Start with Facebook Events — but don’t stop there!
Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, organizations with a Facebook Page.
If you’re like most nonprofits, events are a big part of how you connect with supporters and potential donors. But like most nonprofits, you’re probably not integrating other marketing channels like Facebook into your events in a way that promotes your events and your Facebook page.
Following are five ways you can integrate Facebook into your events.
Use Facebook Events
1Your main marketing tool on Facebook is your Facebook page. When you are logged in as your page, create a Facebook Event for each and every one of your upcoming events.
Each event you create gets pushed out into your page’s news feed, but unlike a status update or a photo, Facebook Events each have their own separate page with information about the event, a list of attendees (going, invited, declined), and even a wall where you can engage with people who’ve RSVPd (as shown below).
Treat Facebook Events as an additional outpost for engagement between potential attendees, attendees and your organization. Make sure you turn on Notifications.
Side note: Facebook events can also be integrated with EventBrite, an event management service that allows you to sell tickets, e-mail registrants, and even create a custom webpage for the event.
Talk about it before the event
2Facebook Events display a list of who’s attending, which is a big part of how people decide to attend an event or not. Because of this, it’s a good idea to do an initial promotion of the event to your core supporters who are almost guaranteed to attend. This way, your event looks more attractive as you push it out beyond your core supporters.
On the page – Talk about your event on your Facebook page in advance. You can do this by asking who’s attending, sharing pictures related to the event, and even soliciting questions for a guest speaker to answer during the event.
Via email – There are at least three e-mails you can send before each event.
- The first e-mail lets your subscribers know about the event and tells them to RSVP on Facebook. You also can encourage people to RSVP by offering an incentive to those who RSVP (yes or no) before a specific date.
- The second e-mail solicits input for the event. For example, you can encourage subscribers to post relevant photos on your Facebook Page with the idea that the best ones will be displayed on a projector at the event.
- If you have an expert speaker, tell subscribers that you’ll pick the top 10 questions posted on the page for the expert to answer during the event.
Via sharing buttons – Make sure your event registration page gives visitors the ability to share the event with their Facebook friends before and after they register. Continue reading →
If you build it, they will come … but what if they don’t? What if you’ve done everything to build a strong Facebook community, consistently post quality content and do your very best to engage with users, but you (or, in some cases, your executive director or CEO) still want more? Continue reading 
