EVENT TIPS
Use steps 1-5, before announcement and steps 6-10 at announcement.
- Choose an ideal date and time to announce your event
Timing is crucial to ensure as many people as possible see your event. If you make your announcement at an hour when folks are likely asleep, at work or otherwise occupied, the announcement could flop.
The best time to announce an event on social media is generally in the morning around 11AM (in your event’s timezone), so that it will be up and visible when most people check their Facebook (social media accounts) at lunch. The day you choose is important as well. Monday through Thursday is ideal, as people tend to have a more unpredictable schedule on weekends and may miss the announcement.
The best time to announce an event on social media is generally in the morning around 11AM (in your event’s timezone), so that it will be up and visible when most people check their Facebook (social media accounts) at lunch. The day you choose is important as well. Monday through Thursday is ideal, as people tend to have a more unpredictable schedule on weekends and may miss the announcement.
Be attentive to other factors: it is ill-advised to announce on a date when there is an event that is similar to yours, or if there is big news that day.
- Create your flyer image, Facebook Banner image and Instagram image
Compelling visual images are essential for effective event promotion. Your flyer design is more than the who/what/when/where/why; it’s the face of your event, so you want to make sure it looks good wherever you post it. The key is properly sized flyer images.
Create or ask your designer to create three versions of your flyer image, since they may need to adjust the layout for each one. If three separate designs are a bit too much, it’s still advisable to create some version of your flyer that will fit each of these sizes with all text visible.
- A banner image: Size: 1920 x 1080
Uses: Facebook Business page banner image, Facebook personal page banner image, - Twitter header
A square image: Size: 1000 x 1000
Uses: Instagram posts, Facebook profile pictures, Facebook posts, Twitter profile photos, general social media sharing - A flyer/poster sized image for printing: Size: 1650 x 2550px (11 x 17 inches)
Uses: Printing handbills and posters, general posting.
- Draft your announcement post for social media
Before you launch your event, write out the text you will post when you announce your event on social media. This post should be clear, concise and engaging, and contain basic details to stir up excitement.
Your goal is to get people to like, comment, or share the post, so make sure the content draws people in while staying on-brand.
Be brief. While you want to provide the important details, you don’t want the post to end up too long. Aim to strike a balance between informative and concise.
- Make sure everyone on your team is ready to announce
The whole point of a good announcement is to make a splash, and the best way to do this is by having as many people as possible posting simultaneously about your event to get the word out.
Make sure anyone helping you with your event or willing volunteers (coworkers, friends, family) are available, at their computers, are given specific instructions to post about the event and send Facebook invitations to their friends. This team who agrees to help you ahead of time are your primary promoters. As you’ll see, a number of the following steps require you to communicate and work directly with them to maximize your announcement’s impact.
- Create a Facebook event page
Learn how to create Facebook event pages with these easy instructions.
Some notes about adding details to your event:
Host: This field allows you to specify your event’s host. If you have a Facebook business page, you will be able to select either your business page or your personal page. You can always add other people as hosts later. Depending on your settings, hosts have the ability to edit the event, or to add other hosts.
Event Photo: Use this field to upload your event’s banner image. The image will appear at the top of your event page. If you don’t have a flyer, consider using an image related to your event, a photo from a past event or a stock photo of relevant subject matter. As mentioned in Step 2, however, having a properly sized flyer image greatly improves the look of your event page, catches people’s attention, and provides all the necessary information about your event in one place.
Event Name: Enter a short, clear name for your event. Your event title may not be in all caps, and cannot contain excessive amounts of symbols. It also helps to make your event title easily searchable so that people can locate your event easily.
Location: Enter the exact location of your event. Many venues will already have their information stored on Facebook, and will appear in the drop down menu as you type in the venue name. If you see your venue appear in this menu, select it.
Location: Enter the exact location of your event. Many venues will already have their information stored on Facebook, and will appear in the drop down menu as you type in the venue name. If you see your venue appear in this menu, select it.
Tags: Type in tags for your event and select the results from the drop down menu. These are based on things that people have selected as interested or “liked” on Facebook. These tags can be specific or more general, but should always be relevant to your event.
- Send as many Facebook invitations as possible, and have your friends do the same
Once your Facebook event page is created, invite your primary promoters to attend. They will receive a notification on Facebook that they have been invited to the event, and this will signal to them that it is up and ready to be promoted. Once you and your primary promoters have clicked “going” on the event, each of you should send as many invitations as you can to anyone on your friends’ list who might be interested.
This may be the most important step in the announcement process as it provides an initial promo blast across your networks as well as your friends’ and coworkers’ networks. Think of it this way: if you and 4 other people each invite 500 friends, you’ve just advertised to 500 people instantly, without spending a penny.
- Make your announcement posts
Once you and your primary promoters have sent invitations on Facebook, it is time to post the pre-written announcement you drafted in step 3.
Facebook uses a number of algorithms to determine how many people see posts that you make. To make sure your post gets as much visibility as possible, keep in mind that the following post types get the best visibility:
- Short (90-140 character) text posts
- Posts with images, the less text on the image, the better
- Posts that do not explicitly mention the fact that they are promoting an event and avoid using certain key words such as “event,” “buy tickets” or other terminology that clearly indicates your post is (essentially) an advertisement.
- Posts that do not contain direct links to Facebook event pages.
What exactly should you post?
Your square flyer image or a visually engaging photo (or press shots if available,) accompanied by your announcement text that you prepared earlier. Make this post from both your Facebook business page and your personal page.
How do you direct people to buy tickets if you can’t link them to the ticketing page in your post?
Put the link to your Facebook event in the comments of your own post, after the post has been up for a few minutes.
Facebook uses automated systems to detect when people are promoting their events, and if you’re not paying for advertising, Facebook will make sure your post goes to the bottom of your friends’ feeds. Posts with just pictures or text tend to get more “likes” and comments, and are thus seen by more people. You can use this to your advantage; make a post that doesn’t contain an event link–at first. Then add the link in the comments once the post starts to gain visibility.
- Change your Facebook profile/Business page banner image, and encourage your friends to do the same
By changing the banner image on your page and on your profile, you are effectively getting an extra promo boost every time someone visits your page. If you encourage your primary promoters to change their banner images as well, it will increase the number of people who see your flyer image across your promoters’ networks.
- Make a follow up announcement for anyone who missed the boat
Once your Facebook announcement is done, you’ll want to make sure you follow up later in the evening with an additional post so that anyone who was busy or away from during your earlier announcement gets caught up. The ideal time to make this post depends on your audience, but 6-9PM is usually a safe bet as a lot of people are home.
- Announce on your other networks
- Have a Twitter account? Tweet out your square flyer image and a short announcement about your event.
- Read more on effective Twitter hashtagging.
- To create a short link, use Bitly.
- Got an Instagram? Post your square flyer image there too, as well as a selection of hashtags relevant to your event. Since Instagram doesn’t let you put hyperlinks in posts, put the link to your event in your Instagram Bio, and include a note in your post saying “Ticket link in bio.”
- Don’t forget to cross promote across all your social media channels. Occasionally post a link to your Facebook event page on Twitter, or a link to your Instagram on Facebook. Sending traffic between your social media feeds will help boost your followers across all platforms.