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HOW TO SET UP AND

OPTIMIZE A FACEBOOK

EVENT FOR YOUR RACE

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We are going to begin posting ways and methods to help promote your race to further your event and meet your organizational goals. This one's for the race director who is looking to promote an event without taking a big chuck out of your budget. The first thing that comes to mind is...FACEBOOK.
Setting up a Facebook event is a GREAT way to spread the word about your race -- you just have to make sure it's done right. Follow these easy to follow steps to set up a Facebook event and make it effective:

1. Log in to Facebook
2. Visit the Facebook events page
3. Fill in the details
4. Add a photo
5. Click "create event".

Further, use these 10 steps to make your page an effective marketing tool:

1. Add a link to your registration page in the info section.
2. Invite all of your Facebook friends (See below for EASY tool to invite all 1,000 friends without checking each box!)
3. Add a message describing your event and cause.
4. Check the box that reads: "Anyone can view and RSVP (thus making it a public event)"
5. Post the event on your personal Facebook wall.
6. Post the event on your business or organization page. Also encourage sponsors to post, helping them get more exposure and positive awareness for their support!
7. Add interesting stuff to the wall. When people see the event invitation and click to check it out, you want to have some eye catching features: pictures, videos, and a few short messages on the wall. Post photos and videos from last year's race or maybe some maps of the course if this is your first race. GET CREATIVE!
8. Encourage people to invite their friends. Make a post on the event wall that encourages people to invite their other endurance friends. This is the value of Facebook - EVERYONE is connected. If even a few people help you spread the word, the message will exponentially spread to others that were previously beyond your reach.
9. Message the guests periodically. In the top right corner of your Facebook event page, you'll see a button called "Message Guests". You can choose to message guests depending on their status (attending, not attending, maybe attending). I recommend sending out targeted messages that remind people to sign up for the event. Be sure to add your registration page link!
10. Don't over post!  By this I mean use the 9 above steps wisely! People are swamped with information through social media so event directors need to find a good balance between getting the word out and annoying people. Basically, do not post on your event wall with a daily countdown. That's annoying. A better way to get attention is to start some interesting discussions on the wall to get people talking. If people are bounding comments around, your Facebook Event is doing its job and engaging participants. That makes you less spammy and displays the genuine interest in your race.
11. ALSO, If you use our registration engine hosted by RunSignUp.com, once you have granted you admin access you have a great way to let people signing up advertise for you. Allowing them to share they have registered with their Facebook friends. Go to the SOCIAL tab click FACeBOOK, then copy and paste the link to your facebook event into the box, followed by clicking LINK EVENT:

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As promised here is a step by step way to invite all of your friends without checking each person.



First, copy this JavaScript Code:
javascript:elms=document.getElementsByName("checkableitems[]");for (i=0;i<elms.length;i++){if (elms[i]. )elms[i].click()};



For starters - DON'T PANIC! - it is just a series of text, and you don't have to understand it - there will NOT be a quiz!


The steps are pretty simple:

1. Go to the Facebook Event page for your event, and find the "Select Guests to Invite" button - usually right below the image of the Event on the right.
2. The Invite Friends window will pop up.
3. SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THE LIST - this is important or our trick will only select the first 200 friends.
4. If you haven't already, copy the above code.
5. Paste the Java Script code into your URL bar (browser address bar), without leaving the Invite Friends dialogue page and press ENTER.  ***NOTE: In Google Chrome browser once I paste the code into the browser I have to go to the very beginning of the code and retype javascript: then press ENTER.
6. Wait a few moments as it may take a bit of time, the more friends the longer. It may appear that your browser is frozen, this is a good thing. For me it takes about 15-20 seconds. Once the operation completes, you will see check marks beside all your friends.
7. Repasting the Java Script code into the URL and pressing ENTER again will UNCHECK all the friends you have selected.

As of the writing of this page 1/15/2014 the above instructions and code work in Google Chrome. Other browsers may work differently. We will update as anything changes.


Posted by Zack Loggins - 1/15/2014