4 Killer Ways to Use Facebook for Event Marketing in 2022

Using Facebook for event marketing is an excellent way to increase registrations and ticket sales for your events. The best part? All of the methods we’ve shared below won’t cost you a penny.

Free Ways to Use Facebook for Event Marketing

Beyond adding share buttons to your calendar listings, there are some easy ways to leverage native Facebook features to get the word out about your events. To help illustrate the tips in this post, I’ve pulled examples from Social Media Examiner around their upcoming Social Media Marketing World conference.

#1: Create a Facebook Event Page

Facebook event pages are a fantastic tool for event marketing. Besides containing all of your pertinent event information, they also have a few additional features worth noting:

Facebook event marketing: Event Example from Social Media Examiner

Event Type & Host: When you create your event page, you can choose the type of event that is displayed. Events created using your business fan page will link to your business page as the host. Additional hosts can be selected if you are co-hosting the event with another organization.

Tip: If you are co-hosting an event with another group, avoid duplicate event listings & promotion efforts by listing both organizations as hosts on a single event page.

Ticket Link: Since Facebook does not yet support ticket sales directly through their platform, you can specify an external site, such as your WordPress website, where attendees can purchase tickets.

Tip: Add Google UTM tracking codes to your ticket link to better track analytics on your Facebook event marketing.

Encourage Invites: The Invite button is one of the most powerful features of a Facebook event page. Users can invite friends to attend, share the event on their personal timeline, or share on their own business/fan page to help promote your event.

Tip: Enlist your employees or friends to help promote your event by asking them to invite people from their personal networks. A word of caution against being spammy – you don’t need to invite everyone on your list – just those you believe would genuinely be interested in attending.

#2: Encourage Fans to Subscribe to Your Events

When created under your business/fan page, an Events tab is automatically added to your page. In addition to showcasing your page’s current and past events, this tab also offers the option for fans to subscribe to receive notifications when you update your events.

Event marketing using Facebook events - Social Media Examiner example

This tab is particularly valuable for those hosting multiple events. At a glance, fans can see all of your upcoming events in one place and tap a button to quickly express interest or purchase tickets.

#3: Update Your Facebook Cover Photo

The cover photo image on your business or fan page is prime real estate for event marketing. You can see this in action on the Social Media Examiner Facebook page – as soon as you land on their page, you immediately see information about the conference they’re promoting.

Using Facebook for Event Marketing: Social Media Examiner Example

When using your Facebook cover photo to promote an event, make sure you provide enough information so visitors understand what your event is all about. The goal here is awareness, which means you’ll want to provide ways for your fans to learn more about the event.

Key elements to consider:

  • Event Name
  • Date
  • Event Location
  • Relevance to Your Fans
  • Call To Action/Learn More

Facebook cover photo promotion doesn’t have to be limited to large conferences or annual events. You can also use this space to promote recurring events, including meetups, workshops, classes, and more.

#4: Create Engaging Status Updates

Status updates are an easy way to market your event to potential attendees. The key to success is to make sure your updates are engaging and targeted to the right audience.

Sometimes people get a bit confused about the difference between sharing updates on their Facebook fan page vs sharing updates in their Facebook event. Here’s an easy way to distinguish the difference:

Facebook FAN Page = All the people that have “liked” your fan page. Unless you are paying for ads, posts via your Facebook page are shown in the newsfeed of those who have already liked the page. Fan page updates are attributed to your company or organization.

Facebook EVENT Page = All the people that have expressed interest in attending your specific event. The people that are interested in attending your event may or may not already “like” your fan page. Event page updates can be posted using your personal profile OR attributed to your fan page.

Posts published on your fan page are not automatically posted to your event page, and vice versa. You’ll want to pick the post-appropriate place to publish your post based on the desired audience (everyone that likes your page vs only those interested in your event).

Status update ideas for events:

  • Speaker announcements or session information
  • Video teasers for the event
  • Event announcements (schedule, sessions, parking, etc…)
  • Media coverage
  • Thought-provoking articles
  • Questions or surveys
  • Ticket deadlines or promotions
  • Sponsor offers or incentives

Event updates don’t have to be boring! You can include links, branded images, and custom text to make your updates stand out in the newsfeed.

Facebook event marketing example: Status update featuring event speaker

Tip: Posts shared on your fan page can be re-shared in your event by clicking the timestamp and copy/pasting the URL of the status update. 

The Sky Is The Limit

These are just a few ideas to get you started marketing your events for free using Facebook. If you have your own tips to share, please let us know in the comment below!