Friday, March 25, 2011

How to Advertise Your Events with Facebook

If you have a Facebook page for your business, sometimes it's hard to know what to post. However, one easy thing that you should definitely advertise through Facebook is your upcoming events.

Here's how you do it:

Note: We're writing this with the assumption that this is all done from a Facebook fan page, not a personal account.

As soon as you have a new event on your calendar, go to your Facebook business page and click on Events. Depending on what "version" of Facebook you have (they're always updating it), you will see it on the left or the top. Click on "Create an Event".

Facebook Events


The next screen should look something like the one above. From here you can enter in the details for your event...day and time, location, address, descriptions, etc.

Invite Guests

Before you actually create the event you'll also want to invite specific guests. Click on "Select Guests" and click on your friends who you want to invite to the event. Don't worry - even people who you haven't invited can still see the event. This is a nice feature because you can see who's responded later on, plus it makes sure your fans are aware of the event.

After you have selected friends to invite, click on "Create Event". Your event is created and will now appear on the News Feed of your fans.

There are still a few details to take care of. Go back to the main page of your Facebook business page and click on the event.

Here you should see the details of the event you created - but you will also see where you can add even more information.

Link to Website

We recommend adding a link here that leads to the events page of your website. This is helpful for a few reasons - you can more accurately track who is interested, usually your website is a more effective marketing tool than Facebook, and also you may want people to register for the event or pay directly from your website.

After you add the link to your website there are a few other options...you can add pictures to the event, video, or just add more information.

Update your Fans...Fail

There is also an option to "Update fans of..." to send an update to your fans. Unfortunately as of the time of this writing, sending an "update" from a Facebook business page is largely ineffective. Your fans don't get an email or notification, and it doesn't appear on their News Feed. The only place it shows up is as an "Event" on the left side of their main page. Most people never click this so they are unaware they were "updated".

So how do your fans know about the event? There are 3 main ways:

1. When you created the event it appeared in their News Feed

2. If you invited them as a guest (they have to be your friend, not just fan) they will receive a notification

3. When the event gets a little closer you should post a reminder on your wall to have people check out your event. This will also appear in their News Feed.

Adding your upcoming events to Facebook only takes a couple minutes, yet can really be effective in helping share the word. Make sure to use this valuable tool and you'll begin to see more people showing up to your events!

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Make your Web Content Look Amazing

In a past article on content writing we talked about what to write about. Now we're going to put that to the side and talk about how to style your web content. This is helpful for those of us who manage our own websites; it's also helpful if you have someone do it for you because now you can know what to look for.

Text on a page is boring right? Answer - it doesn't have to be. Here are a few ideas on how to make your content look interesting.

1. Use white space

White space is simply the extra padding in between the words and whatever the words are next to. So for example, in this article the words are on a white background, and next to it is a gray background. The gap in between where the words stop and the gray background begins is the white space.

White space makes your website look less cluttered. It also makes it much easier to read. Help out your readers by making sure that you have some extra white space around your text.

2. Make sure the font size is readable

A good rule of thumb is that it's better to be on the safe side when it comes to font size. A lot of people (and I'm one of them) prefer the look of a smaller font. But it's best to make sure that everyone can read your text very easily.

3. Use the correct background

While we're on the subject of readability, let's talk about colors. We've mentioned this before in 8 Website Blunders to Avoid, but it's very important that your text be a very dark color on a very light background. It doesn't have to be black on white, (although that is very common) and there's nothing wrong with dark gray or dark blue, but make sure there's a very stark contrast between the words and the background behind it.

One thing we didn't mention in the previous article is that it's also OK to reverse it and have a black background with white text. Sometimes this looks good on an "artsy" website for a photographer, rock band, etc. Just keep in mind that it is harder to read white text on a black background so make sure you compensate for it with extra white space, font size, and...

5. Line spacing

Line spacing is the gap between subsequent lines in a paragraph. Good line spacing will allow readers to easily scan your paragraphs without having to squint.

6. Use some photos

Conveniently, we just wrote an article on how to use pictures in your web content. The second item in that list is to "Use Scattered Images". If you didn't read the article what we mean is this - when you have a lot of text, make it look more interesting by putting a relevant picture next to the text to break it up. It will just make everything look much more interesting and professional.

7. Include some hyperlinks in your content

Hyperlinks serve a dual purpose in this context. First and most importantly, they direct your users to other interesting content that they may way to check out. But secondly, the links look nice.

Look at the link above. The added color just makes that paragraph look a little bit more interesting. Granted, the link isn't very descriptive so some people won't click it, but that's OK in some cases because maybe you're just adding some color to the paragraph.

Writing for the web is a difficult task for anyone. Remember that it's harder to read text on a computer screen than on paper. Using these suggestions will help grab the readers attention and help you reach your online goals.