Facebook events, as we’ve seen, are fabulously fun and FREE ways of increasing engagement and boosting your brand and visibility on this social network which is increasingly following a pay-to-play model.

Today, let’s take a look at 5 fabulously fun and FREE events that you can organize for your brand or blog’s Facebook page:

1. The Facebook Party

Y’all know, by know, how much I love me a good Facebook party! It’s fun, it’s fast, you don’t have to dress up and it does your brand a ton of good. So, if you haven’t hosted a party yet, change that!

Here’s the complete go-to guide for organizing a Facebook party that packs a powerful punch!

2. A Facebook Q and A Session

We organized this one earlier this year for the Art of Simple page and it’s similar to a party but it generally has one “interviewee” and fans can ask anything they want.

Also, with a Q and A session, you keep the conversation limited to a single thread.

So, you or your community manager kicks off the session by making a post on the page, and then, fans keep asking their questions in that thread/post.

If you want to keep it streamlined, have a theme.

So, you could have “Ask me anything… about photography/food/parenting/breastfeeding”

If you want to keep it more open-ended, like Tsh did, have an Ask Me Anything session.

 Here’s how to organize a Facebook Q and A session, the stress-free way.

•  3. Facebook Show-or-Tell

This is a fun “visual” Facebook event that product-based businesses can organize where you ask your community to “show” how their using your products or “tell” about its impact on their lives and you pick winners or giveway swag.

You set a date, a time and create  a buzz just like you would with a party and then, on the appointed date or time, kick off the show-or-tell and have fans share their photos or stories with you on your page.

 Things to keep in mind:

•  You will need heavy moderation for this event to ensure photos and stories are in keeping with your brand’s image and there isn’t anything that’s inflammatory or insulting.
•  This type of event is likely to do well with a page with a large community or one that has a product or service that plays an important role in its users’ every day life.  Cloth diapers is an example, and the bumGenius page uses this event idea often in a slightly different way.

 4. “Meet Me” Events

This one is PERFECT for brick-and-mortar stores, authors or even, online store owners with a large local presence. Set up the event, fix a date and invite your online community to connect with you… offline.

It’s like a real party and it can be really fun. You can let your imagination run wild with this one and have swag, giveaways, a theme or just keep it casual and comfy.

If you’re a family-centered business, you could invite your community to visit you with their families as well.

 There are a ton of things you can do with this event so take your time to think everything through.

 Things to keep in mind:

•  If you have a large page and a heavily engaged community, you may want to restrict invites and have people email you to confirm participation and close invites after a certain number’s reached.
•  You may want to have friends or even, security to help in case of any weird stalker-type fans showing up.

 5. “Full Day of Fun” Themed Facebook Event

This is another super-easy and fun event to organize on Facebook. Dedicate a full day to ONE particular topic or subject that’s close to your brand’s heart and every hour, on the hour, post questions, contests, content and more to engage your audience, solve common dilemmas and share information as well.

Cut Out the Crap, a hugely popular real food blog, organized a back-to-school day on Facebook last month and it was a blast. One of our clients participated in the giveaways and I really liked the whole idea of spending one full day helping your audience do something to make their lives easier, better and simpler.

 Things to keep in mind:

You’ll need to set a start and stop time for the full day event. Say, 8 AM to 8 PM.

You’ll need a lot more content or “conversation starters” to keep the party going through the day.

If you notice, all these events, are centered around you engaging with your community, interacting with them, helping them, shining the spotlight on them. At the end of the day, it is about them.

Your community is what makes your brand shine. So, whether you’re on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest, keep it about them. [Tweet that]

 Your turn:

 Which one of these events will YOU be organizing to create a stronger community around your brand?!