Prepping Facebook Events For Optimal Promotion

Being able to clearly present and describe your event on Facebook is essential to reaching your patrons and fans, and being able to capture their interest to increase their chances of actually showing up at your event.

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Guest post from Event Marketing ToolboxWriting a clear and catchy description for your event is half the battle. Fill in all the information your potential patrons may need. Plan ahead: as soon as the event reaches a certain number of subscribers, Facebook will only let you edit the details three times. Let people know what your event is all about and why they shouldn’t miss their chance to attend!

1. Facebook Event Cover

The cover photo/video should be 1920×1080 pixels in size. The main goal of Facebook event’s cover is to be eye-catching when scrolling the News Feed. Think about using a recognizable image, photo, or logo. Of cause video is the best option even if could be much harder for production.

Don’t try to squeeze all your text into the cover photo: you only need to grab attention and give a quick grasp of what your event is about. A newsfeed reader’s attention will only stay on the cover photo for 1 second.

Have in mind that the cover will appear even smaller in the Facebook Local application. It may also be displayed in Related Events with a smaller cover photo size.

2. Facebook Event Name

Use a clear, short name for your event. The best way to name your event is to follow the “Artist in City” or “Visiting Sports Team at Home Sports Team” strategy. It’s a good idea to specify the type of event in the title: e.g. a concert, a masterclass, or a party. Fit the topmost information into a “safe length” of 45 symbols; the title will be significantly shortened when displayed in your friends’ Feed (when a user clicks Interested), and the display also depends on the device used.

Don’t name your event too long. 60 characters is enough.

Remove any special symbols that may interfere with creation of ads.

3. Facebook Event description

Be laconic: users are not willing to read long texts. Although Facebook provides a special field for ticket links, it’s good practice to put links to purchase tickets into the description as well.

Bad. No links in descriptions. It’s better to scheduled posts to Facebook event.

Good. Full line-up. Useful links. Easy to read.

4. Link to purchase tickets

It might sound strange, but many promoters do not fill in this field. Never skip it. It takes just a few clicks to add a ticket link. While promoting your event, it’s important to track clicks. Many event promoters use bit.lyservice to shorten event ticket link. But we recommend Event Marketing Toolbox built-in link shortener. It works out of the box.

5. Venue

Facebook will display other events at the same venue in recommendations, so giving the correct venue name is helpful for organic reach. Put in the address and select a venue with other Facebook events linked: in this case your event will also show in recommendations on the venue page. You do not even have to do anything on the venue page, Facebook will automatically add your event to their events list and recommendations.

Add Venue to your Facebook Event description

Make sure that you select a venue from Facebook’s database, and not just enter an arbitrary name/address. Enter a custom name only in case Facebook does not have the venue in the autocomplete options.

6. Date, Time, Category

Don’t leave this blank! It’s not rocket science; just remember to check the time zone. It’s set automatically after you’ve selected the location, but it’s still wise to double check. It would also be nice to add an event schedule in the description field.The Category field is obvious. This is another detail that helps Facebook recommend your event to others.

7. Hosts

Add all Co-Hosts. Co-Hosts will be able to post to your event and change its details. Just like all the previous guidelines, this will make your event appear in different selections more often. It increases chances to get more free event responders.

8. Keywords

Add three keywords: genre, event theme, and any other related topic. You can’t add just anything you want to that field, you must choose from Facebook suggestions after you start typing. Keywords is another factor for Facebook to target the most relevant people in the News Feed and recommendations.

9. Moderation

Use the pre-moderation posting option. This will help you eliminate spam posts and other irrelevant content. A single spam post can make dozens of people unfollow your event; News Feeds are overflowing with irrelevant ads as it is. You spent time and effort on the event– don’t let others hijack your message .

10. Events Tab

Move up ‘events’ in tab list for your page. If your page has many tabs, Events may be hidden beyond the screen in Facebook mobile app. Facebook has 1.15 billion mobile daily active users.If you represent a Venue, it’s highly recommended to turn on the special page template for Venues. Your map, reviews, and nearest events will be more noticeable:

To manage tabs or change Page Template go to: Your Page > Settings > Edit Page > (Scroll down to Tabs list)

Optional: Create Similar Facebook Events

If you happen to have several similar events (e.g. a tour, a recurring monthly event, etc.), the Duplicate Event option will speed up the event creation process.