- In this Facebook event tutorial,
I'll show you step by step
how to create a Facebook event
as well as some best practices to use
so your event reaches as many people as possible.
All right, let's get into it.
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My name is Jerry Potter.
Yes, it rhymes with a boy wizard.
And in this Facebook event tutorial,
I'm gonna show you exactly how to set up an event
as well as how to make sure that lots of people see it.
I'm gonna be showing you how to do this
from a Facebook business page,
but it's pretty much the same process
wherever you do it.
If you'd like a more specific tutorial,
I've linked in tutorials below in the description
of this video about how to create a Facebook event
in a group or from your smartphone.
Now there are a lot of places on Facebook
where you can create an event,
sometimes you can do it from where you're creating a post,
you can go to the events page,
wherever you wanna create it and add a new event.
But the place that is always available
is right here at the top in the bar,
there's this plus sign or on your Facebook,
it might look like this,
and it says Create instead.
But either way, you tap on that, and then click event.
So back on my view here, I'm gonna click event.
Now I'm showing you this on the new version of Facebook.
But if you're still using the old version,
I've got a tutorial about how to do it down below.
But the steps are essentially the same,
the screen will just look a little different.
So first, over here on the left,
you can see I have private event here.
But since I wanna create this from my business page,
first I'm gonna click the drop down
and choose my business page.
Now it's a public event because business pages
can only do public events.
Now down here at the bottom, you're gonna click Next.
And here's where we're gonna put in our information.
So the first thing you'll see is there's a checkbox here
that they've added for online event.
So you can click that,
and then you can choose an event format.
So if it's a Facebook Live,
you can do that, and schedule it this way.
If it is a link, for example, let's say I wanted to link
to a Zoom stream that I was doing or something like that,
I can put link in here for where they would go
or, Google Hangouts, whatever you're using.
And then other, where you can essentially select other
and then put down the description that specifics
about where you want the person to go.
But if it's not an online event,
you can type in the location,
the actual physical location,
what you do is search for it.
So if I type in T-Mobile Park,
which is the name of the major league baseball stadium
here in Seattle, I can select it,
and it automatically adds a map.
People can click on it, get directions, all of that.
So if you have a publicly visible location for your event,
then this is a great way to go.
Next up is the date and time of your event.
So you would just, you how to use the calendar, right?
(laughing)
Click a date and then a start, and an end time.
Then below that if you wanna have a recurring event
or you wanna schedule multiple events,
this is where you can click on this
and it'll bring up new options.
So it could be daily, it could be weekly.
Or if you want to get into custom,
you could literally have an event on this date
at 5:00 a.m, sure, why not?
Until 6:00 a.m, and then hit add,
then, on this date, same type of thing,
you can put in as many things as you want.
But for this tutorial,
I'm gonna turn off the recurring dates there.
So we've got our date on August 1st, 10:00, to noon.
Next is the event name.
And this is really important
because people tend to abuse this,
I believe the character limit is 64
in terms of how many letters or characters
you can have in here,
but on a mobile device,
a lot of them will get cut off.
So if I type in,
The 3rd Annual Quarterly Superstar Challenge
of Seafood Dinners,
there's a good chance that all this will get cut off
especially on a mobile device
and now all anybody sees is,
come To the 3rd Annual Quarterly.
The what?
(laughing)
So it's really important.
So, what I had there was this,
superstar challenge of seafood dinners,
obviously something I made up.
But what I would probably put in
was Seafood Dinner Challenge.
And then I might add 3rd Annual Event
or something afterward.
So if that's important,
like you wanna show people like,
"Hey, we've done this event before,
"and it was successful enough,
"we're doing it again."
There's some social proof in that verbiage,
then you could do that,
but you really wanna make sure people see
the important words up first.
So that's why I have Seafood Dinner at the very beginning
so that it doesn't get cut off.
Below that is the description.
This is where you can add anything you want
to tell people about your event.
So this is where you can add additional links,
mentioned sponsors, details, all kinds of different things.
One thing though that is really important, is again,
they will only see
when they first glance at your event
the first couple of lines
depending on what device they're on.
So this is why it's really important
to give the most important information first.
So if I decided to start off all casual,
"Okay, guys, here's what we're doing this year,
"and I'm super excited."
Like, you might put that in an email,
I guess, or something like that.
But if this is all they see,
now you've done nothing to get them enticed.
So what you would do instead is say something like,
"Seattle's most popular dinner for seafood lovers is back."
So now you've told me what the event is
who it's for.
And if I'm a seafood lover, and it's popular,
I'm leaning in, "Oh, what?
"Well, tell me more."
So just keep that in mind.
The first two lines of your description
are really important.
You can put like I said, a ton of information in there,
just know that most people won't read all of it.
So make sure again to put
the most important information at the top.
Next up, upload a photo.
So this is where you can add a photo
to the top of your event.
The image can obviously be whatever you want,
but what I'm going to recommend are two things.
One, do not put the flyer for your event up here.
Because if you have an image with too much text,
first of all, Facebook doesn't like images
with more than about 20% text.
So you will actually hurt the reach of your event,
the free reach, the organic reach of your event,
because you put too much text in the image.
Now it would be okay to have some text
but really, really limit it.
Second thing that's important is this picture
is gonna be viewed quite small on a lot of mobile devices.
So I think that the best thing for most events
is going to be a close up photo
of a few people enjoying the last event
you did like this, or a stock photo
if you can't find something like that.
We connect with faces,
we connect with people enjoying themselves
assuming your event is enjoyable.
If it's not, obviously you can go a different route.
So I think that's the best thing
that you could possibly do.
If it was a seafood dinner,
it might just be a big picture
of a bright orange lobster on a plate
and maybe there's not a person in it.
But just keep that in mind,
the whole idea of the image
is to get somebody interested in the event.
And if you have a bunch of text
either A, they won't read it or B, they won't see it
because you won't get very much reach
on the Facebook feed.
The image is supposed to be 1920 by 1080 pixels.
All right, next below that
is you're gotta choose the category.
I have created so many Facebook events over the years.
and a lot of times there is no category that fits.
And you can't choose your,
or you can't select or make up your own category.
So if none of these fit, just choose other,
otherwise, if something fits, it's great.
For example, let's say you were doing a health event,
they might recommend your event to someone else,
especially if it's like a local event
in your area that attended
or is looking at other health events.
So, we'll just select other
I just don't want to waste a bunch of time going.
"I don't know which category this is."
If it's not clear,
just select other and you should be fine.
Below that you can add co hosts.
So, let's say you've got some sponsors
or the venue or any number of things,
you can click on this.
And then you can go through
and you can choose other pages.
So here's another business page I have,
I could add it as a co host.
Do notice the warning that is there,
they can add the event to their calendars
to help spread the word, which is great,
but they'll also have editing privileges.
So if it's just some small sponsor
that you don't trust,
you don't want them necessarily as a co host there.
So just keep that in mind.
If you have tickets for your event
or any kind of registration, you can add it in here.
You just paste it in and save it.
If your event has more of a schedule,
this is another thing they've added
since Facebook events were born,
you can actually put in exactly
what's going to be happening.
Doors open at, (chuckles)
here I have this dinner at 10:00 a.m, you get the idea.
So, doors open at 9:00 a.m.
Then I can hit add schedule entry again, appetizers begin.
Then I can add another one,
so as many as you want, and then hit save.
I also like this new Facebook layout
because as you update things over here,
you get to see exactly
how your event is going to look over here on the right.
And that's something new that they've added,
which is really nice.
Below that are keywords,
you can't make up any word that you want.
So let's say this was a fundraiser,
I can't put in fundraiser,
but you'll notice fundraising came up.
And so I could type that in.
So you can add some keywords to kind of, again,
increase the chances that it might be found in search.
They've added more check boxes
to kind of help you categorize your event.
So if somebody's looking for a volunteer opportunity,
and this is one, you could add that,
if it's kid friendly, I would always check that
as a parent of two tiny humans
who's often looking for things to do with them.
That's a great box.
Of course, if it's not kid friendly, don't check that.
Below that you can let people ask you questions
about the event over Facebook Messenger.
So basically, it will add a message box
so it just did that down here at the bottom.
because I selected that.
Below that show the guest list.
So if you wanna show the guest list, you can.
If you wanna hide it, then hide it.
But one thing I strongly recommend
is show the guest list unless there is a privacy concern.
Don't hide the guest list because you're worried
that it looked bad
if it doesn't look like many people are going.
Now, don't get me wrong.
If I create an event and it only says two people
are going and it's been up for 10 days,
it doesn't look great.
But I think it's really important to realize
that the power of Facebook events is that guest list.
"Oh, my friend is going."
Facebook sometimes will recommend it to somebody else,
because their friend is going
so you're missing out on one of the best pieces
of Facebook events by unchecking that.
And then only admins can post an event
you can have that checked.
But if you uncheck it, you do have the ability
to get a lot more engagement.
So I usually leave that unchecked.
But if you're worried about people posting things,
terrible or whatever it might be,
you can check this box,
and that way they have to be approved by a host
or co host, before they actually show up.
So over here you can see
exactly how your event is gonna look.
You can click over here on this little tab,
and it'll show you how it'll look on a mobile device.
This is possibly a little bigger
than somebody will see it on a mobile device.
So I would actually pull it up on your phone,
if you wanna actually judge the way it's gonna look.
But you can see here, they have this date next to the image.
And then here on mobile, they've got it over the image.
So if you had text right there, you wouldn't want that.
So it's nice to be able to have that little preview.
Then back down here at the bottom,
you can hit create, or you can click these three dots,
you can save it as a draft,
or they didn't used to have this,
I love that they do, now you can schedule the event
to go up at a certain time.
So let's say you're announcing it on a Saturday,
but you're gonna be swimming at that time Saturday,
you can actually schedule the event instead.
Or if you want to go up right away,
just hit create and your event will publish.
After your event is up, start inviting people.
But that's just the first step.
Creating the event is great,
but there are so many things you can do afterward
to make sure that your event reaches more people
and I put together a tutorial
with 10 of my favorite ways
to dominate with Facebook events.
Click the video right here on the screen
to watch it right now.
I've also linked it in the description
of the video down below.
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