Nicholls State Leverages Facebook Events to Drive Fan Participation

How do you get the word out for events when you have limited time and money?

The easy answer is to let it happen on its own... But it isn't that easy, naturally.

Social Media can help, because of the network effect -- if you make it easy for the consumer. Nicholls State does a couple things that put us on that path.

Hit the Nicholls State Athletics Facebook Page (here), shown below...

Now, click into their events page, also shown below for your convenience.

Finally, for this example, click into the page for their official FastPitch banquet (here, thanks for sticking with me)...

You'll notice a few things here, but the biggest one is in the upper right-hand corner.

It's there, it's prominent, it's direct: Are You Attending? Choose for yourself -- "I'm Attending. Maybe. No." There's no secret that the best time to get someone to RSVP is when they are evaluating this for the first time, and NSU makes it evident. Naturally if you RSVP to attend, it will post to your news feed, thus letting your friends know of your plans. And, especially when you're dealing with college or HS students, the best way to get one person to go is to let them know their network of friends is also planning on attending.

Secondly, there's a picture and a personal description of this event -- that's both direct and informative:

"First-year head coach Seth Thibodeaux announced on Tuesday that former Major League Baseball Player, College Baseball Hall of Famer and New Orleans native Will Clark will be the keynote speaker at the fifth annual First Pitch Banquet, benefitting the Nicholls State University baseball program, at 6:00 p.m. on Feb. 11 in the Student Union Ball...room on the Nicholls campus."

It's written in the right tone - to the point but not abrupt, that you'd also offer up to a friend if you wanted them to attend with you. Well done.

How could this be better? I'd love to see more interaction between this Events page and the News Feed of NSU Athletics. Perhaps post a series of reasons to attend (once per day) with a link to this page? Or provide a tease for excitement that you might see if you make it (like autographed gear from Will Clark?) Find ways to make it natural for each event to pop up in the daily conversation and you'll ramp up the attention to said event.

Come back tomorrow as we continue our week long take at the best practices of the Southand Conference!

Don't forget, you can follow along on Facebook (here) or on Twitter: I'm@pawlow34.

Andy