Beginner Tips on Promoting your Event on Facebook

With 800 million active users, Facebook certainly cannot be ignored as a platform for marketing and promotion. While Google+ has arrived and there has been plenty of talk that social media users will eventually migrate there for its integration with search, there’s still plenty of value attributed to that addicting website that someone named Mark created. Also, when/if Facebook rolls out job searching and posting capabilities, it will earn credibility and a certain professionalism.

Event planners can fully utilize many features of Facebook to maintain relationships as well as connect with potential contacts. Here are some tips to better the attendance at your next event and fully excite and engage attendees beforehand.

Facebook Advertisements

Facebook ads are a great way to target certain users that you know will respond to or have affiliation with the promotion. Facebook can follow their habits and hypertarget ads toward the individual user. Targeting can also be done through monitoring competitors’ pages and geographically. Knowing attendees’ tendencies in regards to miles traveled is really crucial in reaching the appropriate audience. Would they come from out of town to attend or is there a similar event closer to their home town? Would they stay one day or several? Is there more than one thing that would attract them to make the trip?

This is a great way to increase attendance quickly. Here at Hyatt Regency Chicago, we proved these tactics by running a Facebook ad promoting a specific group’s room block and saw a quick pickup.

Getting attendees to RSVP “Yes” to your Facebook Event

Give them a reason to RSVP. Maybe suggest or solicit guests to use the event’s wall as a message board. Attendees are always looking to engage prior to the actual event. This is a great virtual networking opportunity not to pass up.

Engaging your Audience

First of all, know your audience. Once you have a good grip on who you’re talking to, post content that you know they’ll find interesting and worth their time to read and respond to. Ask questions, respond to answers and above all, do not ignore anyone. Show your audience that you value their time and feedback.

Develop an editorial calendar to track your efforts including consistency with posts. Gage your responses and then post with frequency in accordance to that. Be careful not to over-post.

Once your event rolls around, you can reference that great online content and bring it to life. It will also be a great communication tool during the event to speak to everyone quickly and efficiently.

We love to chat with groups and are no strangers to using Facebook to answer questions, resolve issues and even just chat about the city in general. Don’t be afraid to reach out as a resource or to point your attendees towards us too! You can reach our Sales Team at 312 239 4540 or HRCSales@hyatt.com and you can always post on our Facebook wall.

You’re more than welcome at Hyatt Regency Chicago, 151 East Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60601; +1 312 565 1234.