Every month, millions of people use Facebook Events to help them discover and connect with their communities. Your event should be one of them. Maybe you’re hosting an art opening, offering a unique coffee tasting, or planning a customer-appreciation party. Facebook events allow you to quickly create a listing, send out invites, and keep guests updated on every detail. Here are some best practices to consider the next time you launch a Facebook event.
1. Use engaging imagery
Vibrant visuals are an important element of any marketing campaign, especially when you want people to take action. Aim for eye-catching, warm, friendly and inviting imagery. Typically, a person’s face is better than a logo or other graphic.
Last year, Facebook added the ability to use large banner images for events. Use the 785×295 pixel format for the main page, and 470x174 for the news feed. It’s important to pay attention to both sizes, because most people will find out about your event through their news feeds (more on this below), and the event page itself should make as big of a splash as possible, with correctly cropped imagery.
2. Use a straightforward title
Since Facebook users can choose to see invites in a calendar, only four or five words of the title will appear unless they click through to the actual event page. If your event has a long title, your followers might scroll past it.
You’ll also want to keep your description short and sweet (read: personable). Though users can click through to continue reading, not everyone will. Put the most important details on the first couple of lines, and keep in mind that you can pin posts to the top of your event page for further info. Hint: Also include the time zone in your event listing because Facebook defaults to yours.
3. Promote Your Event
Facebook recently unveiled plans to increase awareness of events as well as event responses. Previously, you could only use a post about an event or purchase a right-hand column ad on desktop. Moving forward, you will be able to create event ads for desktop and mobile News Feeds through the Ad Create tool and Power Editor. Considering members now spend most of their time within News Feed, this ad unit is primed to help you succeed. But you’ll want to keep in mind how crowded the News Feed may become as a result. Make sure you’re targeting the right audience (location, demographics, etc.) to stay relevant to followers.
4. Leave the default settings the way they are.
That is, allow guests to invite others, upload photos, write on the wall, etc. Every one of these activities creates news items that go into these users’ feeds — increasing your event’s visibility. (Thus, you should occasionally post on your event wall, too. Try photos, videos, teasers, etc.) The standard settings also enable invitees to ask questions and share their experiences post-event.
Event hosts also have access to analytics with Facebook’s Insights, which can be viewed in the right-hand column of an event page. Insights include the number of people who’ve seen a link to your event on Facebook, the number of people who’ve viewed your event, and the number of joins, saves, and maybes your event has received. All of this data will help you determine if additional promotion is necessary.
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