Information from this blog was obtained from Hubspot, Sprout Social, and Social Media Today
Introduction
Do you already use Facebook in your marketing plan? If you do, great, if you don’t, including Facebook in your marketing plan would be a smart decision. There are a variety of features Facebook offers to users, including Facebook events that will help in acquiring conversions and keep your current followers in the know. In this blog post, you will find out exactly what a Facebook event can do not only for your consumers but for your business, you will read some tips on how to set up your event as well as what to do during your event, and lastly, you will get some insight on how to use metrics to your advantage.
Why do Facebook events matter for marketing?
Before taking a look at the details, use this time to understand why Facebook events matter to your marketing plan in a modern digital world. Our Facebook feeds are full of sponsored ads and other advertisements, but a Facebook event will give your subscribers a unique and personal way to interact with your brand and stay connected about the things you and your company are doing. These events allow your followers to engage with your brand and put your brand in the forefront of the viewer's mind. You can also use Facebook events to showcase your brand and talk about what you are about, what you wish to accomplish, and how your consumers fit into that role. This ultimately leads to brand awareness, creates customer loyalty, and drives sales.
Planning your Facebook event
Understanding your followers' needs or preferences is the start of empathy in your brand. If you want a sure way to drive conversions, look at using empathy in your marketing tactics on Facebook that translates over to your Facebook events. This could be as simple as using your event proceeds to go towards a local animal shelter. But before you can get started, you need to define the goals you wish to set as the outcome of your event, in benefit to your brand. Will you be looking to increase website traffic? How about boosting sales of a product you launched last year that may have a new need? Whatever your purpose may be, figure that out first and strategize with those goals in mind. You will also want to come up with a solid date and time to maximize your SEO, if your target audience works Monday-Friday 8 am-5 pm, do not select a date/time within those time frames. When promoting your event, be sure to make your consumers feel special in a way. Let them know everything has been thought of, and they will have an event worthwhile to attend. “Of course, one of the biggest challenges when hosting a Facebook event is spreading awareness of the event to both new and existing audiences.” (Forsey, 2021) Don’t be afraid to take your Facebook event to your Instagram page or other forms of social media to advertise for your event. As long as the user has the platform and it is worth their while, they will tune in to the event. Another tip is to invite all of your followers, Facebook friends, and especially any members from your target audience. They are more likely to engage if they are directly invited rather than just happen to see it on their feed.
Engage with those attending before the event
Get your followers excited to attend your event. Offer exclusive sneak peeks for engaging in other tools Facebook offers, such as a life feed, shares, and likes. Share snippets of things you may be offering during your event. Give 10% off a hot product for attending the event. Responding to likes, comments, and shares is an inexpensive way to stay engaged with your followers. “Boosting an event allows you to promote it to people who may be interested in attending but aren’t aware of your brand. The extra reach can earn you more attendees and also build your Facebook following.” (Jackson, 2020)
Following up after the event
Following up is the best way to keep your brand at the forefront of your consumers’ minds. If you hosted a webinar, consider giving a certificate of participation for the client to post on their social media platforms. This allows your brand to stay relevant and the exclusive event to also remain that way. Once you have finished up the event, and the event is still fresh in their minds, send out thank yous to those who attended your event, and take this time to also collect feedback from your participants, and maybe even new followers. “You can follow up with an email post-event that thanks them for their attendance, shares a few key takeaways from the event, and includes a link to the recording of the event so they can rewatch it or share it. You can then lead into the same CTA you introduced at the virtual event.” (Social Media Examiner, 2022) Ask your participants what they enjoyed the most about the event, and what speaker they learned something from. Don’t forget the organic influencing, by having a hashtag for those who attended virtually. Ask them to give reviews for any products they received in a giveaway or that they purchased. All these things count in measuring success.
Measuring success
This is a simple, yet underrated task that cannot be forgotten. Measuring success tells you if your event was successful and your goals were achieved. If you had high attendance, maximum attendance, and conversions, you are in good shape and should consider hosting more events or even using other tools Facebook offers for a marketing plan. Make sure to also look at what you could have improved, and make that more well-rounded, or change gears entirely. Once you have figured out what went well, and what did not go well you are already moving in the right direction.
Conclusion
Using a Facebook event in your marketing strategy may seem like a moot point, however, there are many benefits to this process, including the potential for growth for your brand, creating brand loyalty, and curating high performance in your marketing scheme. I hope you have found some helpful tips in planning your Facebook event, engaging with followers, and following up post-event so that you can easily measure your success and update your marketing plan. Let us know in the comments what things you took away from your last Facebook event, and which of these tips is going to be implemented in your next event. For more tips on Facebook marketing visit my colleague's blog at Facebook Marketing Strategy - It's Easier Than It Appears (thesmmu.com).
Resources
Forsey, C. (2021, March 24). Hubspot. Retrieved from Hubspot: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/promote-event-on-facebook
Jackson, D. (2020, August 20). Sprout Social. Retrieved from Sproutsocial: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/facebook-events/
Social Media Examiner. (2022, October 24). Retrieved from Social Media Examiner: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/spons/how-to-leverage-your-resources-during-and-after-a-virtual-event/633772/
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