8 Tips for Taking your Parties or Events to the Next Level

I hear all the time that Facebook parties are dead, but in my experience, that is not the case. In actuality, Facebook parties are actually just becoming more widely used, which is why you need to up your game to make sure that your parties stand out from everyone else!

Coaching to get a Hostess with the Mostest

Your hostess needs to be an active participant in their event. They are not going to be able to do that if they don't understand how. A common mistake I see all the time is that we want our hostess to see running a party as being easy, so we are afraid to coach them on their role and create “work” for them. Remember, your hostess has agreed to host an event for you because they are interested in your products or services and they want to get a good deal. Take advantage of that! 

Get to know your hostess and what they are looking to get out of their event. Who are they shopping for? What is one of their must have items? Knowing your hostess’s goals will help you coach them and help their motivation. The first thing I do with a new hostess is get them to create a wishlist. Once I know what my hostess is shopping for, I can show them a couple of different options for getting their products at a discounted price. Together we pick a goal that they feel is realistic, and then we pick a stretch goal just for fun. I encourage them to share their wishlist with their guests throughout the event. This is a constant reminder for them of what they are working towards, and it also helps to show guests why they should support the hostess in their party. 

Once your hostess is ready to rake in the rewards, the next and most important role that they are going to have is inviting their guests to the event. Work with your hostess to create a script that they can private message to their friends. Sending out personal messages, as opposed to using the invite button in a Facebook group, doubles the chances that a guest will see the invite and respond. I have my hostess private message the group link to their invited guests before even accepting them into our Facebook group for the event. This is an easy way to ensure that personal messages are the first method being used for invites. 

The last thing that your hostess needs to do is make sure they are an active participant in their event. Your hostess is the person that is connected to their guests and understands their friends' wants and needs. Working with your hostess to develop a relationship with the event attendees will make the event more fun and successful for everyone.

Parties take Preparation

Even though you are online, always remember that you are still hosting a party! You want to make sure that you have things planned for your guests and that they are entertained from start to finish. 

One of the first things guests should see coming into your event is the party schedule. You want to make it very clear to everyone when the event is starting, when you will be doing the bulk of your posts (including the times you will be going live) and the last day to get orders in by. If you have prizes, games and giveaways let guests know when they should participate and when prizes will be awarded. All this will help to ensure that guests know when and how to engage. 

You wouldn’t invite someone over to your house and then ignore them, right? The same rule applies to hosting an event online. Don’t create your Facebook group until a couple of days before your event starts, and make sure that before your host starts inviting that you have pre-party posts set up to get guests engaged and interacting right away. 

If your party is being hosted over a couple of days, make sure to repost the schedule and other important information a couple of different times throughout the event. This might seem redundant and annoying to you, because you know your content and how your party is structured, but it is super helpful for guests because they are most likely not going to see every single post. Over-communicating important information is helpful and can avoid confusion and frustration later on. It is always a good idea to communicate important information in a couple of  places and in unique ways. Everyone learns and takes in information differently and you want to make sure you are reaching everyone. 

Ain’t no Party like a Themed Party

Facebook parties are becoming more widely used, so you want to make sure that your parties stand out! A great (and easy) way to do this is to create a party theme! Themes can go a long way to ensuring that every party you host is unique. Themes can also help create a flow to the party and help to tie products together. Remember that one of the main places we get party hostesses from is previous parties, and your new hostess is probably going to be bored and a little disappointed if their party looks and feels the exact same as their friend’s party last month. 

Work with your hostess to come up with a theme that is personalized to them and that both of you are excited about. You can pick an upcoming holiday, popular icon, season, favourite food or favourite activity to center your party around. Having a theme for your parties and events doesn’t have to create a ton of extra work for you. When creating your party content, know which of your posts are geared toward your party theme so that you can easily customize and update them with each event. If you are using a scheduling app, you can take advantage of the find and replace feature to save you some time. 

Guests get Excited about Swag

Everyone loves games! Giveaways and prizes are always great incentives to get people to participate. Whenever you can, it’s a good idea to pick games that you can connect back to your company. For example, a word game where the winning word(s) has a connection to a product you are featuring. As well as being fun, games are usually easy to play and help generate engagement through commenting. When doing a giveaway your prize doesn’t have to be huge. You are running a business after all, and you obviously want to make money. Guests will appreciate that you entertained them for a bit, and any prize you award is an added bonus.  

As an alternative to having a bunch of prizes in an event, I love doing a grand prize giveaway! There are a bunch of ways to earn entries such as commenting on mystery posts, winning games, booking a party or making purchases. The prize is always a mystery and is different in each and every party that I host. Why? Because I actually adjust how big my prize is, based on how successful the party has gone by the end of the event! 

If you Build it, they will Come

Your hostess can only get you so far, after that it is up to you to build the relationships that are going to make your party a success. At no point do you want to be seen as that pushy salesperson. Talk with your guests, not at them. Have a conversation - ask them about their day, their kids and their lives - THEN you can connect about the products. 

Greeting guests as they come into the party is an important step in ensuring that everyone feels welcome. As guests are arriving make sure to tell them how excited you are that they joined and that you can’t wait to hang out with them (virtually, of course). Try to engage your guests about your company. Ask questions like: Have they tried your brand before? What have they tried? What did they like about it? What are they most interested in and why? What are they excited to learn about? 

Getting to know your guests right away can also help you to cater the party content so that it is most relevant to them.  Guests are usually willing to engage, but you have to ask them to, show them how and make it easy.  

Getting Close and Personal

It is so essential to make sure that you are selling yourself as much as you are selling your brand and your product. Most people have to go through a process of first getting to know you → then liking you → and then finally trusting you. It is only when someone has decided that they trust you and your brand that they will then decide to do business with you. 

If you are using a generic team party template, take some time to edit the content and pictures to make it unique to you. Where you can, remove corporate pictures and add in your own pictures of the products to show how you use them in your daily life. Edit the wording so that it sounds like you. Think about how you would talk about a product if you were discussing it with someone face-to-face - you want your posts to have the same feel to them. 

Share your own personal stories. Hopefully, you actually use the products that you are selling. Why would someone buy a product from you that you don’t like and use yourself? Share your experiences with your guests and explain how you use the products in your home. Seeing how you personally find value in your brand and products will help guests envision the same for themselves. 

Finally, show your face during an event! Not only will this help guests to put a face to the person behind the posts and the products, but lives are one of the best ways to be seen on Facebook and beat out those pesky algorithms. There is something about seeing you face-to-face (or as close as you can get online), seeing your excitement and hearing your passion that goes a long way in getting guests to know, like and trust you.  

Dumps are for Trash

Don’t product dump! If you were hosting an in-person party, there is no way that you would bring along EVERY SINGLE product - it would be way too much to set up and you would overwhelm guests. The same goes for an online party. Your goal isn’t to show the entire catalogue, instead, you want to show a sample that will get guests excited and curious about your products. Pick a sample of products that you want to focus on, and guests can go to your link or send you a private message to ask about anything else. 

Mix up your party with content posts, product images, educational posts, engagement activities and games. Many guests enjoy learning new things, so a great way to avoid product dumping is to share some tips or tricks for how to use a product you are showcasing or to show some random hacks that relate to your product that most guests wouldn’t know or think about. 

Try and Try Again

With every party that you do, you want to learn something new. The best way to improve is through trial and error. Test and play around with everything including posting times, types of posts, themes, length of party and type of party. There is literally nothing that you should not be open to trying at least once. 

At the end of every event, you host ask yourself: What went well? What could be improved on? What posts seemed to have the most engagement? What product or service did I promote that I was hoping to get more interest in? How could that content be improved? There is no cookie-cutter template for a Facebook party, and what works for someone else, isn’t necessarily going to be what works best for you because we are all different. Take what works for you and continue to try and improve on it!  

Written By: 

Jennifer Gillap