Promoting Events with Social Media

Promoting your event can be the most important component in order to reach your goals. Promotion is also typically a key asset in providing value to your sponsors. Beyond the traditional print and email approaches, there are new ways to promote your event with Social Media. By incorporating social media into your event promotion plan, you can reach your supporters where they live and also provide increased value to your sponsors.

Contents

1 How do I promote my event on our website?
1. 1.1 Event Widget for your Organization's website
2. 1.2 Event Button for your Organization's website
2 How do I promote my event on our Facebook page?
3 How can supporters share details of our event with their networks (friends and family)?
4 Tweet about your event

How do I promote my event on our website?

The event can be promoted on your organization's website with either a widget or a button. Depending on you need you can use either of both.

Event Widget for your Organization's website

An Event Widget can be thought of as an Ad for your event that can be placed on any web page. You can add details about your event and it links to you givezooks event page. It can also be set to animate in order to bring attention to it.

NOTE: You can also give a widget to a corporate sponsor so that they can also help you promote your event.

On your Event Dashboard select 'Widgets' under the 'Promote' Section from the menu on the left.
You will then be able to either 'Create' or 'Edit' and existing widget. Choose 'Create' to make a new widget.
The Widget configuration page will allow adject the look of the widget and what is displayed. You can adjust the width, the colors, which headings are shown and you can then add a detailed message.
Once you have the widget configured, select the 'Create Widget' button
You will now be at the 'Manage Widgets' page and can copy the embed code to add to your website

Event Button for your Organization's website

An Event Button can be placed on any web page that links to your event. There are several styles and sizes of buttons that are automatically created for event and available on the public event page.

On your Event page select 'Get a button to link to this event' under the 'GET INVOLVED' Section.
You can choose from the types and sizes of buttons available.
Select the Embed code for the button you want and you can either send that to your webmaster with instructions on where to place it on your website or if you can update your website, you can place the embed code in the desired location.

You can also create your own button with VerticalResponses's Button Creator.

How do I promote my event on our Facebook page?

There are several key ways to promote your event on your organization's Facebook Page. You should consider all of them as you promote your event.

Publish to Facebook

Sell tickets and sponsorships to your event, right in Facebook. Click here for setup instructions.

Event Widget for your Organization's Facebook Page

An Event Badge is automatically created for each of your givezooks event. It includes the high level details of your events and a link to register. This badge would typically be placed on your Fan Page Wall so that it is readily visable to your fans.

On your Event Dashboard select 'Facebook' under the 'Promote' Section from the menu on the left.
The Facebook Badge preview screen. It has two sections. The first shows a preview of the badge and the second section show the HTML that you will add to your Facebook Fan Page.
Copy the HTML from section 2 in the above graphic and then login to Facebook
Add the Badge per these Instructions

Post the Event to your Fan Page wall

Posting to your Fan Page Wall is the easiest way to broadcast an update all of your Fans. It's a good idea to Post at various times leading up to the Event. Here are some ideas about when to post to Facebook.

Post when you initially announce the Event
Post asking your fans to Post the Event on their Facebook Wall.
Post when you get new sponsors to thank them
Upload photos from previous events and invite fans to the current event
Post to let people know how much time is left to register (3 weeks, 2 weeks, 1 week, 3 days, etc.)
Post to let people know that there are only X tickets left
Post any changes to the Event
Post at after the event to thank attendees.

Here are simply instructions on how to post a link to your event when you do post to your Fan Page Wall.

Go to the Public view of your event page and find the 'Get Involved' section
Select 'Get a link to send friends' and copy the link to your event.
Now you can log into facebook and go to your organization's Facebook page and post the link on the Wall.

How can supporters share details of our event with their networks (friends and family)?

A great way to let people get involved, is to let them spread the word. Your givezooks Event page makes it easy to do that in several ways. Supporters can share directly from your event page.

You or your supporters can easily share to Facebook by using one of two links in the 'Get Involved' section of your event page. They can use this to not only share to Facebook, but other Social networks also.
When the top little Facebook logo is chosen, the user goes directly to Facebook with the link to your Event pre-loaded for them to post.
If the 'Share this Fundraiser' link is chosen, the the window below is opened and the user can choose from several Social Networking sites like Facebook, Twitter or Linked in, as well as email or bookmarking sites.

Another way for your supporters to share your Event with their personal networks is after they have either purchased tickets or donated. On the 'Thank You' page there are a couple pre-formed tweets and a Facebook post.

Tweet about your event

Twitter has grown in popularity as a way that people keep up to date and interact. Specifically, it's use has been incorporated into promotion and updates regarding events due to the broadcast nature.

When to Tweet - Similar to when you might post on Facebook

Tweet when you initially announce the Event
Ask your follower to Re-Tweet (RT) about the event.
Tweet when you get new sponsors to thank them
Tweet to let people know how much time is left to register (3 weeks, 2 weeks, 1 week, 3 days, etc.)
Tweet to let people know that there are only X tickets left
Tweet any changes to the Event
Tweet at after the event to thank attendees.

Getting a shortened URL for your Tweet - Since you only have 140 Characters for a tweet, you may want a short URL to use in your tweet. From the 'Get a Link to send friends' in the 'Get Involved' section of your event. The added benefit of using this link is that there will be 'click' statistics automatically generated for it.

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