In order for small businesses and nonprofit organizations to excel in today’s challenging business climate, they need a good mix of online marketing tools to promote themselves effectively.
These tools become the basis of a sound communications strategy, one with the goal of growing a successful business and building stronger relationships with prospects, customers, clients, and supporters.
Events and social media should play an important role in any marketing strategy. Of course, when you ask most people what the first thing that comes to mind is when they hear the words social media, and their immediate response is “Facebook.”
Erik Qualman, author of the book Socialnomics, has produced an interesting video called Social Media Revolution 2011. In this video, he publishes a very interesting benchmark illustrating how long it took the following media types to reach 50 million users:
- Radio – 38 years
- TV – 13 years
- Internet – 4 years
- iPod – 3 years
- Facebook – 1 year
What helped Facebook to achieve this monumental number in such a short time was the ease with which people were able to connect with each other and share interests. Today, Facebook is one of the most-trafficked sites in the world with more than 800 million active users. According to Facebook, more than 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day.
To help small businesses and nonprofits take advantage of Facebook, and the great word-of-mouth platform it provides, Constant Contact has partnered with Appbistro to launch an Event Marketing application for Facebook called Constant Contact Events.
The app allows you to host and promote your Constant Contact events directly from your Facebook Page(s). The benefit to your attendees is that they can access information and register for your events without leaving Facebook.
Using the viral power of Facebook sharing, your fans can now “Like” your events directly from your Facebook Page, helping you to extend your reach and increase awareness of your events. You can manage all the events on your Page from one main dashboard. The app can be accessed through this link at Constant Contact Events. Setup is easy.
If you’re looking to get the word out about your upcoming event to an even wider audience, then using Facebook to do so is a great place to start.
What has been your experience with using Facebook to market your events? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.
Would love it… if it worked. I received this error:
TypeError: Cannot read property ‘atom:id’ of undefined
at eval at buildTmplFn (/usr/local/apps/ccevents/node_modules/jqtpl/lib/jqtpl.js:124:12)
at Object.each (/usr/local/apps/ccevents/node_modules/jqtpl/lib/jqtpl.js:35:22)
at Object.anonymous (eval at buildTmplFn (/usr/local/apps/ccevents/node_modules/jqtpl/lib/jqtpl.js:124:12))
at Object.tmpl (/usr/local/apps/ccevents/node_modules/jqtpl/lib/jqtpl.js:234:18)
at Object.render (/usr/local/apps/ccevents/node_modules/jqtpl/lib/jqtpl.express.js:51:19)
at ServerResponse._render (/usr/local/apps/ccevents/node_modules/express/lib/view.js:425:21)
at ServerResponse.render (/usr/local/apps/ccevents/node_modules/express/lib/view.js:316:17)
at Object.then (/usr/local/apps/ccevents/app.js:637:25)
at /usr/local/apps/ccevents/app.js:14:324
at /usr/local/apps/ccevents/app.js:592:37
Sorry about that Heather. I’m going to have someone contact you directly to see if we can get that working properly for you.
I’d love to think it would have an effect. However, my experience of promoting events on Facebook over the past few years is that people will ‘like’ it, and they will even click ‘accept’ or ‘attending’ or whatever version is on offer, but none of them ever turn up. And yes, I do contact them directly and individually, and they swear they are coming, but still don’t. Whereas people who respond to my email marketing, or via my website tend to convert into clients.
What’s that about, then?
And I’m still prepared to give the app a shot…
Hey Flloyd, great to see you here. Thanks for the comment.
Just wanted to add to Erik’s comments.
I agree with you (Flloyd) when it comes to using the built-in events on Facebook. At this point I don’t really count on those as a real indicator of attendance but rather just a way to get the word out.
The cool thing with this app is that it integrates with the Constant Contact’s Event Marketing tool. That means that people are actually registering to attend your event rather than just clicking “yes, no, or maybe” on Facebook.
Make sense?
Hey Flloyd,
The idea behind using a Facebook event app like the one I discuss is more about engaging your audience on their turf. It’s really more of a convenience factor plus the “likes” are important because the prospect is initiating the relationship. The initiation can take many forms; a like, opt-in for your newsletter, or attend your events. it’s really up to you to nurture those leads once initiated.
In terms of the attrition for your events, I would not think the app you are using is contributing to this behavior. I could be wrong though! It’s not uncommon to see 10% – 40% attrition for any particular event. One thing I might suggest is to charge $1 and make this fee mandatory for someone to register for your event. You can even give the $1 back when they show up at your event. If someone pays to attend your event (during registration), you’re likely getting a firm commitment that this person intends to show-up. Sometimes the word “free” can convey a lack of value, so don’t be afraid to charge for your events anyway!
Let me know if any other questions.
Thanks for your comment!
Erik