Facebook is a major marketing platform for bars & nightclubs.  Let’s see what you can do:

1. Target your audience.
2. Share photos.
3. Promote events.
4. Create buzz.
5. Build fans.

1. Target your audience

Everyone has a different taste in the setting they prefer, the music they want to hear and the people they want to be around. Some people want to sing-along at a country bar or pump their fists at a techno club or grab an expensive cocktail at a fancy roof-top lounge or simply relax at low-key bar and grab a beer. Depending on the mood of a person or what kind of music they are into, is how they will choose where they want to go. Build ‘regulars’ to fill up your space, because nobody wants to walk into an empty venue and experience that awkward moment. Establish your:

• Setting (is it a fancy lounge or a laid back bar?)
• Music (house music or country?)
• Crowd (age 19+ or 25+)
• Special nights (are you hosting Girls Night or a famous DJ)

How?

a) Brand your Facebook Page

Images on your page are the most important cues. People can gage exactly what they are in for by looking at your photos. Tip: put your brand name as your profile picture and make your cover photo a really great image of your club/bar or an event. ‘About’ on your profile. Keep the description short and to the point. Let people know who you are, what kind of music you play, and what kind of scene it is. Content should announce and hype your ‘nights’. It should have follow-up content on how amazing the night was, and messages like, “come out again next week!”. Make sure the content isn’t repetitive and generic, because you want to let people know you are human. Engage fans to interact, post & comment on your profile. ‘Like’ pages that are relevant to your venue’s interests; choose celebrities, artists, DJ’s, music, music hubs, etc. that reflect the kind of people and things you are interested in.

• Example: Lets look at Lavo Las Vegas
• Image: confetti, glow sticks, wind, lights, upbeat & probably dance music
• Description: Nightclub, Italian Restaurant & Lounge that hosts celebrities
• Content: hip hop wednesdays, mostly dance music, famous DJ’s, celebrity artists. This tells you its popular & high end.
• Who you ‘like’: Hardwell, Lupe Fiasco etc. – these are some indicators that they like popular artists but with different styles of music

2. Share Photos

Excite party-goers and inspire them to get off the couch so they can have just as much fun as the people they see in your album. Photos can do all the convincing when someone needs to make a decision on where to go. Not to mention, the attractive people they could potentially meet. Plus, fans can tag themselves and their friends in the photos, which spreads the name of your bar or nightclub all over facebook. Promote the special nights you offer through designated albums, like a:

• Charity event
• Holiday event
• Girls night
• Popular DJ
• Theme night

Add Instagram photos to your facebook albums. This is a great way to show off real-time photos of your venue using your mobile to snap photos instantly. Party goers can instantly check their mobiles for hot spots to be, and in some cases be saved from the dive they find themselves in.

• Example: Marquee Nightclub in Las Vegas uses their albums to show off their parties. Instantly you are interested. Hands in the air, lights, confetti, famous DJ’s – who wouldn’t want to be here.

a) Create a Photo Contest

This is a great way to engage your Facebook fans and get them sharing photos with their friends at your location. Interaction and conversation is important for your users to know that you are interested in them just as much as they are interested in you. You can ‘Like-Gate’ it to gain new fans, which means they have to ‘like’ your page in order to enter. In addition, an Entrant must submit their email, which can help you build your mailing list. 

• For Example: Share your best Champagne Shower photo for your chance to win a $100 bar tab!

Use our easy-to-use-apps to create your Wishpond Photo Contest now.

3. Promote events

Facebook Promotional Apps ROI  Your main ROI is gaining new fans. The more fans you have the more information you gain about who you are marketing to. You can tailor campaigns, interact with followers and let them do the talking about your events. Mainly, you will have more people coming out to your spot and avoid an empty room. You can use interactive and engaging facebook apps to promote events by creating contests with offers and giveaways to your event. Read ’5. Build Fans’ on how to achieve this. Lets look at how to promote effectively on Facebook. 1. Write posts about events. Be outgoing & personable. Avoid annoying fans with the same slogans. 2. Add timeline photos of events or campaigns. Visual promotions are always catchier than written posts. 3. Send out mass event invites. Allow fans to invite their friends to increase numbers and gain new fans 4. ‘Like’ other Pages, i.e. artists & music etc. show who you support and what you are interested in 5. Show ‘Friends’ so people can see if their friends are fans 6. Add Tabs to your dashboard. Here are some of the most important ones:

• Map: show where people can find you
• Photos: show off your crowd/venue
• Events: what are your upcoming events?
• Buy Tickets: fans can purchase right off your page or link to your website
• Code of Conduct: make sure fanposts are appropriate & establish liabilities

• Example: Marquee Nightclub’s tab bar.

Create a ‘Buy Tickets’ app at Wishpond using our social store. Start now by setting up your Wishpond Social Store.

a) Create a Sweepstakes Contest

Everyone likes free tickets, free drinks, free entry and no line. Create a contest that offers these things while gaining new fans. Like-gate contests, that require participants to ‘like’ your page in order to enter. Look at ‘5. Build Fans’ to learn more. Create a Sweepstakes. Sweepstakes have the lowest barrier to entry rate, which means you will gain more fans faster.  Once an entrant enters your Sweepstakes, their friends will see it on their News Feed and become potential participants as well. This optimizes promotions for your event.

• For example:“Win 2 tickets to Dirty South! Worth up to $100” at Marquee Nightclub Las Vegas. This will engage current fans to enter your contest and help you gain new ones, while promoting the event all over Facebook.

You can start promoting now. Use Wishpond Social Promotions.

4. Create buzz

Hype events and get people talking about your bar or nightclub. They best way for people to decide where to go is by word of mouth. Build anticipation on the announcement of your events and spread it to all social media outlets. Spread the word on social media outlets like facebook, twitter, instagram, your website etc. with the same campaign image/slogan (people will remember a repetitive advertisement)

• Example: Lets look at Celebrities Nightclub, an iconic club in Vancouver, British Columbia. Recently, the managing company Blueprint Events announced the complete makeover of the popular venue that has hosted artists like Avicii, Fedde Le Grande, Alesso, Skrillex and more. This unexpected and exciting news already has 691 fans talking about it.
• Lets look at how they do it:

Hype: Build anticipation: Spread the word: Twitter:  Website: Instagram:  Facebook: That is creating buzz. It is everywhere! Create buzz by using Wishpond Social Promotions.

5. Build fans

Improve your Marketing ROI by Building fans Like it has been said before, the more fans the more people to market to. Build a fan base to market to on facebook. They will be the people constantly updated on your events through invites and promotions. Reward fans with offers and discounts. Besides, one of the main reasons people like other pages is for the perks. Use a 3rd party app to engage fans and make new fans. Set up facebook contests. The benefits of setting up contests, with Wishpond for example, is our unique auto-sharing within the apps. Once an entrant enters your contest it spreads all over facebook; to their wall & to their friend’s News Feed. It can also be tweeted, pinned on Pinterest, set as banners on websites and more.  Like-gate contests to acquire new fans. This means entrants must ‘like’ your page in order to enter the contest. Reward fans with social offers, discounts and giveaways.

a) Create an Offer

Create an Offer. An offer is a great tool to gain more fans and reward existing fans.

• For example: “1 Free Drink!”. Put a QR code on your ticket and instantly people can claim your offer on their phone. Entrant will be sent an automatic confirmation email which they can show to the bartender or club host to redeem one free drink. In return, you aquire new fans instantly and build your mailing list.

Set up your offer today at Wishpond. Tickets & Posters: plaster posters with contests that they can enter with a QR code, NFC chip or link to your Facebook Page in the areas your target demographic would be.

• For example if its 19+: university/college campus, downtown, the streets where your location is etc.

That way you give a reason for people to become fans. They can use their mobiles to connect to your page right away. Also, put these QR codes on your entry tickets like mentioned in the example above.

• For example: Guarantee them “one free drink!” if they snap a photo of your QR code. This will link them to your Facebook Page for the  give-away. Have the ‘free drink’ only accessible if they ‘Like’ your page and enter their email to receive the offer, that way you gain a new lead. The entrant can show the event host on their phone that they have entered the contest through the confirmation email to grab a free drink ticket.

Build fans using:

• photo contests
• sweepstakes
• vote contest
• social offers
• pinterest contest
• photo caption contest
• local promotions
• social buttons
• social store
• banners
• like-gating

Build your fans now by using our easy-to-use apps at Wishpond. By Bree Nakatani