This guide will help you understand how to set up and host a Facebook party to attract and sell to the right customers.
Want a unique way of marketing your product or service to your target audience?
Hosting online Facebook parties can help you interact with customers better and promote your business in a more engaging and natural way.
The best part?
Instead of 1-to-1 direct selling, you can use Facebook parties to do direct selling to an interactive audience.
Table of contents:
- What Is A Facebook Party, And How Does It Work?
- How Do You Market A Facebook Party?
- How Long Should A Facebook Party Be?
- What Is The Difference Between A Facebook Live And A Facebook Party?
- How To Host A Facebook Party: 9 Steps To Creating Successful Facebook Parties
- 14 Content Ideas For Your Facebook Party
- What Is The Best Software To Manage My Facebook Parties?
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What Is A Facebook Party, And How Does It Work?
A Facebook party is a group that engages in content surrounding a niche or topic. This content includes photos, videos, statuses, and live Facebook events that drive action towards a product or any other objective.
Facebook parties typically start with groups that consist of people that fit a business’ customer profile.
During Facebook parties or events, you can promote your product or service and interact with guests to answer questions.
You can use a Facebook Party to:
- Market your business
- Educate your audience and customers via video or answering questions in the comment section
- Build relationships by engaging with your audience
Businesses have found groups to make customer relationship building easier, rather than scheduling events and inviting people. Groups allow you to interact and get more familiar with your audience.
When beginning your party, first pinpoint what you want the objective of your Facebook parties to be about.
(This will make it easy for you to pinpoint what your different Facebook group posts and lives will consist of.)
For instance, say you’re in the fitness niche and want people to book coaching sessions with you or buy your fitness packages.
You can create content around diet, fitness routines, and supplementation and schedule 2 lives per week on the topics. You can add calls-to-actions for your coaching sessions and fitness packages in your live streams and party posts.
How Do You Market A Facebook Party?
More people in your Facebook parties means more social proof and a higher likelihood of getting leads and converting sales.
Start by creating a group around your niche or business.
Then invite people to the group who would fit your audience and gain value from it.
Some social media and MLM marketers take it further and use outreach templates to reach out to people personally.
Personally reaching out to people can work, since it’s personalized and more likely to be remembered.
This doesn’t mean you have to create an entirely new script for each person you message.
Instead, you can message people using a messaging template but change the name after “Hi” (similar to an email newsletter).
For example, if your company is showcasing a new feature from your SaaS product, you can message your page likers on Facebook with a template message and personalize the introduction with their name.
Don’t skip out on marketing your Facebook party because it plays a role in how many people attend your Facebook live events and become customers.
How Long Should A Facebook Party Be?
There’s no set “rule” for how long the Facebook party should be.
Some can be a single day, and others can go on for weeks.
However, it’s better to have 8 diverse pieces of content across 3 days than 15 similar posts in one day.
Keep the customer journey and marketing fundamentals in mind. Doing so will ensure customers gain value, and see and engage with the most posts possible.
The customer journey is basically a marketing and sales funnel.
Below is an example of one and its relation to Facebook party posts.
- Awareness – Content that gets your audience acquainted with your brand and product (ex., welcome video, brand infographic, etc.)
- Interest – Content that shows value proposition, what you do (ex., Product demo video)
- Consideration – Content that separates you from competitors (ex., Comparison charts/graphics)
- Desire – Content that makes someone want to take action (e.x., discount Facebook status, video of success case studies, testimonial images, etc.)
- Action – Content that inspires action (ex., Ending content with a CTA, scarcity at the end of a live stream)
- Loyalty – Content that makes people recurring customers (ex., Image of new product or status of additional service-adds, status of future FB party events, etc.)
Your audience members all make buying decisions differently. But the more your content is focused on these stages of a buyer’s journey, the more effective your Facebook parties will be.
However, don’t flood your parties with too much content. Instead, be deliberate on their journeys and align your posts with marketing principles that turn them into customers.
What Is The Difference Between A Facebook Live And A Facebook Party?
Facebook lives are real-time events. However, parties often use lives and other forms of multi-media like infographics, statuses, and videos.
Facebook parties are multidimensional, giving you more than one way of selling to your audience.
Facebook lives are more one-dimensional, and their benefit comes from hosts answering live questions and talking about their products.
How To Host A Facebook Party: 9 Steps To Creating Successful Facebook Parties
This section will cover how to create Facebook parties using groups. We’ll also give you tips and ideas to make more valuable content.
1. Have An Objective
Start by getting clear on what the goal of the Facebook party will be:
- Are you looking to sell products or services?
- Are you looking to educate an audience?
- Is brand awareness your priority?
Even if you’re aiming for a blend of these different questions, getting clear on your goals will help you create the right Facebook party content.
When you know your objective, you can also decide who your ideal group members will be.
Perhaps it’s current customers, business page likers, or friends you’ve networked within a separate Facebook group.
After your objective is established and you know your audience, you can begin creating the group.
2. Create Your Facebook Group
Here’s how to create a Facebook group.
1. You can create a Facebook group by clicking the 9 dots on desktop and clicking “Groups.”
2. Give your group a name that reflects your niche and what your parties will consist of.
3. Make your group private but visible. (This will ensure you know who joins while still being searchable on Facebook.)
4. Click “Create.”
5. Add a cover photo that stands out and gets your guests excited about attending your party. Use graphics, text, and colors that stand out.
6. Add a Group description, community introduction, rules, and other details members should know.
7. Invite team members that’ll help you with your parties. These can include co-hosts as well. You can do so by clicking “invite members” in your setup steps and assigning them as admins once they’re members.
3. Add And Connect VipeCloud
Next, connect VipeCloud’s Facebook social sharing app so that you can schedule and post content straight from your CRM.
You can connect VipeCloud by:
1. Navigating to “Group Settings.”
2. Scrolling down to “Apps” at the bottom, and clicking the pencil icon
3. Tap the “Add apps” button on the window that pops up
4. Search “VipeCloud” on the search bar and click it
5. Click “Add.”
Note: Be sure to connect your Facebook group to VipeCloud by logging into your CRM and selecting your group.
4. Brainstorm And Create Content
Come up with different types of content across different media formats. For instance, you can have:
- Image infographics
- Videos explaining your product or service
- Facebook live event answering questions and talking about the clients you’ve helped
- A status giving educational value
- An image showing a testimonial
Varying your content is crucial since it keeps your online party more engaging. Plus, it helps you stand out from competitors that only spam customers with their offers.
Content variety adds more value to your audience to cater to what different people prefer.
Pro Tip: You can store your content in VipeCloud so that it’s ready for when you schedule it.
5. Establish A Party Script
Organize your content around a “Facebook party script.”
A Facebook party script is simply the plan you follow to promote your product (or your end goal).
For instance, your party script can include having 3-day countdown posts before your next live stream.
Here’s what a full Facebook party script would look like (using a nonprofit organization (NPO) as an example):
1. Post content that promotes the party 2-3 days before it begins
2. During those 2-3 days, the nonprofit will create and schedule content that will post across 7 days using a social sharing tool. The content will cover their cause, why they’re doing it, and how people can donate and join their NPO.
3. On the 6th day, they’ll do a live stream answering questions
4. On the last day, they’ll send a “thank you” post to everyone who helped out and will mention when the next party will be
In this example, the nonprofit’s Facebook party script gives its content structure.
It makes it easy for them to schedule content in a linear order that makes sense.
They can also note which content gets the most engagement in the group and repurpose it for the future.
6. Test Your Content
When you have your group created, and content prepared, be sure to test out your posts.
For instance, if you create a welcome video, schedule it and check your group to make sure the post publishes the way you want it.
Once you’ve tested your content scheduling, you or your team members can begin inviting guests.
7. Invite People To Your Group
You can invite people to your Facebook Group and create events around your parties.
Remember to not ignore personalizing your invitations.
Reach out to your intended audience about what your group is, why they should join, and what they’ll gain from it (you have to sell your Facebook Group so you can sell your brand).
Again, the more people that join, the higher likelihood of engagement.
You can use your buyer persona and customers in your CRM to create an avatar that represents the people you want to invite.
8. Interact With Your Audience
It’s not a party if the host doesn’t engage.
Be sure to continually interact with your audience, whether it’s in live streams, comment sections, or even messages.
Sometimes people can be on the verge of purchasing your product but have a couple of questions for you.
You don’t want to miss these opportunities, so being active with your group goes a long way.
9. Track Progress
After you do multiple parties, be sure to track the results you’re getting:
- Have you gotten more sales?
- Are you getting more leads or appointments?
- Is your group and overall network growing?
- Are people gaining value from your Facebook parties?
One of the best ways to track your results is using CRM data.
For example, you can track the success of your party by seeing how many people are completing your service sign-up form.
You can also track:
- Sales revenue
- The number of opportunities in your pipeline
Tracking your progress makes tweaking your content more manageable, which can help you find a winning posting formula for success.
14 Content Ideas For Your Facebook Party
Here are some quick Facebook party post ideas you can adopt. (Most of these can be scheduled using VipeCloud).
- Product explainer video
- Infographic about customer pain points
- Referral incentives
- Welcome posts
- UGC (user-generated content)
- Q&A Livestream
- Competitor comparison charts
- Product demo
- Contest or giveaway
- Host a live training session
- Customer spotlight
- Tease a future product or value-add
- Behind the scenes party prep
- Customer testimonial video
What Is The Best Software To Manage My Facebook Parties?
Facebook parties help you sell directly to your intended audience in a way that educates them and encourages them to take action.
But doing Facebook parties without scheduling software can be a nightmare since you don’t have automation working for you.
If you’re looking for the best social media scheduling tool for your Facebook parties, try VipeCloud’s social sharing tool.
Social sharing lets you create content and send it out during the hours that matter. You can even group your different accounts and bulk post content to them, saving time.
VipeCloud’s Sales And Marketing Suite also comes with functionality that helps you track how well your parties are helping your business, thanks to pipelines, sales revenue, form data, and more.
If you’d like to get more Facebook party content ideas and see how social sharing can work for you, feel free to request a demo.
Want to try social sharing yourself? Then sign up for VipeCloud’s Sales And Marketing Suite for 15 free days!
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