We Are Light | in darkness

With all the event listing tools on social media, it’s easy to get caught up in the temptation to post our classes, conferences, gatherings, and even church services on every social website.  I have seen this more often than I would like to admit.  And, unfortunately, simply posting information about events just doesn’t work in social media because it defeats the whole point of social media.

Furthermore, simply posting information about events is NOT social media — it’s advertising.  There, and that’s the fact.  And, guess what, you will advertise on your social networks occasionally.  That’s fine.  Just don’t make your social networks a big ad for whatever you’re doing.

Now, how do you move from advertising your events to sharing your event through social media.  Engage your audience!  That’s the key to anything you do in social media and in ministry!  Here are a couple of examples of how people advertise an event versus how an event can be shared through social media, specifically in status updates:

1.  A church service

Advertised:  “XYZ Church starts at 8am every Sunday. See you there!”

Shared:  “I visited XYZ Church last Sunday morning and had a great time. Was anyone else there?”

2.  A business network gathering

Advertised:  “Join us tomorrow at XYZ for XYZ networking event.”

Shared:  “I just found out that XYZ is having a networking event tomorrow.  I would love to carpool with someone to get there.”

The key difference in sharing versus advertising an event is highlighting an experience versus a date, place, etc.  Think of it this way.  When someone asks you about an event, what is the first thing you tell him or her?  Do you say the name, date, place, and time of the event?  Or do you talk about the experience first?

With all that said, Eventbrite is a powerful tool that I highly recommend for advertising an event.  Just remember, don’t set up a social profile for the sole purpose of advertising your events.  If you do, it is very, very likely that your connections will start ignoring you.  That, of course, would defeat the whole purpose of having your profile.