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How to promote events on social media and increase attendees

Business owners know that events are a great way to attract customers and most importantly get customers through the door. In this post, we will learn how two free social media tools can be used to promote your events and increase the number of attendees.

Why should you promote events on social media?

Promoting events on social media empowers your customers to share your business with their network of friends – potential customers. This simple action is important because we know:

  1. People are more likely to attend events with friends
  2. 71 percent of consumers are more likely to make a purchase if referred

Promoting events opens up a huge opportunity to turn your regular customers into brand ambassadors and reach a previously untapped audience.

Two Free Tools

Facebook Events

Facebook makes it easy to add events through your business’s Facebook page. Posting events on Facebook is important because it builds buzz prior to your event and can be an easy way to encourage fans to invite their friends. Events also provide a way for you to collect photos and testimonials after the event from attendees.

Creating your event is as easy as posting a status update.

  1. Sign into your business’s page.
  2. Go to your status update box and click “Offer, Event +.”
  3. Click “Event.” This will open up a new window where you’ll be able to insert information about your event. Provide plenty of information: location, time, price of admission (if there is one), whether food and drink will be served, any special perks attendees can expect, etc.
  4. When your information is complete click “Create.”
  5. This is your event page where you’ll be able to add messages and an event photo. Click the calendar image on the top left of the page to upload an event photo.

Once you’ve created your event you can use the menu in the upper right hand corner (looks like a gear) to edit and share your event to your fans. If you want to invite your personal Facebook friends, sign out of your business page and visit the page while signed in to your personal profile. After you RVSP to the event a new button will appear called “Invite Friends”, which will allow you to select all the friends you want to invite to your event.  Any fans and friends who join the event will be able to invite people too.

Vital Tip: Don’t create an event and let it sit collecting dust, it’s important to support it and encourage engagement. Make sure to take advantage of the “Message Guests” feature where you can send messages to fans who are attending. A great first message would thank everyone for coming and encourage them to share the event with friends.

Foursquare Events
Events on Foursquare is a brand new feature for businesses. If you haven’t heard about Foursquare or are wondering why this social network is important for businesses read our earlier post here. Creating a Foursquare event provides customers the opportunity to check into your business, but also check into the specific event. This makes Foursquare a great tool for promoting events that are happening at that very moment.

To add an event on Foursquare you’ll first need to claim your business (find out how here). Once you claim your business you’ll be able to use our video tutorial to add an event to your business’s listing.

Have a reoccurring event? Schedule them on Foursquare and watch week after week your event get shared on the biggest social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

Vital Tip: Your guests aren’t mind readers. Make sure you have a call to action at the event telling attendees to check in on Foursquare.

We love to talk about social media marketing, and we’d love to help you get started using social networking to promote your events. Get in touch!

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