We do so all love our Facebook Events don’t we? We might never have so many mixers to attend without it. But like all good things in social media, not everyone is using Facebook Events for good. Between invites to Events in cities we’ve never heard of to Events that aren’t even Events, we’re getting a little fed up.
One of our super-fans recently asked us to do a blog post on Facebook Events do’s and don’ts. We’re always happy to oblige our fans, but in this case I happened to be inundated with tons of inappropriate Event Invitations that same week, thus compelling me to get this one out as quickly as possible.
(As a side note, it will always amaze me how many people don’t know netiquette rule #1: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.)
Events That Go On For Weeks
When It’s OK: When the Event actually goes on for weeks. For example, a community theater might have a running showings for four weeks. It’s perfectly acceptable for the administrator of the event to make it last for as long as the show is running.
When It’s Not OK: When the Event isn’t really an Event in the true sense of the word, or you’re using it for multi-level marketing. For example, an individual wants their friends to vote for them in an online contest that runs for 3 weeks. While your friends are happy to help out, your event is taking up real estate in their Upcoming Events tab. What would be the appropriate to do this is to send a message to your friends letting them know about the contest, and then follow up throughout the contest time period with regular status updates reminding
people with the link. This would be far more effective, not to mention polite, than the Ongoing Event anyway.
Gray Area: When the Event can only loosely be categorized as an Event. For example, an organization might be holding a membership drive for the entire month of August. Or, a retail location might be having it’s annual summer sale that lasts all week. For some people, this would be acceptable use of an Ongoing Event. For others, it’s a nuisance. Think about the people you’re trying to reach and ask yourself if they might be annoyed by this method of getting their attention. In social media, the old adage “All press is good press” is not true. You run the risk of looking like you don’t know what you’re doing in social media, and worse – that you don’t care about whether you are bothering your audience. You’ve just turned an opportunity for engagement into television advertising and SPAM.
In the case of the retail sale, if it’s not very long that might be information people find useful and helpful. I would say the use of an Ongoing Event is acceptable in this case, especially since it might be something I want to share with a friend who likes that store by inviting her to the Event.
Inviting Out-of-Area People to a Local Event
When It’s OK: When there is a reason you want them to see the Event, or there’s a chance they might actually attend. For example, a local chapter of an organization is hosting a member of another chapter as their featured speaker. It would be acceptable to invite people to the local Event from the other chapter, despite the fact they’re in another city, as a way of letting them know that the Event is featuring one of their own. If the Event is notable enough to drive attendees to travel to your city, then this is acceptable as well.
When It’s Not OK: When you’re simply inviting all of your friends without discernment of their physical location. Select All is the devil in Facebook. You should never be selecting all, unless all of your friends are 100 percent local. When you Select All, you SPAM. There are just no two ways about it.
If you haven’t already, create Lists for your Facebook Friends. On your home page, click Friends on the lefthand side of the page. Then, click Create List. From there, simply select the Friends that fit that category. I have my Facebook friends on multiple lists by geography/location (Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Rio Grande Valley, etc.), relationship to myself (family, high school, college, etc.), and where I met them (bloggers, Twitter folks, clients, etc.). I send out not just Event Invitations, but also Page Suggestions, according to whether they would be interested.
Gray Area: If the Event is in a city that is close enough to another city that traveling to an Event is not a major effort. Again, ask yourself whether or not the people you’re sending the Event Invitation to are interested enough to travel. Also consider whether your idea of “close” is the same to everyone else and that the Event date and time are amenable to short travel. For example, in my city of Corpus Christi we’re willing to drive 2 hours to an event in San Antonio if it’s on the weekend since there’s literally nothing around us for a 2-hour driving radius. However, my San Antonio friends would be hard-pressed to drive 2 hours to a 6 pm weekday Event that ends at 9 pm, putting them back home at 11 pm with work the next morning.
Events That Aren’t Actually Events
When It’s OK: In our opinion, never. It’s never OK to misuse an application when you have other methods of getting the word out. For example, you’ve launched a new website or you’re transitioning from a Facebook user account for your business (which you should never have had in the first place, as it is a violation of Facebook Terms of Service) to a fan page. These things are not Events. They are not happenings that I can purchase a ticket to, walk in the door to, etc. They are SPAM.
Though it requires more effort (Gasp! You mean, don’t just do what’s easiest for me instead of what’s better for my audience?!?), what would be the appropriate to do this is to send a message to your friends letting them know about this non-event, and then follow up for an acceptable time period with regular status updates reminding people with the link. Again, as with the Ongoing Event, this would be far more effective, not to mention polite.
Gray Area: There is none. I know you wanted to be the exception to this rule, but unfortunately there aren’t any exceptions. Try thinking about a way to make your non-event more interesting to your audience and give them ways to back up your cause. If you’re introducing a new website, post screen shots of it and boast about it’s new capabilities and tell us why you launched it. If you’re transitioning to a fan page, enlist your Friends to help you spread the word by telling them how they can share it.
But, hey, if you want to create an Event Invitation to this blog post and invite all the Event offenders on your Facebook, we’ll look the other way just this once.
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The moral of the story, kids, is that just because you can do it in social media, doesn’t mean you should. Careful consideration of how your audience would like best to be reached with a particular piece of information is a good measuring stick for what tool you use to do it.
