How did people ever plan events without facebook?

I use facebook almost everyday, and on the days I do use it, I generally check my account about five times a day. Some may think this is a little excessive, but for me, I feel it's almost as necessary as checking my e-mail that frequently.

Facebook has become more than just a tool to look at friend's pictures and comment on each other's walls. It has become the ultimate event planner, and cheap way to send invitations.

For example, for my student group Women in Communications, we can easily make girls aware of upcoming meetings, events and socials with just a couple clicks of the mouse. For girls who check Facebook more frequently than their e-mail, this is a great advantage for us. In addition to the text, it is easy to supplement the message with a funny picture or image to get everyone's attention. Not to mention, other people can easily check and guestlist, and invite others to join.

Last week, one of my friends who works for the UW Athletic Marketing Dept. created a campus wide event. Through the power of the facebook event app. she was able to invite over 500 people, and the list continuously grew. Her event was a great success, and hundreds of students attended. Facebook may not have been the solely responsible for such a great turnout, but it certainly didn't hurt the attendance.

The power of this social media has become unbelievable in the past couple years. It has opened gateways that one couldn't have even dreamed of in the past. However, this application has become quite popular in the past couple years, and it is important to make sure your event gets noticed on facebook. Here are my suggestions on how to make a facebook event that will be sure to spark interest and get the attention of your guests:

1) Get a flashy picture
-- Most of the time it is nice if it has something to do with your event, but sometimes, it gets more attention if it doesn't. I know this group of boys that constantly hold tailgate parties before badger games. They invite hundreds of people every weekend. Their pictures they choose for the events never cease to amaze me. An eye catching image is sure to get your event noticed.

2) Think carefully about what you call your event
-- Obviously, you've heard that you need to cater to your specfic audience, but similar to the rules for the picture, you need to ensure that your event stands out. Your event name should be descriptive, unique, and sometimes, completely ridiculous. If you simply want to inform a small number of people about an event, why not just call it "Jenny's Birthday Party." However, if you are trying to get as many people to come to an event for a charity, you need to spark their interest. Use something catchy and humorous... it will be a guarenteed sucess.

3) Informative, Short Description .. the funnier, the better
-- The same guys that use the funny images also have the best descriptions for their tailgates. Half the time I accept an invitation it is solely because their event description made me laugh. Generally, people will only read the first couple lines of the event description unless you make it entertaining. So, give them the specific details after you've provided a funny introduction. Keep it short, people don't want to read a book.

4) If you really want a large crowd, allow people to invite their friends
-- Facebook has become a great way to network, and chances are you don't have the exact same friends as everyone of your friends. Allowing people to bring others creates a chance for you to expand your event and meet new people. Network, network, network.

5) Make sure you publish onto your page the creation of your event.
-- By pubishing the creation of the event, it ensures that event will pop up in all of your friend's mini-feeds. This is a great way to inform people about the event just in case you may have forgotten to invite them.

Facebook has become a great tool for creating events and guestslists, so why not utilize this tool to the fullest? After using such an easy application, I cannot image how people ever had large parties without it.