5 pro tips on how to use Facebook Events for your endurance sport event
Over 700 million people participate in Facebook events every month. Each year, 47 million public events are added to the biggest social-media platform. Is your event taking advantage of this popular tool? Does it stand out from the competition?
This quick guide will help you improve your event listing, and if you are completely new to this idea, it will help you add your first event.
1. Event description
Your description encompasses the essential details you want your future participants and current participants to find at the event. Develop an appealing description that will attract athletes and give information required concisely and precisely. Include information such as:
Races/Distances available at your event
Pricing of each race or price steps if available
Certificates/Labels your event has earned
Prizes and other things included in the fee
Entertainment/Cultural acts
Highlights of your race which do stand out
Course details like flat, hilly, asphalt etc.
You can make your description even better by providing FAQ’s where athletes can get answers to what they may want to ask. Your mission is to let no questions unanswered so potential participants feel safe to register for your event.
2. Use specific location, time, and date
Make sure to add an exact location of where the event will take place or better say where the race will start. Facebook is optimized to search locations automatically. Once you start inputting the name of a particular place, it will provide you with suggestions, and you can choose the exact location you want to include. Using the official listing for the starting location or venue helps build credibility and recognition. Furthermore, Facebook will recommend the event to people living nearby the location or those who have similar interests as those addressed in the description. Adding an end time to your event is optional but particularly important if your event will span multiple days.
3. Event photo
You want to drive people into your event by using a photo that compels them to look for more information. The image you use must be beautiful and relevant to what you want to communicate during the event. People like to associate themselves with quality events. Put up an image with a high resolution so that everything can be seen clearly. We have experienced that photos of events showing athletes in action or the beautiful landscape along the course are clicked better.
Furthermore, you will need a size that can be optimized to feature in the news feed and the section for upcoming events on Facebook. There is no standard size of the photo you need to put since Facebook keeps updating it from time to time. You can check out the required image size from the Facebook site. When you choose a photo, ensure it fits both desktop and mobile users. The image can have text but ensure it is limited, and the main image can be seen without any major cut outs.
4. Partner up with co-hosts
You can effectively work with a partner in planning and promoting your event on Facebook. Adding co-hosts to your event is essential because they can also help you to promote your event. You can choose a co-host from your friends, partners such as travel agencies, sponsors, tourist information of your country or city and of course us (World’s Marathons). The tactic is more efficient when the co-host has an established audience ready to take up what they offer. You will combine their influence with their followers with yours to generate buzz and get more people to your event in the scheduled hour. The co-host will add the event to their calendar, and their audience can view it too and add it to a to-do list. Therefore, it is one of the best tactics to use when you want to reach potentially interested participants easily.
5. Share pre-event content
Sharing pre-event content related to your event gives you additional opportunities to promote your event and makes your followers excited about participating. Furthermore, it is an excellent chance to share details or any event changes so that everyone can plan accordingly and also share the event as much as possible.
Sharing highlights about the country, location, or city and the things your participants can discover and explore apart from the challenge, is a great option for pre-event content.
