| are an excellent way to increase brand awareness by bringing together people virtually or in person. You can use to promote a product launch or to market an existing product by offering attendees a bonus in the form of a discount coupon.
The value of hosting a Facebook Event lies in the fact that you can invite all your fans with a single click of the button. Additionally, if you can host a live event your credibility increases a thousand-fold because online interaction still cannot replace meeting someone in person. However, if you feel your product is not suited for a live event, you can still host an online event.
Many marketers feel that online events aren?t worth the hassle because the return in sales is pretty low for the work required to maintain interest in the event and then keep the event going. However, if you look at the issue from the perspective of building relationships with your prospects, then events can be invaluable. After all, while your ultimate goal is to drive sales, building relationships with your customers should also be high on your priority list because this, along with providing high value, is what will turn simple prospects into customers who are raving fans.
The latter will generate a much better ROI over the long term since you don?t have to expend as many resources on finding new customers. In fact, a study showed that repeat customers cost a business 6 times less than acquiring new customers and they also spend 33% more.
Another interesting aspect is that sites such as Meetup.com, which is basically a social site for groups focused on varied interests, have an application that allow Meetup groups to promote their events on Facebook. This can be an invaluable source of new prospects because there will be plenty of people on Meetup who might not have a Facebook presence.
The best way to learn about hosting events is to attend a few yourself and see how others are doing it. You can find events by running a search in the Applications ? Events tab. |