Yesterday was our Facebook Comic Con | Make It So Marketing exhibitor table's Black Friday Special Event...

I decided to set up and run this special event, on my own, after seeing no other Facebook Fan Pages or Group Pages that I belong to, doing such an event, or at least publicizing it by Tuesday evening.

So, I set up the 'Event Page' first with just the preliminary data to have a 'flyer / poster' to promote. That was finished at 6:45 PM on Tuesday evening.

What's an Event without prizes?  So I thought since the Black Friday Event would be running from 8AM PST to 6PM PST on Friday, I should have hourly prizes.  So I pulled a few comic book sets and graphic novels that I had been sent by the creators of those projects for possible review to give away as prizes.  I only pulled the items that I posted favorable reviews on, as in the back of my mind I wanted to use those publications as additional promotional bonus for those creators / publishers. 

Then I started sending out 'invites' on Wednesday Morning, the day before Thanksgiving Day to those 'Facebook Friends' of mine at 4:45 AM. 

Since I was going to have to shut down operations for the day to drive up to Los Angeles at 10AM, there was only so much I could do to send out invites and continue setting up the event.  So only approximately half of the 3,200 Facebook Friends that I have in my network were sent 'invites' to attend at that time.

When I arrived back to my 'home office' later that day, I was able to send out a few more invites, but the final ones were sent Thursday morning, (yes... Thanksgiving Day), to the rest of the Facebook Friends.  Since I was getting a late start in setting up and promoting this Black Friday Event, I wasn't able to send out email invites to non-Facebook Friends.  That would have involved retrieving their email addresses and inserting into the invitation messages.

Next I started adding more Free Prizes to be given away.  There would have to be a total of ten prizes, as I figured giving out one an hour, on the hour.  So the first one would be given away at 9AM PST.  That went smoothly, except for one thing I noticed...

In the Event text, and in the communications I was sending out, it stated that to be eligible to win a Free Prize you had to be 'attending'.  What?  Isn't Facebook Comic Con a 'virtual comic convention'?  How could you be 'attending' an event that is in a 'virtual world'? 

Well... in the RSVP Box at the Event itself, there were three choices to choose from:  'Attending', 'Maybe Attending' and 'Not Attending'.  In the actual emailed invites that went out to my Facebook Friends there was another choice, 'Ignore'.   

With over 3,200 Facebook Friends I get a LOT of invites to Fan Pages, Group Pages, Events, Causes, Game Applications, etc.  And yes, I do click the 'Ignore' button on 'Causes' and 'Game Applications'... I do admit that! 

Additionally, since I am a comic book dealer online as well as a blogger that reviews comics, graphic novels and other publications, I don't want to possibly alienate my potential sales or reader base by joining causes!  Causes that I either believe in that may not be 'popular' with some or all of my friends, group members, or readers, OR causes that I just don't want to be associated with, even though they may be 'popular' with many others but not with me.  So I do click the 'Ignore' button on Causes that are sent to me to join. 

I also click on the 'Ignore' button for All Applications sent to me now.  I used to participate in several, but found as my 'Friends' Network grew, it took longer and longer for several of the applications to work.  It had to be something about pulling up the increasing numbers of Facebook Friends in the Network I've been building to make the application (app) work.

As a side note, I read recently that the 'average' Facebook user had 152 Facebook Friends.  My network is now over 3,200.  The maximum number of 'Friends' a person is allowed to have is 5,000! So if you have a smaller network of 'Friends' then an app would probably work faster... 

Getting back to our Facebook Comic Con (FBCC) Group Page... I also want to mention that the FBCC is a network of creators and other exhibitors such as ourselves that are involved in the comics / cartooning industry.  Tina and I are online comic book dealers, who also happen to have a Blog, (http://www.comicbookcollectorsblog.com/  ), that you are reading right now.  

The Facebook Comic Con network has over 380 'exhibitor tables' under the FBCC umbrella.  FBCC was founded earlier in 2009 by Michael Netzer.  I have written a few blog posts about other sanctioned events that the FBCC has put on.  An important number to remember is that according to Facebook policy, a 'Group Page' can only have 5,000 group members.   You may see other pages that have up to a million 'fans'.  Those pages are 'Fan Pages', which don't have a maximum set number of who can join.  A 'Group Page' is limited because there are supposed to be only so many members in a 'group', and 5,000 was the chosen number of maximum membership.

Okay, so I've covered FBCC itself, our FBCC - MISM exhibitor table, and the special FBCC - MISM Black Friday Event.  From there I've gone into setting up the Free Prizes to be awarded, and the invitations... So What Happened Yesterday?

First, sending out invites and the responses:   The person(s) setting up the event can't see how many invitees actually clicked the 'Ignore' button on the actual invation.  The person(s) setting up the event can see the number of 'Confirmed Guests' - those that clicked the Attending radio button.  They can also see the number of 'Maybe Attending'.  In my Event's case I deliberately set the 'Not Attending' persons to Not be seen by others, as those numbers would more likely be higher than those 'Attending'.  I could still see those persons named as 'Not Attending' in the Event administrator's control box.  The last number would be those that I would be 'Awaiting Reply'.  As you can see below, that number is quite large for this event.  But remember I only started setting this up on Tuesday night.

Here is a link to the actual event from yesterday:  

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=345907200385&ref=mf

Here is a link to the main Facebook Comic Con Page, which is actually defined as: FACEBOOK COMIC CON is an unofficial virtual comics, animation and media convention bringing together the robust community of industry professionals and fans registered on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=63366131619&ref=ts

So, I've covered the invites and responses participation.

What about the Prizes?   Yes, All ten of the prizes were awarded!  And will be shipped Free of Charge by us to the winners. The full list of winners will be posted on 'The Wall' of the Event, as I have received a message this morning already asking for a full list.  What I had posted was each winner's name along with the prize that was awarded after each hour.

Participation is the next part of this blog's topic.   For whatever reasons, there were still invitees that chose to only 'Maybe Attend', even though in the communications sent out and on the event page itself, it stated that you had to click the 'Attending' radio button to be eligible to 'win' a Free Prize.   I do appreciate those that chose to 'Maybe Attend', but sorry to see that their names would not be eligible to 'win' a prize.  And the Prizes were good! 

Here's the link to the prizes that were given away:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=345907200385&ref=mf#/photo_search.php?oid=345907200385&view=all 

My thanks to those creators / publishers that sent me those publications to read and possibly review in this Blog!  They made wonderful prizes, and I included a link on each photo's page to the review blog I wrote about each publication.

My thoughts yesterday, and now this morning after the event as to why the participation was lower than we would have liked.  Yes, the event invitations went out a little late.  But usually 'Black Friday Events' are sprung on the public just a day or two in advance in the 'real world'. 

Secondly, it seems that the idea of 'Attending' an Event, even though it is a 'virtual event' in a 'virtual world' is a little hard to convey to the invitees.  I've noticed that before at other sanctioned events at the main Facebook Comic Con.  All I was asking for was for the invitee to click the 'Attending' radio button in the 'RSVP' box to be eligible to win a Free Prize!  No Purchase necessary!

Purchases?  Yes, during this 10 hour Black Friday special event, we at http://www.MakeItSoMarketing.com were  giving 'Free Shipping' to any purchases made by those with US mailing addresses during this time. Besides getting our own online store's name made more 'visible', along with our Group Page for 'Facebook Comic Con | Make It So Marketing', our intent was to also give our Facebook Friends OR our Group Page Members a chance to purchase back issues of comics, graphic novels, and other items with FREE shipping as a Bonus during that ten hour period.  

I have learned a lot during the past few days on setting up a Facebook Event, promoting it, running it, and communicating before, during, and now after the event itself.   Those that say every business should have a 'Facebook Presence' probably have never set up and run a 'Facebook Event'!

I have already set up several Fan Pages or Group Pages for others during the past year+ I have been on Facebook as a paid consultant.  Trust me on this one our blog readers, setting up an Event on Facebook is 'rewarding' in more ways than one.  But it is a LOT of work!  Especially if You are the person that is doing the majority of the set up and running it, in the hopes of making it 'interactive' during that period of time the Event is running.  I'm glad that we decided to only run our Event for the 10 hour time period... I was groggy by 6:00 PM after being up at 4:45 AM yesterday getting ready for the Event! 

My Thanks to all that participated in this special Event yesterday, whether by donating the prizes awarded, or by clicking the 'Attending' or 'Maybe Attending' buttons.  And my Thanks for those that either publicly wrote on the Event's wall or my own personal Facebook member wall or sent me a private message!

AND... Thanks again to all of YOU reading our current and archived blog posts!  We do blog daily on comic book creators, comic book reviews, comic cons, and other pop culture news and events including some TV shows and theatrical films as they are shown!