[upme_private]Like it or not, everyone posts events on Facebook. And as you would expect from FB, they would like you to pay to boost your audience. Whether you spend much time there or not, there’s no doubt a good portion of your potential audience does, so learning some ninja tricks for maximizing your reach is time well spent. This post will help you do just that.
Once you’ve made your basic event post, try some of these tricks. I recommend posting your events from either your Profile or if you have a large Group, then use that. I don’t recommend posting events as your Page since tagging your friends isn’t as easy.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF CO-HOST FUNCTION:
Once you have initially posted the event:
Open up the event and select ‘edit’.
Scroll down and you will see a place to add ‘Co-hosts’
(this doesn’t appear when you first post, only after you go back to edit)
Add co-hosts like tagging names. I suggest adding anyone else in your circles you can think of, it allows up to 15.
You can only invite 50 of your friends to a FB event, go thru your friends to do this. I find the easiest/fastest way to do this is by using the little box that says:
+ [invite friends to this event]
and then simply typing ‘A’ and seeing all your friends with A in their name pop up and selecting your favorites, go to ‘B’ and so on.
But since you’ve added co-hosts, they now can each add 50 names as well. So with a little help you can get the invite #’s up much higher than 50. (50 x 15 co-hosts = 750 potentially before paying FB a dime!)
DUPLICATE YOUR BEST EVENTS AND THEN EDIT WITH NEW DETAILS:
Once you get an event with a high # of people invited, you’ll want to ‘Duplicate’ that event each time, before or after it’s over doesn’t matter, (past events are still available in the Past tab). Then you will automatically get all those same people invited to the new event.
At least that’s what I’ve been able to figure out … FB events are kind of a black box, takes a bit of voodoo to make ’em work, and paying them to ‘boost’ is typically a waste of money.
ANOTHER GOOD REASON TO GROW A GROUP:
Also, do you have a ‘Group’ aside from your Page? If you have a Group, and make a ‘Group’ event, then it has a way to ‘Invite all your friends that are in the Group’ With a large/active group, and some good co-hosts, this can be pretty effective too.
DROP A TAG BOMB:
Introducing the slightly sneaky ‘Tag Bomb’… Highly effective, but use with care. You post the event link with a fun comment or call-to-action on your own timeline, a question about the event or modality can work well… Then where it says ‘who are you with’ or ‘tag friends’ you can tag up to 49 people in one post. But make sure anyone you tag is totally onboard, because some folks will get annoyed. Here’s why, because they are tagged, that post is going to appear on their Timelines, and in the feeds of everyone who follows them. That also means that anyone who follows them is going to see your event, and not just in the little (often ignored) notifications tab. This can work really well if you have a bunch of friends who you know will be happy to share your event. Tag them all in a post asking them to share your event, and you’ll get exposure on both sides, from the tag and the share as well. Bonus points if you can persuade them to invite their friends to the event, free passes are a good incentive. You can also use the messenger app or tab to share the link with select friends, if you want to give them a pass privately in exchange for them promoting you publically.
ENGAGE WITH YOUR RSVP’S:
A variation on the Tag Bomb feature is to publicly thank everyone who RSVPs or signs up in a public post on yours or theirs timeline where they are tagged, as the signups come in. And take advantage of your following, and your other producers/inner circle, you should have several people who can be tagged every time you post about it.
IDENTIFY YOUR INFLUENCERS
If you are hosting regular events, repeating classes, or even occasional one-off workshops, pay attention to who shows up who has a big following or is very active on Facebook. Watch their posts and see who is getting a high number of ‘Likes’ or comments. Giving a free pass to someone with hundreds of engaged followers can be a great investment and make a huge impact on your attendance.[/upme_private]
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