When you have a show to promote, you’ll want to use every means available to promote it. This is very easy (and effective) to do with Facebook events, however a common problem is multiple band members creating separate “event” pages for the same event. What then happens is most of the mutual friends of the band will get three or four invitations to the same event, which looks like it’s three or four different events. This leads to a) your friends’ frustration that they keep getting different invites to the same show and b) your band looking at least ignorant or worse: like spammers. So, to avoid either of those happening, just follow these simple steps to properly creating an event on Facebook:
1. Log in to the Facebook and select “My Events” from the navigation menu.
2. Select the “Create an Event” button.
3. Fill in basic details about the show.
4. Choose the level of access to your event. If the event is open, anyone can see the details and add himself or herself to the guest list. You will probably want people to be able to invite their friends, so leave it “Open.”
5. Select the “Create Event” button.
6. Add details and upload a photo to represent the event.
7. Invite guests.
8. Once you’ve invited people, select “Edit Guest List”. From that page, you can find your band-mates whom you’ve invited and click the “Make Admin” button.
9. Tell your band-mates to invite their friends using the event you created.
10. Post a link to a web page related to the event, such as your MySpace page, website, or CD Baby page, where people can check out your music.
It’s that simple! With just a little foresight and coordination, you can easily invite everyone your band knows on Facebook. Don’t forget: All your friends can share the event with their Facebook friends which can lead to bigger audience turnouts, bigger merch sales, and more fun for you!
Originally posted on 2/19/10 on CD Baby’s The DIY Musician blog.
