Creation and promotion of a VKontakte event

Why do you need to create an event on VKontakte?

The main goal of creating an event on a social network is to attract an audience and sell tickets. It also allows you to interact with your audience. By creating a VKontakte event page, you can:

work with objections;
provide the audience with accurate and detailed information about the event;
increase audience reach;
work differently with cold and warm audiences.

By working correctly with VKontakte tools, you will get the most out of the event, and will also be able to further interact with those who attended the event.

How to create an event on VKontakte

The event page on VKontakte is a community page, but with some special features. Go to the “Communities” section and select “Create a community”.

VKontakte has types of communities for different topics, goals and objectives. We select "Event".

Now we fill in the information about the event.

Name. Give the most clear name for your event, indicate what kind of event it is and in which city it is taking place. For example, “Winter’s Tale” is an unfortunate name, but “Children’s Festival “Winter’s Tale” in Voronezh” is better. You can even include the date and location in the title, but make sure it's not too long.
Subject. Choose from the list of offers: concert, exhibition, conference. After selecting, an additional sub-item will appear, for example, if you are promoting a concert, you need to indicate the genre of music.
Type of meeting. There are two options: open and closed meeting. In the first case, anyone can join, in the second - only by invitation of the administrator.
Start time. We indicate the date and time when the event will begin. You can also note the end time, if known.
Organizer. You can mark both the user profile and the community page (you need to have administrator access in the community). In the organizer's community, you can add an event to the list of events. Often the page of the site where the event will take place is indicated as the organizer. Additionally, in this paragraph you can specify the contact information of the organizer (telephone, email, address).

Once you have filled out all the information, click “Create a Community.” You now have an event page.

What to add to the event page

A blank page is unlikely to attract anyone; it needs to be filled. Using the Yandex.Direct Practice page from ppc.world as an example, we will tell you what information needs to be added.

Event decoration

While we have too little information about the event to fix this, go to the “Management” section in the side menu on the right.

First, add a description of the event. Explain what kind of event you have, who it is intended for, what participants receive by attending it, and you can also indicate competitive advantages.

Cover

We upload the image that users will see when they go to the event page. If you don't have a beautiful, eye-catching image, you can make your own cover using simple services like Canva.

page address

By default, the address is displayed in the format https://vk.com/event11111111, but you can come up with a “beautiful” and readable address. On the Practice page we use https://vk.com/ppcworldpractice.

Action button

First, set the action button to the “Enabled” status. Then select the action type for the button:

write by mail;
make a phone call;
call on VKontakte;
open the website;
open the mobile application;
open the community app.

We will select "Open Site". Then we insert a link to the site and select the name of the button from the suggested ones: “Go”, “More details”, “Open”, “Book”, “Sign up”, etc.

Additional Information

We have already indicated some information when creating the event page. You need to add the missing one:

age restrictions;
website;
telephone;
email;
city.

Don't forget to save the changes. The event page is ready.

You can supplement the page by adding useful links, addresses of the organization, indicating the participants of the event (in the case of a concert, musicians) and setting up the community menu. All this can be done by opening the corresponding items in the “Settings” menu on the right. Here you can restrict or open access to certain sections, comments and stories.

Applications and widgets

VKontakte applications and widgets provide participants with additional opportunities. In the menu on the right you can configure the following items:

Messages. The user will be able to send messages to the community using the widget. In this section, you can also set up a chatbot to respond automatically.
Conversations. Allow event participants to discuss topics that are important to them.
Applications. In the catalog you can select applications for different purposes: answering bot, quotes, voting, etc.
Money transfers. To configure them, you must specify a recipient. Transfers are made through the VK Pay service.

Discussions on the event page

Discussions allow you to communicate with the audience, answer questions, work with objections, and also add a lively atmosphere to the event page. Create a discussion block by clicking “Add Discussions” in the side menu on the event page.

What topics for discussion should be created:

where to pay for participation or buy a ticket;
how to get there if this is not an online event: indicate the address, description (for example, “near the circus”), add details if necessary (“fifth floor”, “entrance from Revolution Avenue”), you can add a screenshot of the map or a photo of the entrance ;
your questions - here users can get the information they are interested in;
who to go with - will help participants find company;
I’m looking for a partner - if this is some kind of training, marathon or course, users can team up and go through it together, share experiences and impressions with each other;
reviews of past events, if they have already been held previously.

Don’t forget to fill the event page with content - publish posts, add photos, videos and audio recordings from past events or from the preparation site, video messages or photographs of speakers, musicians, etc. Create a stir around the event so that as many people as possible want to attend it.

What posts on the event page can be about:

preparation for the event;
information about past events;
competitions where the main prize is the opportunity to participate in an event at a discount or for free;
posts about the organizer and about the speakers themselves, musicians, etc.;
playlist;
interviews with the main persons of the event;
countdown of days until the event;
creativity of fans, for example, if a concert of popular performers is planned;
backstage.

After the event, be sure to publish a thank you post for those who came and invite them to meet again. Publish photo and video reports from the event and encourage users to share their impressions and content. Read about the content on the concert pages in our other material.

Feedback

When the lecture is over, don’t forget about social networks - you need a loyal audience in the future. Don’t relax: say a big thank you to people for coming to the lecture, invite them to ask questions if they have any, post a photo and presentation.

Ask people to leave comments, respond to them, don't leave them hanging alone. You can do a little research: in Yandex, enter a hashtag, your last name, the title of the lecture and see what people write about you. Remind people about the hashtag so that when they write or post something, they use it.

You can share pictures, questions, lecture topics, and discussion topics that require a reaction. Always say “thank you very much for your constructive criticism” and answer the questions asked. Use additional useful content in your event. Create content that you yourself want to repost.

Promotion of the VKontakte event

To attract even more people to your event, use promotion tools. Let's list the main ones and the rest.

Inviting (invitations)

Not the most convenient and modern method, but it can be useful, especially if you are having a small event “for your own people.” The administrator manually sends invitations to his friends and members of communities with a suitable topic.

Launch of advertising on VKontakte

Setting up event advertising will help you attract relevant audiences and increase the reach of the event. There are two ways to advertise on VKontakte:

Purchasing advertising posts from communities and opinion leaders. Publications from bloggers or large communities will allow you to direct their audience to you. You can contact the community admin or blogger directly and ask them to post your event. Read about all the methods in this material.

An example of a post in the community advertising our course “Practice on Yandex.Direct”
Targeted advertising on VKontakte. It will ensure that you reach the target audience as accurately as possible if you configure the campaign settings correctly. For details on how to set up targeted advertising on VKontakte, read the instructions.
“Advertising post with a button” format. When clicked, the user is taken to the event page or website
“Collection of applications” format. Allows you to collect requests for an event directly on social networks
Advertising in stories on VKontakte

Explore social networks

It is important to understand that cliches and stereotypes about social networks have nothing to do with reality. The legend that elderly sad aunties sit, for example, in Odnoklassniki is a myth; cheerful people of 25–35 years old predominate there. We need to focus not on outdated clichés, but on what is really happening on social networks today. In addition, often when people promote an educational event, they forget about social networks such as Instagram, Twitter, Foursquare. They can also greatly help you in promoting your project.