Facebook events

[Brad Hawkins]

Facebook has become one of the most prominent promotional tools for improv shows. We've all received lots and lots of event invites for one another's shows. Is this tool useful to you? Do you go back and look at events to see what's coming up? Or do you just ignore the avalanche of invites you've received?

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

somewhere in between for me, depending on my pre-existing interest in a show. if it's something i'm already excited to see, then it's helpful as a reminder for when it starts and, more importantly for a run of shows, when it ends. i've very rarely gotten a Facebook invite for a show i either hadn't heard of or wasn't excited for before and wanted to go see it.

[Tim Traini]

I click Maybe on everything so I can track shows to go to, like a 3-day forecast of improv. I sometimes prematurely hit Maybe before looking at the time and realizing it could be a No. But it's not like I said yes so no harm no foul?

[KathyRose]

Here's the conundrum: a lot of folks have said, "please don't decline my invitation or post why you won't be able to attend because it will make my event look unpopular." Sorry, but there's no other way to clear the clutter from MY Events page. Maybe that's changed now on FB - I've seen several events that hide who's not attending.

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

yeah, i know they had hiding the declined as an option for a while, but i think it's the default now.

[Brad Hawkins]

yeah, i know they had hiding the declined as an option for a while, but i think it's the default now.

That's true. However, there's a new default, that just started a few days ago, where you get notifications for everyone who accepts OR declines. The acceptance ones are nice, but I don't need to be alerted about all the people that are NOT coming. Turning off notifications for that event seems to be the only way of stopping it, and I'm worried that I'll miss someone asking a question on the wall.

[Spots]

"Sorry Jose! I can't come to your birthday party because Sophie's Million Dollar Birthday Party Extreme Giveaway is happening at the same time!!! Wish I could be in two places at once!"

[Ruby W.]

I like them because while 90% of the time I don't care, 10% of the time I find out about a show I really want to see and I see it and I'm happy and it's totally worth it!

Ruby

[Kayla Lane]

I like them because while 90% of the time I don't care, 10% of the time I find out about a show I really want to see and I see it and I'm happy and it's totally worth it!

Ruby

Yep. ^ That.

[MitchellD]

My friends, I have solved the Facebook Event Issue. Or at least when it comes to troupes/groups.

What I see with Facebook Events:

- They make the event, then since it would be too much trouble to invite each person they think would like it and see it individually, they invite all 600 of their friends. Even the ones out of town.

-They sometimes make one that deals with each show they do. This causes a lot of invites and a lot of clutter.

-Otherwise, they post a run of shows.

-Multiple people invite you to the same event, even after you have been invited somehow, which doubles up on the notifications.

-They provide a great deal of knowledge that is specific to the event, a map to it, links, and other great valuable resources, as well as a place to post comments so that the creators can answer questions.

-Some people have even stopped allowing event invites all together due to spam, so your show is lost to them anyway.

-Some people have the events last so long, that they aren't going off your radar for 2-3 months.

-This leads me to have about 8-9 events at any given time.


So I came up with a solution:

Use them very much in conjunction with your troupe/group pages.

First - Invite all of the people that like your troupe page.

Second - Have each member invite only the specific people they want to give information to. This could be a hand full, but it won't be 125-800 people.

Third - post the event on your troupe page. That way those who like troupe will be able to see it anytime, although they have been invited anyway.

Fourth - Make it so that at the top of your troupe page, it say's "Like our page to keep updated on upcoming events!" or something to that effect. That way, the page has more purpose, and more people will like it as opposed to just visit it.

Fifth - On occasion, post status updates for the different members to promote the show, talk about the event, like the page, and say that the event can be found on the page. Link your troupe page - not the event page - in your status update. That way, anyone who wants to know more about the event will be redirected to your page, then the event. They could also learn more about your group from seeing pictures of different shows, which may entice them more to see your show.

Six - Keep posting status updates this way, the same amount of times you usually do to promote your show.

Your page likes will increase, people will be less disgruntled, and they will go to your page and like it if that is what they are into. If they aren't into it, then they won't like it. For example, if I held a gorilla wrestling workshop occasionally and had a page for it, some people might not be into wrestling gorillas. Maybe it's not their thing. So I'm not going to shove it in their face with invites. However, I will post about it as many do post about their shows or what is going on in their lives. But they might one day be curious and then click on the page to see all that they have been missing out on, and perhaps like it. I mean, really, a lot of the time, I don't even know that many of your pages even exist unless I search for them.

This could turn the page into one of the ultimate marketing tools.

[jillybee72]

Non-improvisors love them.

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

yeah, the multiple invites to an event are annoying...i don't know when Facebook started allowing that. used to be once you were invited, you were "greyed out" when anyone else tried to invite you...alas...