Free Facebook Promotion for Events

A unique feature of Facebook Events is the viral growth potential. It often happens so that Events enlarge themselves, attracting dozens of thousands of responders without any budget spent. So the first thing to be done is to go through our actionable checklist for free Facebook promotion and then proceed with paid promotion.

Free Facebook promotion checklist for your Events

Use the following checklist to promote events online for free. All you need is to make the Event engaging and relevant for your followers.

1. Add more Co-hosts

Add all relevant pages as co-hosts. These may include pages of all performers listed for the Event, the venue, groups. This will widen the Event reach and hint Facebook at where to display the post. You will find more useful tips on Facebook Events creation in the first chapter. Note that all co-hosts will be able to post on the Event.
How to add co-hosts: click Edit → Co-hosts on the Event page. You can indicate anybody, but make sure the page administrator approved your request.

2. Invite friends to an Event

This suits small family events and friends parties. There are many invitation options but do not be spammy. Do not send invitations massively: this will only take your time and spend invitation limits without any result. To invite friends, click Share → Invite Friends and see which of the lists offered by Facebook includes friends who are most interested in the content you offer.

3. Posting on a page

Share your Event link on relevant Facebook pages. You can do it on your Event page.
Suggest Facebook what audience to target by location or interests. For example, when posting on an artist’s page, choose targeting by location; while posts on a venue’s page should be targeted by interests.

Targeting posts by location: in your Event click Share → Share as Post → Share on a Page You Manage, select Demographics and specify the locations for the post.

You will see location limitations after posting.

Targeting posts by interests: (available only for pages with over 10k users): copy your Facebook Event link, start creating a new post and indicate interests relevant for your Event.

You can select the artist’s name, several similar artists or interests corresponding to the Event.

4. Cross posts on your events

In case you create Facebook Events routinely, you might already have several Events with similar interests and use then for free Facebook promotion. Define similar events with close locations, and post on them. The same mechanism works for posting on pages. It’s important to post from the host of the page and not from your personal account, otherwise the post will have a meager reach.

5. Cross posts to groups

The same principle as posting on pages and groups. If you know a relevant Facebook group and believe your content to be useful, go ahead to copy and publish your link. But do not be spammy: it will do no good.

6. Posting to other events

Note that the reach of such posts is very moderate. You can visit somebody’s Facebook Event and publish a visitor’s post, if this option was not disabled by the host.
Do not miss the “be relevant, be engaging” principle and do not spam. Start posting links on all Events at random, and risk being totally blocked by Facebook.

7. Events calendar

You can share a link to your Events calendar on your Event page. The post will include only 3 closest Events, however. Still, this generates content that can be promoted in your Events, groups and pages – just like a usual cross post described above.

8. QR-codes

If you promote your Event offline with posters, playbills, flyers, billboards, you name it, be sure to add a noticeable QR-code. This will help your audience not only remember the event, but also subscribe to updates, get details and even buy tickets.
You will find Event QR-code in the header of the Event page, to the right of Edit button … → Create QR Code.

This QR-code will work as follows: Facebook Event link will open for the user to follow, read details or event buy a ticket at once.

Qr-codes on Facebook.

9. Contests

Facebook imposed strict constraints on contesting, forbidding such options as “mention a friend in comments”, “share a post”, “follow”; so it is not advisable to use such methods for audience capture. Read more about contests at  Facebook Business Forum and Official Facebook Events Policy.