Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Creating Your Own Blog Tour - Step Five - Facebook Party

Happy Tuesday! Yeah, okay, yesterday was Monday, and there are still three days left in the week, but this is the last post in my series, so that's a great reason to smile! Today, I'm going over how to throw a Facebook party that rocks, why you should do one, and how to set one up. Ready? Grab those pens and notebooks and let's get going!


In this series:
How to Sign up Bloggers
Creating Promotional Materials and HTML
Finding Reviewers
Creating a Thunderclap Campaign
Throwing a Facebook Launch Party

Why should you throw a Facebook Launch party along with your blog tour?
  • It gets people engaged with your content (in this case, your book).
  • You can help drive traffic to the blogs that hosted you (what's in it for them).
  • Interaction with fans and potential fans.
  • Getting other authors involved and expanding your circle.
  • Creating a ripple effect across Facebook so more people see your stuff.
There are a few things to remember when setting up your Facebook party:
  • When asking other authors to join, be sure they write in your genre.
  • Book swag is great, books are great, but not everyone wants book swag or books.
  • Have a schedule, and be sure and post the link to your party on your blog post for the tour (might even want to send it to the other bloggers).
  • Don't just invite anyone and everyone on your friends list. Be specific.
  • Be sure and share the event where you shared the ARC invite or where you hang out.
Now that you have a grasp of the rules, let's talk about how to run a Facebook party.

Usually, these things are filled with games like:
  • Caption This - You (or one of the authors helping) post a funny picture and ask attendees to give it a caption.
  • Scavenger Hunt - Have attendees find information online and post their results.
  • Your Facebook Profile Picture to My Book Cover - Everyone who changes their profile picture to your book cover is entered to win something.
  • Say Thanks - People go to Facebook pages or blog posts and thank the host for their time or donation.
  • Meme Me - Everyone shares their favorite meme.
There are so many possibilities! Have the authors helping you come up with some other ones.

Here's how a Facebook Party usually goes:
Set up an event on Facebook (I'll go into that here in a moment) with a time and date.
Create a graphic (instructions can be found on this post) 851x315 pixels in size for the event image.
Create a list with time slots for authors who may want to help out (don't forget yourself).
Make a poll with the question: Who invited you? And decide on a giveaway (this should be something awesome).
Start your invitations.
Fill your list with authors.
Be sure all runs smoothly day of the event (you really need to be there, keeping an eye on things).
Don't worry, folks understand how it works.

Now, how do you set up an event on Facebook? Let's get into it!

Go to your Facebook home page and click here:

Click Create:

In the dropdown, choose Create Public Event:

Fill out the form and click Create:

You'll have something that looks like this:

Let's upload that header you created! Click here:

Choose Upload Image and get 'er done. You shouldn't be able to drag it at all if you created it at the correct dimensions above, so click Save Changes:

Now, click Ask Question:

Type in your poll question:

Click Add Poll Options:

Be sure "anyone can add options" has a check mark by it:

Add yourself as one of the options:

Click post:

Click on the little arrow on the top right corner:

Select Pin Post:

This will keep the poll question at the top of the event, no matter how many other posts are made. It's labeled Pinned Post:

Remember, if you pin another post, it'll replace the poll! Click on Invite:

Share the event, and then invite your friends!

That's really all there is to it. I hope this series of posts helped you in some way.

Have you ever hosted a Facebook party? What games did you play?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

2 comments:

  1. Jo, I love to laugh and make others laugh. So, in every launch party, I have a contest where people post their favorite funny pic/meme. It's a great way to get people to warm up to you and a fun ice breaker. People may not want to "speak" in a launch party, but posting a screen shot is a piece of cake. Plus, it doesn't seem "I am author, hear me roar about all my fabulousness." It's me sitting in a group of people having some chuckles. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love this! Thanks for the comment and adding to the suggestions! :)

      Delete

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