Industry News

Facebook Events experiences huge increase in engagement

Facebook Events has seen a 40-per-cent year-on-year rise in user engagement with public events through its dedicated platform.

Facebook Events, which launched last year, is a calendar that suggests events depending on users’ Likes as well as highlighting those their friends are interested in attending. Events currently supports the ability to sell tickets on Facebook through Ticketmaster and Eventbrite and the ability to publish events via Official Events with Ticketmaster, Eventbrite, Spectra Ticketing, Ticketfly and AXS.com.

In an interview with the Venues Today website, Facebook Events head Sue Young said the platform is playing an increasingly prominent role in the publicising of gigs, sports fixtures and other attractions.

“While we can’t share exact metrics, we can share that we’ve seen over 40-per-cent year-over-year growth in people engaging with public events created,” said Young. “We’ve also seen that more than half of all Facebook Event RSVPs, sharing and commenting in Events are happening on mobile, and ticketing is already designed for mobile so it’s quick and easy, which means people are more likely to complete the process of purchasing a ticket.

“We’ve gotten great feedback from our partners that posting on Facebook helps them drive sales and attendance. We’ve done an analysis of the best ways you can promote your event on Facebook and, while ads are the top, the second is sharing to other pages and profiles, with RSVPing as a close third. So don’t forget to share your event to your page, add co-hosts and encourage both your page followers and RSVP’ed attendees to share with their friends.”

Young added that the platform helps to “bring tickets to the people” by seamlessly linking more than 550 million Facebook Events users with events they may not have otherwise found out about.

“We think ticketing and social media are becoming the present and are definitely the future,” she told Venues Today. “Bringing tickets to the people is a trend we’ve heard mentioned repeatedly at industry events. And ticket sales are becoming more about creating meaningful relationships with people so they become subscribers, followers and repeat attendees instead of simple, isolated transactions.

“Facebook has a unique ability to help foster those relationships and keep your audience engaged and interested.

“Facebook is all about helping people create meaningful connections.”