Facebook events allow users to create and share events, invite friends, and coordinate plans. While Facebook events are useful, there are some ways the feature could be improved. Here are some suggestions for enhancing Facebook events:
More Options for Recurring Events
Many events happen on a regular basis, like weekly club meetings, exercise classes, or church services. However, Facebook events don’t offer many options for creating recurring events. It would be helpful if users could create an event and set it to repeat weekly, monthly, or yearly. This would save users time instead of having to manually create a new event for each occurrence.
Integration with Calendar Apps
Facebook events exist within the Facebook platform, but many users rely on calendar apps like Google Calendar or Apple Calendar to manage their schedule. There could be better integration between Facebook events and third-party calendars. When a user creates a Facebook event, they should have the option to automatically add it to their calendar app. This would help avoid double-booking conflicts.
Event Search Feature
Facebook has over 2 billion monthly active users. With so many people and events, it can be hard to find relevant events in your area. A search feature would make it easier to find events by location, category, date range, and other filters. Users could search for things like “concerts in Chicago next weekend” and get a list of relevant events.
Improved Event Recommendations
Facebook has a wealth of user data it could leverage to provide personalized event recommendations. By analyzing a user’s interests, location, friends, age, and past event attendance, Facebook could recommend events the user is likely to be interested in. This would surface events the user might not have discovered on their own.
Ability to Hide Irrelevant Events
To prevent event feeds from becoming cluttered, users should have the ability to hide events they don’t care about. For example, if you have no interest in kids’ birthday parties, you could opt to hide all birthday party event invites from your feed. This customization would keep feeds focused on each user’s preferences.
Eventbrite Integration
Eventbrite is a popular event management and ticketing platform used by event organizers around the world. Integrating with Eventbrite would open up Facebook events to a broader range of use cases. Event organizers could not only promote their Eventbrite-powered events on Facebook but also leverage Facebook for attendee management and networking.
Embedded Maps and Directions
Event pages should contain embedded maps showing the event’s location. This visual aid would help attendees get to the right place. Even better would be providing directions that users can access from the event page, giving turn-by-turn instructions for routes by car, transit, bike, or foot.
Event Discussion Boards
For large events like conferences or festivals, consider adding discussion boards where attendees can connect before, during, and after the event. These boards allow attendees to discuss session topics, arrange meetups, offer tips, ask questions, and continue conversations sparked at the event.
Polls and Surveys
Interactive features like polls and surveys make events more engaging. Event creators could poll attendees to guide planning details like session topics or food options. During and after events, surveys allow organizers to collect feedback and measure satisfaction.
Sponsor and Partner Outreach Tools
Events often involve sponsorships from businesses and partnerships with relevant organizations. Providing tools to manage those sponsorships and partnerships could make Facebook events more functional for professional event planners. Features like sponsorship proposal templates, easy collaboration with partners, and sponsorship analytics would be useful.
Virtual Events
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the need for robust virtual event support. Adding features for live-streaming, webinars, video conferencing, and other virtual event capabilities allows event organizers to adapt. Users should be able to create both in-person and online events.
Conclusion
Facebook events are already a popular tool, but the feature could be taken to the next level with some of these suggested improvements. Integrations with calendars and Eventbrite would make event management smoother. Advanced features like virtual events, surveys, sponsorship tools, and discussion boards would enable more versatile use cases. And enhancements like recurring events, search, recommendations, and maps would improve users’ day-to-day experience. With over 1 billion monthly active users on Facebook, even small improvements could benefit millions of people worldwide.
| Suggested Improvement | Benefits |
|---|---|
| Recurring events | Saves time instead of manually creating each occurrence |
| Calendar integrations | Avoids double-booking conflicts |
| Event search | Easier to find relevant events in your area |
| Personalized recommendations | Surfaces events you’re likely to be interested in |
| Hide irrelevant events | Keeps event feed focused on your preferences |
| Eventbrite integration | Leverages Eventbrite’s event management platform |
| Embedded maps | Helps attendees get to the right location |
| Event discussion boards | Allows attendees to connect before, during, and after events |
| Polls and surveys | Makes events more interactive and measurable |
| Sponsorship tools | Useful for professional event planners and sponsors |
| Virtual event support | Allows adapting events to an online format |
Key Takeaways
Here are some key tips to keep in mind when brainstorming ways to improve Facebook events:
Streamline Event Creation
Look for opportunities to simplify the process of making new events, like recurring event options or calendar integrations. This saves users time and effort.
Enhance Discoverability
It’s not enough to just create an event – you need ways to get it in front of interested users. Search functions, recommendations, and relevant browsing categories are useful here.
Provide Organizer Tools
Equip event creators with tools that make coordination easier, like sponsorship management, surveys, discussion boards, and virtual event capabilities.
Give Attendees Context
Help attendees engage with the event and with each other by providing interactive features, maps, directions, and discussion boards.
Support Different Event Formats
Don’t limit events to just in-person. Enable online, hybrid, recurring, and one-time events to support diverse use cases.
Integrate with Other Platforms
Connecting events with existing platforms like Eventbrite and calendar apps makes the experience smoother for users.
Keeping these principles in mind will lead to event features that are more functional, engaging, and valuable for everyone involved.