As Sophia from The Golden Girls would say “Picture this…” I was laying on my couch, enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon. I was on episode 3 of Downton Abbey, when the Facebook alert on my iPhone went off. After I read the message I received, I went to the news feed and saw something very disturbing, that fired me up enough to get off my couch and head over to my laptop…
If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that I live in a suburb of Flint, Michigan. I’m very proud to be from this area. I do live in reality. I know that we have a high unemployment rate. I know that we are on the list of the most violent cities in America. But I also know that there are a lot of people who believe in this city and are busting their asses to make it a better place.
On the 2nd Friday of each month, there is an ArtWalk in downtown Flint. This is a packed event. People come out of the woodwork. And they also bring their families.
So, back to Facebook. I saw a link in my news feed to a Facebook Event. The woman who created this “event,” was asking people to dress like “French Whores,” black out a tooth, and then record people’s reactions to what you looked like. Her goal is to put all of the recordings together and submit the montage to YouTube.
Yeah. Pretty effing ridiculous, huh?
As you can imagine, the event page is filled with comments protesting the event, and more than one person asked what the point was. The creator simply said that “it was for fun,” and to “create interest.”
A YouTube video full of women with blacked out teeth in provocative clothing walking around a family event isn’t going to create any good type of interest. It’s not going to promote the ArtWalk and it’s not going to promote Flint in any type of positive light. Any normal person who sees a video like that isn’t going to think “Man, that looks awesome. I’m definitely going to the next event, and I’m going to take my kids, too.”
I’ll be honest with you. I’ve been sick of the Facebook Event for a while. Most people do not use them for anything useful. I am pretty sick of being “invited” to website sales and requests to “like a page.” Those are non-events. Don’t invite people to them. All you’re doing is annoying people.
Now, that being said, you can use Facebook Events and YouTube to create some buzz around your biz – in a good way. Using the above example of Flint ArtWalk, the organizers of the event, or any of the artists displaying their art at the event can create a Facebook Event to let people know the ArtWalk is taking place. They can record various clips of the crowd through the event and put it up on YouTube. They can post it on their blog. This will create positive interest. People will see how much fun other people are having and maybe they’ll attend the next ArtWalk.
Remember this idea for the next time you’re going to be selling at a craft show, attending a conference, or some other type of event. For example, if you’re a crafty business owner, create a public Facebook event letting people know the day, time, and location of where your next show is. Record the whole process of setting up for the event, getting your booth ready, etc. Record short interview clips of the crowd and other vendors.
If you have an iPhone, you can put the pictures and video clips together using iMovie. It’s super easy to use and the only equipment you need is your phone, which you’d have on you, anyway. Once your video is ready, load that onto YouTube and then share the clip in a blog post.
How easy is that? You’ve just managed to create a cool video and blog post, as well as create some interest around you and your biz, AND you were able to use Facebook Events properly while doing it!
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