There are a lot of ways to advertise your events now, especially when it is online. Despite all of the various options, for online promotion Facebook takes the cake at least for the moment. Facebook Events allow you to quickly send invites to large numbers of your friends or post on your fan page for people to join. Of course there are drawbacks involved with this as well. So what problems can occur and how can we fix them?
Inviting The Wrong People
Most bands/artists will follow their first impulse to send out invites to ALL of their friends. Please don’t do this though. This makes your invites nothing more than spam for many people, and having sent out 2,000 invites but showing only 30 people attending the event does not look good. A lot of mailing list services allow you to geo-target your fans based around their reported zip code. While Facebook does not have this feature at this time, it does allow you to group people into custom lists.
Create Geographical Lists of Your Friends/Fans
Initially this may be a daunting task depending on how many people you have to filter, but once it is done you merely have to add new friends/fans into their respective list. Start by picking your local zip code and building a list. On personal profiles, Facebook automatically creates a list of your friends that populates based on the radius around your local zip code, and of course on who actually reports they live in that zip code area. Some people don’t list their current location. So instead of relying on the auto-list, create your own. Once you’ve finished with your local market, go on to the next most important area. Try to pick the central most zip code to a geographic region and target people within reasonable driving distance for each list.
Remember Your Most Loyal Fans
Some people like a certain band so much they will drive a significant distance to see them. Figure out who your super loyal fans are and create a list just for them. Invite them first to every show because some of them may just show up despite it being a three hour drive. At the least, they will support you by sharing and promoting the event.
Don’t Rely On Just Invites
Not everyone checks their Event Invites on Facebook. Some people get so many they just consider it all spam and don’t look. Make sure you are posting your events on your profiles and fan pages as well. If it is an important show, perhaps you might consider paying to promote the event post.
Okay I’m convinced. Let’s put it to atcion.