How Do I Use Facebook To Promote My Event?

I asked my dear friend, and social media mentor Lindsay Wilson, to respond to this question.

Dear Sarah,

I’m a massage therapist and yoga instructor. I teach specialized classes such as: Yoga for Round Bodies, Restorative Yoga for Low Back Pain, Deep Restoration, etc. I am launching my first ever Yoga for Round Bodies Weekend Retreat in the Country in June. I haven’t used Groups, Events or Fan Pages on Facebook yet. How do I best use these tools to drive registrations or at least traffic to my website? Any other ideas you have would also be great, thanx!
Tina Veer  Halcyon Health

Dear Tina,

Thanks so much for your question!  I’m going to give you honest advice, if I may. Skip the fan and group pages for right now, as your event is only a couple of months away, and those take time to gain a sizable number of people. Events, however, are a great idea for you to use – starting asap! I would suggest you do a Vokle.com, live, video event, and create it that as an event on Facebook. It’s a great, easy new technology and having a live web show will bring in a lot of viewers. You can talk about the retreat, or even offer a free half hour class – so people can experience you. (It’s like the tester bottle of perfume. We’d never buy it if we couldn’t try it.)

Here are some other things that will drive registrations via Social Media:

Do a video (or a number of videos) and post them as your Status Updates.  Purchases increase by something like 60 percent when video is used. You can simply talk about what you’re passionate about about the retreat, or have someone do a testimonial, or do a video of the country. All of those are reasons someone would buy.

Also, make friends on FB who have similiar target market (perhaps local businesses, or weight loss places, or …) and ask if you two can promote each other on one another’s Facebook walls. Reaching their customer base is priceless.

Finally, to simply get traffic to your website, make an irresistible offer (ie “Want a free Yoga for Round Bodies workout?”) then put the link on your Status Update so they can simply click and get to your site.

My biggest piece of advice to you is to keep your goal in mind. If you really want registrations, don’t think about getting website traffic. Don’t settle!  Social Media can drive amazing results, if you use it properly.

And, let me know when your video class is. I’d love to attend!

Lindsay
SocialMediaHeaven. Com