Gig success tip #2 - Create a Facebook Event Page
Step 2 of our 10 steps to Local Gig Success involves one of the most powerful promotional tools the digital age has provided for musicians, venues and promoters.
Facebook 'Event' Pages are pretty much ordinary posts on steroids, with some brilliant features that make them far more effective than the vanilla alternative.
Lets unpack some of these.
Eliminating gig information errors
First, Event pages act as a foolproof checklist to ensure all the information relevant to your gig is included - time, date, location, ticketing link if needed, who your hosts or co-hosts are (with built in links to find out more), venue maps, numbers of interested people and a free-form description area.
This approach ensures readers have all the gig information they need literally at their fingertips but also ensures you don't leave any vital information out - a surprisingly common mistake.
Co-hosting multiplies your reach
The co-hosting functionality is especially valuable as it ensures that all followers of each host entity is notified of the addition of the page. In other words you will multiply your reach with the addition of each co-host, ad advantage that ordinary tagging of third parties doesn't replicate.
Co-hosting can be a little tricky to setup so here's a free guide as to how to do it.
Easier to navigate
From a navigation point of view, Event pages allow your page visitors to get a snapshot of all your upcoming gigs in one convenient area. The Event functionality also 'retires' gigs once they are done, adding them to a 'past' event sub-menu.
This approach is far more convenient and effective that scrolling through your day to day posts to find gig info - although many acts go for optimum benefit by also creating a gig guide in their facebook page header which is highly recommended as well.
Powerful invitation functionality
Another incredibly valuable feature of Event pages is their built-in Invitation functionality. This feature allows you and other band members to Invite friends with just a few clicks. This doesnt just bring the gig to their attention via the notifications feed, it also reminds them if they havent responded 'going','interested' or not going as well as notifies the Friends of respondents that they are, or might be going.
Ordinary posts dont have anywhere near these engagement capabilities without lots of time consuming manual tagging and inviting.
In fact according to experts, the current average reach for an organic Facebook post is now just 2.2%, but could be as low as 1.1% for some brand pages, unlike Invitations via Event pages which notify 100% of recipients with strong cross-exposure in turn to their followers.
Sadly neither does youth-favourite Instagram, which makes it a far more effective promotional tactic than its stable-mate.
Find (and find out about) venues easily
Yet another fantastic feature of Event pages is their integration with interactive maps and venue pages so that making your way to the gig becomes a breeze, as does related venue info such as parking, food and bev menus, opening hours and so on.
Less impactful graphics a small drawback
The only drawback that prevents many using Event pages report is that the graphic display is a less impactful and hard-coded landscape layout compared to the deeper display area of an ordinary post.
Presumably this design is a deliberate attempt to display important gig information without scrolling too much and also to distinguish it from ordinary posts.
Despite this, Event pages contain so many engagement and other features that ordinary posts pale by comparison in reach and effectiveness. Meaning they should be at the very forefront of your gig promotion armoury.
Have you experienced good results with Events pages? Tell us about them below!
And tune in next time to find out what to do next with your Event page.
Need professional help with your marketing? Reach out to Craig today.