Promoting Events on Facebook

I find Events to be one of the most useful applications on Facebook. This is viral marketing at its finest, because whenever one of my friends signs up for an event that’s been posted, it comes up in my news feed – I don’t even need to be sent an invitation (although that is another powerful tool).

There are two ways you can create an event, as an individual, or as a business. If you want the event to show up on your Business Page, you need to create it from that page, rather than by going directly to the Events application (at least that is how I understand it).

I’ve been posting my own events for quite a while, usually just inviting the specific friends that I think might be interested. I am so-o-o cautious not to be a spammer, as I’ve heard of at least two people whose accounts were disabled without warning. However, others invite me to all kinds of events taking place in all kinds of locations, so I decided it wouldn’t be inappropriate to invite all of my friends to my upcoming Computer Organizing teleclass with Marcia Francois.

Since I wanted the teleclass to be listed on the Organized Assistant page, that is how I set it up. I then indicated that I would be attending, and proceeded to invite my friends – in small batches, so I wouldn’t break any Facebook rules. I was really pleased with the results, as some of the people who registered might not have known about it if I’d only sent the invitation to a select few. Also, it quickly became apparent that some of my friends were inviting other friends, as there were many unfamiliar names on the list of people invited.

Now that the date is drawing closer, it is time to follow up with people who said they were attending or may be attending, yet haven’t actually registered, and this is where my problems started. First of all, when you create an event directly in the Events application (which shows yourself as the host), you have the option of sending a message to all guests, but when you create it through your business page (which shows your business as the host), that option does not exist. Therefore, the only way I had to follow up was to send individual messages to each person. I was just about finished when I received a message on my screen, warning me that I was spamming and at risk of having my account terminated. I immediately stopped what I was doing, but the warning still appeared several hours later. I’d love to know exactly how the powers that be behind Facebook expect businesses to promote their events if they can’t send a message to all guests, and aren’t allowed to contact them individually. I guess they want us to type out personal messages to each person, rather than copying and pasting, but seriously, who has time to do that?

Don’t get me wrong; I think it’s a fabulous resource and love the fact that there’s no cost to use it, but it could definitely be better.

What kind of experience have you had promoting events on Facebook?