Hypothetical scenario: It’s Thursday afternoon and you just realized you don’t have anything that you HAVE to do this weekend (this is hypothetical because finding a weekend that isn’t already booked solid, especially if you have young children, is similar to seeing a leprechaun riding a unicorn down a rainbow and landing in a pot of gold). How are you going to find out what’s going on so you can take advantage of a weekend free of obligations?

You could go onto Facebook and hope that some of your friends or the companies you follow have posted events. That’s a solid bet. However, it’s not the most effective way to figure out potential plans.

Instead, why not turn to everyone’s favorite search engine: Google. If only there was a way to search for events like you search for restaurants (or for just about anything else…). Well, there is! Thanks to Google My Business (and other elements of the search results page), local events, festivals, community recreation activities and more can now be found by making a Google search. Simply start your search with your desired topic along with “near me” or a specific location and, voila, a list will appear!

Convenient, right? Not only does Google show events from Google My Business pages, but it also scrapes data from Eventbrite, Facebook and innumerable other internet sources where events are listed. (Remember: Changing the search query around a bit changes the results, so if you’re looking for a specific category of events, write a more specific search, as illustrated below.)

Implications for Businesses

As much as I want to help you enjoy what might be the first weekend free of obligations you’ve had in years (and hope that’s not the case!), I’m not telling you about Google’s event finding capabilities for that reason.

I’m telling you because of how important it’s become for businesses to keep their news, Google My Business, Facebook Events, etc., up to date. By doing so, you can reach a completely unknown and possibly untapped audience—based on the type of event you offer, sponsor or host. Therefore, it’s important to build out complete web pages for your events that provide extra information about the event and your business, for an audience who may not already know who you are. Creating a simple landing page explaining what’s going on at your event doesn’t take long to build and can be extremely beneficial in helping to draw in visitors.

Back to my scenario: By now, I hope you’ve found an event to attend over your obligation-free weekend.

For your business, if you still have questions about how you can take advantage of the event listing within your Google My Business profile, give us a call—just make sure to do so before the weekend starts.

 

Author: VP, Brand & Strategy Chris Gregoire.