With more than 55 million public events created in 2014, Facebook is one of the most popular platforms to promote conferences, festivals, and other types of events. Now Facebook is rolling out updates that it says will allow hosts to create and promote their events more efficiently.
“Public event creators and promoters told us they wanted more robust tools to more easily create and manage events, as well as promote these events in order to reach a target audience,” says Hema Budaraju, product manager for Facebook Events. "We have improved many features in the Events create flow, and are excited to introduce Events ticketing ads. We're continuing to focus on building new features in these areas."
The updates include a variety of enhanced and new features such as the ability to draft an event and then schedule it to publish on Facebook at a specific time. Hosts also will have the option to generate a QR code for their events, which can be shared online or in printed materials. Scanning the code will take users directly to the event on Facebook. Organizers will also be able to add their events to the calendar on their corresponding Facebook pages. Users can also curate other pages' events and add them to their own calendars.
Facebook is also adding an “interested” button as an R.S.V.P. option for events, which previously only offered “going,” “maybe,” and “can’t go.” The company says that change is based on feedback that people would often select “going” to signal interest in events that they don’t necessarily attend. The option of “interested” is intended to give hosts a better understanding of who will actually attend.
Additional changes include the ability to add co-hosts to events and improvements to the photo upload function. Facebook is also upgrading the Events ticketing call-to-action by including a “tickets” button at the bottom right of the ad.
The company said the updates are rolling out over the next two weeks.
