Facebook for business continues to evolve, and so do the ways marketers use the platform. Long gone are the days of branded Facebook pages rich in one-sided, sales-driven messages. Today, company Facebook pages can be information hubs, industry journals and a lively spot to talk to followers. Leave it to the fashion industry to come up with smart, stunning and stylish ways to market on Facebook.

When an old-school fashion staple like Burberry wants to reach out to a younger buyer, Facebook is an ideal place to start. Burberry’s page is filled with the kind of luxury the brand has always been associated with but bent to a hipper, more youthful audience. Currently, the page features photos from a new campaign featuring UK “It Couple” Tom Sturridge and Sienna Miller, for example. Burberry also takes advantage of Facebook’s improved video capabilities by posting videos from recent runway shows.

But let’s say you’re not that fancy a dresser. Fine. With nearly 38 million “likes,” Converse must be doing something right. The iconic shoe company uses Facebook to post the kind of things its fans are into, like music, skateboarding and viral videos. Converse excels at speaking to followers rather than at them and therefore encourages lively discussions in its comments sections.

And for incredibly chic and trendy foreign fashion labels like UNIQLO, Facebook is a must. The Japanese retailer is opening 10 more stateside stores this fall, so a steady stream of interesting posts and fabulous photos is essential for keeping fans, both new and old, excited.

Who needs a glossy, overpriced fashion magazine when you’ve got Gucci’s Facebook page? The mainstay of high-end branding for 92 years running stays fresh and on the cutting edge with a Facebook page chock full of slick videos, incredible images and the latest from the runways. Gucci keeps its whopping 11 million fans on the edge of their seats by continuously updating, reinventing and changing its page.  

In the end, that’s what great Facebook marketing is all about. Every business can take a cue from the fashion industry and keep their pages as fresh and innovative as the designs coming off the runway.

Anybody who uses Facebook for business is undoubtedly familiar with Facebook events. This handy tool lets you invite all of your page’s followers to your openings, new product release parties and company functions. If your brand has hundreds of “likes” and you have a very active page, all you need to do is create an event page and all of your adoring fans will show up, making your event a smashing success. Right? Um, no. We hate to break it to you but, having pulled off several successful Facebook-driven events, we can say with confidence that creating the event page is only the beginning. 

When your brand’s major method for communication is Facebook, an event page is a must. They are incredibly effective and easy tools. In fact, thanks to new targeting which allows admins to promote events to certain demographics, it’s gotten even easier. Invitees can now be chosen by gender, relationship status, age and interests. To begin, make sure your event page has all of the correct information and important things like start time and dates. Sounds silly that we’d even mention this, but you’d be surprised how many event pages leave off the vitals. Next, constantly update the content on that page to hype the event. Stagnant pages with no updates get fewer confirmed guests than ones with a steady flow of action. Add videos, photos and the latest news your guests need to know before attending.  

Yet even a well-chosen guest list and an oft-updated event page does not necessarily mean that your event will be well attended. The event and the event page both need further promotion outside of Facebook. Other social media sites like Twitter and Instagram are worth a shot but make localization key if you’re looking for real-life bodies in attendance. We’d say a great resource for your event page is your local media. Those papers they shove in your mailbox, the calendar sections in the hip neighborhood journals and even your city’s television stations are worth hitting up with information on your event. That way folks in your own backyard are hearing about your event from multiple channels. Since your Facebook event page has all of the details already, we think directing members of the media and followers on other social media platforms is an easy way to spread the information while promoting the page. 

In the end, we think that Facebook event pages are a fantastic way to promote a brand’s events as long as other forms of promotion happen alongside it. Readers, do you go to the things people invite you to on Facebook and have you had success using events for your own shindigs? Tell us in the comments section!