Using Facebook Events to Promote Gigs and Milestones
{++}
One of the main reasons you need to be on Facebook is to promote your gigs ans events. I don’t think anyone realizes how important using the Facebook event feature has become and how it’s impacting the way musicians promote gigs and CD releases! Seriously, I’ve been using this tool for a few years now to get people out to shows and it really works.
Let’s get started – you’ll see the “Events” link on the left hand side of your Facebook navigation.
You’ll notice at first any events that you happen to be attending – notice it gives you the guest count and which of your Facebook friends are attending; this is important to understand. People are far more willing to come to a show if their cool friends are going. Try to get the hottest girls and boys to a show and everyone else will no doubt wanna come to!
Hit the “Create an Event” button and you’ll be taken to the 3 step process of creating your new event. Enter the title, location, and start times. Note the privacy tab – if you’re playing a show in public and want everyone to come, great, leave the even open so anyone can see it and invite their friends. If it’s a private show, then you might want the event to be private as well, so people aren’t just inviting people you or the host doesn’t know.
Next you’ll need to add the event details – pictures, descriptions, and the options for people to interact with the event. If you’re promoting a gig, make sure to include as many details as possible (age limits, other bands, cover charge, etc.). Once you publish the event, add links to your website, videos, and pics from previous shows so people can see how much fun they’re going to be having!
Next, invite your friends. If the show is in New York City, don’t waste your time inviting someone in Iceland. Be smart about who you invite, people hate being “spammed” with things on Facebook and you don’t want to turn anyone off. Invite those who you think really would want to come, and encourage them to invite other like-minded people.
You can also add email addresses to invite those friends who are not on Facebook, and import contacts from your email provider.
That’s it! Your even has been created, and when people get the message, they can either RSVP to the event, pick the “maybe” option, or decline to come. This is neat because as people confirm to the guest list, again everyone will be able to see who’s going and who’s not going. Those that pick “maybe” – send them a message and ask them to reconsider and that it’s going to be a good time. Those that are attending, ask them if they can invite their own friends and so on.
You can go back and edit the event, invite more people, and send messages to those who are attending using the navigation up in the top left hand corner. In the days leading up to the event, send messages to guests to get them excited for the event. You can even print a guest list and promote the event using Facebook ads.
Here is an example of some of the things you’ll want to post to your wall – give people who don’t know you a chance to discover more information about you and your music so they can make a better decision on whether or not they want to come.
You might want to consider promoting the event with an ad – especially if you’re playing in a new city and you don’t know anyone there. I won’t go into to much detail here – you can learn more about Facebook advertising in Greg’s Tutorial. Facebook ads can be good at getting people interested and they can not work at all – such is the way with any type of advertising. Target the right people and it could drive them to your show. Test, test, test until you find something that works – just make sure it’s in your budget.
Join the forum discussion on this post - (3) Posts