I’ll admit this upfront – this post is selfish. I cannot count the number of times I’ve logged into Facebook and had an event invitation in my inbox for an event I couldn’t possibly attend.
You know what I mean. You log into Facebook and WHAMMO!, you have an invitation to an event that you’ll never attend because it’s 15 states away and a 2,000 mile drive. Or, even more outrageous, it’s across an ocean and a 5+ hour plane ride away.
What’s the culprit?
Lack.
Of.
Thought.
Why do I care? As a fan, I want to believe that you care about me. Read the first sentence again – “this post is selfish.”
As a band, a DJ or a solo musician, you play gigs. As a fan, I really like that! I love to come see you play and I’m usually really happy when you come play in my area.
But as a socially networked busy human being, I’m not a fan of logging into my Facebook account to see event invitation after event invitation for gigs far far away that I’ll never be able to attend.
Here’s a step-by-step guide you can use to help lessen my frustration, make me feel like you care about me, and still make sure I show up to your gigs:
- When inviting guests/fans to an event, use the drop-down box in the upper left-hand corner of the event invitation to select networks, friends lists or groups of people to invite
- Invite people from the surrounding areas to your gigs
It’s really that simple.
As an alternative, you can also create Friend Lists. This would be useful if you have a group of people who you know are die-hard fans and always travel to your gigs. Instead of going through and selecting them one by one, you can put them on a Friends List and select that one list to invite to all of your gigs.
How to create a Friend List:
- Click on your “Friend” tab
- Click “Create New List” from the upper left-hand corner
- Name your list and put your friends on it
What’s the result?
For the fan – they’re invited to gigs that are relevant to their life. They feel like you take care when inviting them via Facebook to your gigs, which (for me, at least) makes me feel like you care.
For the musician – you have a smaller invite list, but a more accurate count of people who are coming. This should give you a more accurate count of people who are actually going to the event, instead of lots of “Not Attending” and “Maybe Attending” responses cluttering the event invitation.
Social media isn’t about shouting your message to everyone within your reach and hoping that a few pick up on it. It’s about talking to people that are relevant and giving them a voice. Event spamming me by inviting me to events I’ll clearly never attend is the equivalent of shouting, and it doesn’t equal a happy fan in the end.
“As a fan, I want to believe that you care about me.” Show me you care and think when you invite people to your gigs, please!