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*SOCIAL MEDIA TIP – NEW FEATURE ON FACEBOOK*
If you have a physical storefront, there’s a good chance you host events each month. Things like ladies night out, trunk shows, open houses, VIP exclusives or maybe just regular sales events, like 20% off the entire store this weekend, 50% off the clearance room, etc.
If you could increase attendance to your next event, would you? Of course you would!
Facebook has made it easier for customers to know about your upcoming events, as long as you’re creating a Facebook Event Page for them. Now, people can “Subscribe” to your events and automatically be notified when you create new ones.
The Notifications section is one of the best places to show up in on Facebook. When your event pops up in your fan’s Notifications, there’s a much better chance he or she sees it and acts on it. Here’s an example of what the event Notification looks like:
Subscribing to events on Facebook is easy. Go to the page and click on Events (you might need to click More, then Events), which is directly under the Cover Image. From this page, you can select Subscribe. Here’s an example:
You need to tell your audience about this new feature. There are a lot of features on Facebook that people don’t know about or that are hidden, so it’s important to educate them.
Post something on your Timeline like, “Never miss an event from us again! Visit (enter the URL of your event pages, here’s an example: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Salon-De-Marcus/163109487649?sk=events) or click on Events and click ‘Subscribe.’ Anytime we publish a new event, you’ll be the first to know and get a notification!”
I’d include the types of events you host and the deals that will be featured. For example, if you were having exclusive deals, product giveaways, free services or new arrivals, I’d share that type of information in your post as well.
Don’t forget to post a sign in-store asking people to Subscribe to your events, and I recommend sending an email.
Then, you need to make sure you’re creating a Facebook Event Page for all of your events. This only takes a few minutes and is well worth it.
To take your event a step further on Facebook, you can consider running an Event Ad, promoting the Event Page to people you choose through targeting like to current Fans, your email list, website visitors, locals or based on behaviors and interests.
Look at your calendar and take action. If you have an event coming up this month, head over to your Facebook page and create an event page. Then start asking people to Subscribe and consider running an ad.
I hope this helps boost attendance at all future events!
If you have any questions about this feature or Facebook events, please leave a comment below.
You need to do a story on how facebook got rid of their "Subscribe" button on event pages and made facebook events completely impotent. Please read all the comments on this facebook help page on the topic to see how it effects pages and users: http://www.facebook.com/business/help/community/question/?id=10209242372123094
Thanks for the suggestion, Chris! We’ll check it out.