Ways to Get Mileage From Your Facebook & Virtual Events

With 1.878 billion daily active users across the world (40% of whom are from the Asia-Pacific region), Meta (formerly Facebook) is the largest social media company in the world. Leveraging events through their platform allows your business or organization an opportunity to reach people who may otherwise never be able to connect with you.

Globally, virtual events have become more prevalent since the COVID-19 pandemic. Audiences have moved online in record numbers, a trend that is likely to remain post-pandemic. Meta/Facebook provides a number of tools designed to help you engage a variety of people.

Through holding virtual events, your company or organization can:

Drive page view growth

Increase engagement

Generate revenue or expand revenue streams

Cultivate community

Grow membership

Boost awareness of your cause

But how? Where to start?

Determine your goal and audience — do you wish to monetize your event? Or is your event designed to increase page views or community numbers? Is it public? Intended for a private group?

Once you’ve determined the above, you can narrow your focus. Will your event be a presentation or more interactive? If private, will attendees be required to pay for a ticket? Will there be collateral materials or other digital assets your business or organization would like to include?

What is the scale? Will you have an intimate online gathering of a few people (up to 40), or will there be a larger global audience participating? How about recording, saving and disseminating any materials from the event?

What type of content? Messenger Rooms or Facebook Live both offer different levels of interaction. Premiers or Playlists offer a more traditional broadcast-one way communication presentation style. Your choice will depend on the goals and size of your group. Something to keep in mind: certain features aren’t available to all people, groups and Pages at this time.

Here’s a brief recap:

• Before you plan your event, consider your specific goals.

• Create your event and choose whether it will be live or pre-recorded, free or paid, private or public, streamed on Facebook Live or another location.

• Plan your content so that it’s engaging, varied and broken into segments.

• Set up your space with a clean, simple background and wear bright, solid colors.

• Test to make sure your audio, video, lighting and background all work well.

• Plan for video on demand (VOD) with Premieres and playlists.

Integrating virtual events into your marketing mix can help you reach more people, develop a stronger relationship with event attendees and enhance your other media efforts. Our experts can walk you through the options and help you choose the path that’s right for you. Check out our virtual events page, or contact Marissa at [email protected].