Local marketing on Facebook got a lot more interesting – and probably more expensive – as Facebook expands into local events promotions.
Facebook added a new section to Facebook pages called “Subscribed Events”. This allows users to subscribe to a Facebook Page’s Events, and those users will be alerted that an event is happening close to them. While this works really well for bands and other musicians, it could easily be applied to instore events, cooking classes, community events, sports events… and just about any other kind of local event.
One downside to this is that if you do not have “events” listed as one of the main tabs, users will need to hunt it down in the drop down menu… and very likely won’t. So if you are promoting your local event, be sure that “events” is one of the main tabs. As many musicians list “Tour dates”, it can be hard to find the events listings that you can subscribe to.
Here is how it looks:
One thing that isn’t clear is if someone is subscribed to learn of local events if those users will get a special notification alerting them to the event wen it is announced or when it is upcoming. Techcrunch says it will be done as a Facebook notifications – at least for now.
The new Events Subscribe button will appear beneath the Like button on the Events section of all Pages. Events you get notifications about will also appear in your Events Dashboard as if you’d been invited. Facebook will also suggest you subscribe to events from artists and Pages you Like in the Events dashboard. Similar to Likes, your friends will be able to see which Pages’ events you’ve subscribed to.
If the bands feature becomes popular, it obviously leads to a natural progression where Facebook could partner with brands such as Ticketmaster to streamline ticket purchases, which could result in Facebook earning affiliate revenue or revenue through a partnership.
But it also is very likely that Facebook plans to monetize it by charging for promoted placements for the event subscribe buttons.
This is also seen as a move to attempt to woo back some bands and musicians who abandoned the site after a change to the default tab for Facebook Pages resulted in many returning to MySpace instead. MySpace is considered one of the top social media sites for musicians and bands.
Bottom line, this is a unique way for businesses and musicians to alert their audience to local events, but expect Facebook to apply their algorithm to it at some point so organic exposure is reduced and businesses and bands will be forced to pay to promote once again.
Jennifer Slegg
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