Dec 23, 2022 3 min read Event List Setup

10) The source folder

Here's where your impact on the community really shines.

While Facebook gives you a lot of events to add, it's only about half of the total upcoming events in your area. Within your community are a number of other sources that publish events you'll want to check regularly too.

Tip: some of the sources I talk about below are not very "mobile-friendly" so I recommend using a computer to start. Down the road you'll figure out which of your own local sources can be checked via mobile.

Staying organized

Below is a quick walkthrough on how I stay on top of my local event sources. Use it for reference to develop your own system (or just copy what I'm doing).

Further below is a bullet list of potential sources to check for your area.

10---bookmark-folder

In my browser I created a bookmark folder to save all the local websites in my area that publish events. Anytime I find a 'new' local source I'll just bookmark it to this folder.

Once a week I'll break out the laptop and open my community calendar in one tab and my bookmark folder in another. Then I'll just open and scan each source quickly to look for any new events not on my calendar yet.

Tip: if there's an 'Add to Calendar' button I'll use that, otherwise I'll just copy/paste the event info right into my calendar on the other tab.

In about 20 minutes I can get through the list of sources you see above. The first few times you do this it may take a little longer, but with practice you'll be knocking it out just as quick.

General tips:

I usually add events only a week or two in advance since I already check these sources weekly.
Some sources may not publish all their events to Facebook, which is why we want to check their main site as well.
Some sources have a pseudo community calendar where they also post events from others, but often times they have restrictions. For example, my local chamber posts events but only from dues-paying members. Our local paper also posts events on their calendar but only if people pay. Neither of these are true FULL community calendars like yours (any why yours will do well).
The last item in my bookmarks is a sub-folder for specific FB biz pages, groups, or people that post events as 'pictures'. For example, our local pool hall never creates official events within FB, they just post images of their event flyers. These are annoying because you have to manually transcribe the event info from the flyer pic to your calendar, but I still include them.

Tip: sources that fall into that last bullet are low-hanging fruit for social media management and/or digital marketing support. They could obviously use help to be more impactful online.

Potential event sources

The following list is not exhaustive but should give you a good starting point to build your own source folder. Obviously every community is different and some of these may not exist in your area. At the same time these may give you ideas for sources unique to your own community.

Search for staples in your local area like these and save their calendar pages to your bookmark folder for quick reference each week:

Local FB group(s)
City chamber of commerce
Local library
Parks department
Local conservation groups
Event center
Theater
Makerspace
Card game shop
Visitor center
Regional art magazine
Community newspaper
Specific biz/org social pages

Wrap up

Bookmark all the local sources posting events, add them to your calendar, repeat.

When you have a library of local sources and a full calendar for the next week or so (check that your live site has tons of events listed now), go ahead to the next step.

< last ~ | - home - | ~ next >