Facebook Events Best Practices for Bands (or anyone)
Facebook Event Best Practices.
So ya,, thought ya,, Might like to. go. to. the. show......Thanks to my being a total music nut, supporting local music and being a facebook junkie (ok I do it for work too), I've had occasion to be involved in many facebook events. I also receive event invites by the boatload.
I personally think the facebook event is a fantastic tool and used correctly can be very effective. Time to be more methodical in your usage as facebook events are getting really saturated. So how to stand out? short story: Tagging.
Here's my thoughts on this as of 2/28/13. Felt the need to date this as the medium changes faster than a fart in the wind.
Let's start from the top and work down of the event invite itself:
The Event Cover Photo:
Events now do timeline sized cover photos!
What should you include in your cover photo? Here's my thoughts:
- The photo should be cool and inspiring, Show the band perhaps in a cool pose? (see https://www.facebook.com/events/331584576962343/)
- Include text listing the date of the event
- Include imagery/text identifying the venue, location of venue (yes not everyone knows where Johnny Jacks Chicken S*** Hole Nightclub is) and the time of the event.
- Ticket price if there is one or let'm know "No Cover"
First, always fill in the date and time info. I've seen this info wrong and incomplete. Seriously, I have.
But after that make sure to do these few things:
- Make sure to put a short but funny and compelling description. Yeah it's so interesting to see: "The (your band here) is going to rock Johnny Jacks C.S.H. this Friday". With the event I link to above I play off the bands complete overdrive, over the top high energy.
- List the band members
- Maybe throw a link in to a video.
- Ask people to share. Ooops, got to go update that event!
The Events Comments Wall:
Comments that happen on an event page are ripe with opportunities to market the event using the built in tool that is facebook. When a person says they are going to your event, a status posts to the event wall and the persons timeline. Perfect chance to turn this into a discussion. In case you don't know your doing "Social Media Marketing". Social. Talking. Discussion. OK?
Make your own regular posts. Try to ask questions rather than make statements. Social. Talking. Discussion. OK?
Reply back to any comments to your posts or posts from other people. Social. Talking. Discussion. OK?
A note on comments as the moderator of an event. I've seen people say things like:
- "I'm not going. That place sucks"
- "Hey if you're not going to (insert your event here). Come to mine!"
MARKETING THE EVENT!
Yes I needed to yell that. There's one oft overlooked symbol that is your marketing powerhouse:
The "@" symbol.
Please tell me you knew that you could put this symbol in a post or comment and what is typed directly after would pop up a box of relevant matches to tag a person place, page or EVENT in a comment. Tagging is a very powerful way to spread the word.
When should you use it? If you mention any of these, use the @ symbol to tag it in the post or comment:
- A friend/fans name in your post or reply comment.
- The venue name for the event
- The event name itself. YES you can tag the event itself.
- When you mention anyone by name associated with the event
- When you mention anybody by name :-)
Inviting all your little buddies:
It's important to share your event when you create it. Use that little share with friends button to get a jump on the process.
Rule One: Don't invite everyone you know. It's not appropriate, causes an already saturated medium to be more so and actually pisses people off. Especially when you invite me to your show in LA when I live in Boston...
Only invite people who you feel the event is relevant to and actually have a chance to attend.
Rule Two: See Rule One!
Share the event link all over the web:
You should always have a network of facebook groups, fan pages and some friends who's wall you share the event to (TIP: easy share link next to the export link)
You should be posting to well known regional calendars as well. Two that I often use:
- boston.com's event calendar
- Worcester's Socialweb Calendar. This is cool as they forward events to several other online calendars.
Encourage Sharing of your Event:
The title says it all. Grovel, demand, beg. do what ever it takes to get people to share your event.
PLEASE READ - A note about multiple event invites:
Lets face it, everyone is using events but it's getting ridiculous. I recently received notices from several different people. All were for the same event and each event invite had different names. The confusion factor was low. The annoyance factor was high. I might skip it for spite (not really, love music).
Although sending out separate events through multiple sources would seem like a good idea, like little marketing fingers reaching out to different groups. I really think it's like marketing against yourself on a couple minor scores:
- People get excited about events that have lots of confirmed guests. Do you want ten events with ten guests or one event with 100 guests???
- The majority of people hooked into a subject will be bombarded with multiple same events in an already saturated environment.
Happy Eventing!
Adam.
I know I'm forgetting something....humph...
Article written by Adam Signore
Adam Signore is the owner of Signore Web Design. A company providing Web Design, Social
Media Marketing and Custom Facebook Application Development. To learn more about Adam check him out on:
Adam Signore is the owner of Signore Web Design. A company providing Web Design, Social
Media Marketing and Custom Facebook Application Development. To learn more about Adam check him out on:
posted by Adam Signore @ 9:10 AM
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