for attendees to find the key information. The first form Facebook has you fill in when you create an event page is the most important to make your event successful. Make sure to fill out the form, be concise and supply all the important information.

2. Make it easy for attendees to buy tickets. Highlight the link and make it easy to find.

3. Title the event appropriately. Make it easy for the Facebook search tool to find your event. If the event is an annual event make sure to make it easy for attendees to see that in the title.

Image Credit: Rotary Club of Reno Facebook Page

4. Photos are important! Make sure to post a cover photo that is the appropriate size. I also like to post event advertisements and other photos to engage invitees. For Reno Mardi Gras we post a lot of pictures from Pinterest to encourage guests to dress up, and it works!

5. Try to use Facebook recognized locations for your event location rather than just the address. Usually the venue pops up when you type the name slowly. Make sure the map is working because that is really helpful to your event attendees.

6. Allow anyone to post on your event page, encourage attendees to post before and after the event. This is the best place to add content and interact with event attendees. This also helps invited guests communicate with you if they have questions about the event.

7. Encourage invitees to invite their friends. Ask them to share it on their page or to use the “invite all your friends” to the event. Be careful though not to become a spammer.

8. Keep adding content up to the day of the event by making new posts on the event page. Also post after the event to continue to add more content to keep people engaged. If it is an annual event make sure to post a “Save the Date” message for the event the following year on the event page.

9. Promote your event on other social media. Don’t forget to add the event invite to your Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Yelp.com, Blog sites and other social media sites.

10. Advertising – Buy Facebook advertisements if you can afford them. I personally like to promote the posts for events on Facebook Event pages, for example, Reno Mardi Gras and Brew HaHa because the pictures get a lot of attention, our guests like to share them, and they have a more viral response. It is hard to prove if the ads actually add attendees but I know I’ve seen them have an effect on attendee behavior. We’ve had social media contests and encouraged people to dress up in the ads. We had great results!

Facebook Event pages aren’t for all events, but if you are planning a local charity event or something that has a niche market, an event page will help you promote the event and increase attendance at the event.

Do you use Facebook Event pages to promote your special events? Feel free to brag about your success using Facebook Event invites in the comments!

Matt Weaver’s Brew HaHa Interview

I’ve always thought my job would be perfect for a reality show, as long as I could remain anonymous and they would somehow protect the guilty parties that make my job insane.

I have a fascinating job! I kick-off the year with a big New Year’s party on the casino floor, then host one of the biggest beer events on the west coast, plan a country concert music series in June, set off fireworks over the 4th of July, celebrate classic cars in August, and then I’m in charge of the biggest rib festival in the country over Labor Day weekend.

The craziest things happen when you produce events. When I interview potential interns I ask them how well they handle random people and situations, because that is the life of an event producer. For the last few years I’ve been trying to figure out a way to capture some of the fun and document the craziness, without making a deal with Bravo TV of course, so I decided to buy an iPad and find a way to document my life as an event manager on my own. If I get enough video views I might just have to upgrade to a real camcorder.

This was the first interview I’ve taken since I bought the iPad. The interview was taken at Brew HaHa, the annual Sierra Arts Foundation Fundraiser that was held this year on Friday, February 13 at the Nugget Casino Resort. My friend Matt Weaver from Morrey Distributing was a good sport and let me interview him.

Here are a few lessons I learned from my first interview…

1. I need to buy microphones. Sorry the audio levels are awful. We tested several locations at the event for the interview and it was just too loud. Finally we decided the entrance hallway would be best. We had to yell at each other the whole time, which was a little awkward and made me want to end the interview after two questions.

2. Try not to watch what is going on behind you and act natural. Watch out for those girls having too much fun around the 40 second mark.

3. I wanted to capture the essence of why the distributors and the brewers support this event, but I wasn’t able to do it justice because it was so loud and hard to host the interview in those conditions. I’ll have to try again next year.

4. If you are going to do interviews after working 15 hours you must add lots of eye makeup to hide the dark circles under your eyes better.

5. I need to learn how to edit video. I am using iMovie and I’m clueless! I look forward to developing iMovie skills as I develop Mad About Events Blog. Until I develop more skills I better try to do one take interviews. Editing may not be an option for a while.

If you enjoyed this video make sure to follow Lisa Jansen’s YouTube Channel. I will be uploading more interviews and video taken at events.

Special thanks to the lovely Bre Reinhardt for being the iPad camera operator.
Image Credit

Event Hashtags: The Newest Tool in Your Event Marketing Arsenal

Ever wonder what event attendees are thinking? Wish you could get instant feedback? Want to start a real time conversation with attendees during your event? Well you can if you master the hashtag, aka # (formerly known as the pound sign to anyone born before the 90s). Don’t know what a hashtag is? Click here. For many years large events have used hashtags (#) for their events and now smaller event producers are also using this technology for event marketing. Some of the larger events using hashtags well are the Oscars, Super Bowl, and Olympics.

Hashtags can now be found on almost every type of social media. They don’t work on LinkedIn (yet) but I’ve seen people try to use them there as well. Odds are your event attendees are using hashtags so it is time to jump on the bandwagon and add this tool to your event marketing arsenal.

It is best to include your hashtag in all your promotions, press releases, website, and advertising. Your goal is to make it easy for your event attendees to find your hashtag and interact. A good hashtag will be short, unique, easy to remember, and of course connect people to your event. You need to promote your hashtag well before your event so everyone knows it exists. You also need to promote the hashtag at your event. A tattoo on your forehead will work, but maybe you could try something a little more subtle like plastering it everywhere you can at your venue and on your marketing materials.

Not one tweet using #RenoMardiGras

I must confess I had a hashtag failure last week. I’m a volunteer on a marketing committee for my Rotary Club’s annual Mardi Gras fundraiser. About a week before the event we started using the hashtag. I added it to the press release and labeled it on the back of the press passes. If anyone gets a hashtag it is going to be the savvy media folks that received our press packets…wrong! It didn’t work at all! Rotary Club members failed to catch the concept. Our vendors and the press that showed up also didn’t realize there was an official event hashtag. We blew it by getting in the game too late and not playing through. The good news is we will do better next time.

We learned that it is important to use the hashtag well before the event and it needs to build engagement. Next year we will also be proactive and thank people for using the hashtag. We will invite them to join and continue the conversation about the event. During the event we will join in and create conversations using the hashtag. This should be a lot of fun because it is a wine and food tasting event.

Down the road I’ll post about how to manage your hashtag during the event and what to do once the event is over. In the meantime please comment on event hashtags you’ve seen used and if they were successful. I want to explore this concept more so I’d appreciate any feedback from #EventProfs #DoingItRight out there.