Facebook gig invites

[pklima]

For your regular local cover band, when do you create the facebook events and send the invitations out? As soon as you know about the gig, or do you wait until a certain amount of time before?

Some of the bigger venues around here are booked 4-5 months in advance. I mean, we're not Shakira, people won't plan to go see us several months from now. I'm guessing 2-3 weeks before the gig would be the best time, but that's just a guess...

[clutebass]

My personal experience is facebook invites are useless. You might get 50 people to reply that they are attending but unless you are reminding them continuously, or they are loyal followers of your band, most will forget. It has been a source of much frustration for me, though I suspect facebook works well for more successful bands than mine

[Mudcat35]

For a Saturday gig, our invites go out on Tuesday. That's proven to be a pretty good time frame for us.

[BobaFret]

If it's the people I know, you just send them out constantly.

[pklima]

Originally Posted by Mudcat35

For a Saturday gig, our invites go out on Tuesday. That's proven to be a pretty good time frame for us.

Now that's the kind of specific number of days I've been looking for. I guess most people make their weekend plans between Tuesday and Friday, so that kinda makes sense.

[Floyd Eye]

Band schedule is static on the main page. Gig invites go out 1-3 weeks before the gig. Try to only send invites to one gig at a time. The day after a gig, send invites for the next one. In my experience they are NOT useless. Our FB page has aided greatly with increasing our draw fairly rapidly.

[dvh]

Originally Posted by Mudcat35

For a Saturday gig, our invites go out on Tuesday. That's proven to be a pretty good time frame for us.

The week of the gig seems to work best. Anything earlier is ignored or forgotten.

[PimasterPearson]

I send Facebook invites a week (sometimes two) before the show. But unless you're also inviting people in person, don't expect them to come. Facebook is a useful reminder but most people don't base their plans on what they see there.

[clutebass]

Originally Posted by Floyd Eye

In my experience they are NOT useless. Our FB page has aided greatly with increasing our draw fairly rapidly.

I wish I could say the same haha

[pklima]

Fb invites work pretty well for us. It's an easy way to say "here's our next gig, if you had fun last time then come and bring some friends". It works if people had fun last time. It's probably a terrible way to get people who haven't seen you before to check you out, though.

But in one band one of our singer/guitarists tends to invite her friends about three weeks before the gig, and the other one invites his a few days before... so I started to wonder what might be the optimal tactic here.

[lowfreq33]

I never send invites locally. I'll mention it in a status update so it hits the news feed. I quit begging friends to come out a long time ago.

Out of town, I'll do an invite maybe a week or two beforehand. I also always do a "Great show tonight at the xxx in xxx! On our way to xxx in xxx tomorrow night!" as a gentle reminder. I think the news feed can be a better motivator than the events, because as people comment on the status it moves up the feed and people see it multiple times.

[baileyboy]

Originally Posted by dvh

The week of the gig seems to work best. Anything earlier is ignored or forgotten.

yup, this works for us, too.

[Waffles and Scotch]

Originally Posted by Floyd Eye

In my experience they are NOT useless. Our FB page has aided greatly with increasing our draw fairly rapidly.

I rarely pay any attention to the invites I receive. I get so many I don't even look at who they came from most of the time. If we're at a loss for what to do on a Fri/Sat night, I'll click on "show all events" to see who's playing, but the individual invitations get ignored...

[kmqu601]

Sending them out a week before the show works for us. I generally avoid the 'all friends spam', some my bandmates on the other hand send it out to everyone on their friends list. To each their own, I figure I'll save begging friends for that one big show where we actually need everyone to show up.

[Floyd Eye]

I don't think it's begging anyone. Most of our "Friends" actually like us and like to be reminded of upcoming gigs.

[plankspanker13]

Repetoire and the market dynamics (including demographics) have determining effects. I life in a large metro area, and do not invite east side friends to west side gigs, and vice versa. I may not invite younger friends to certain gigs, since "their" music is not played as much as it might be for other gigs.

If you create an event, then you can send invites 2-3 weeks out to a targeted group, and the reminders will keep appearing on their page. A status update the day before, reminding people where I will be appearing, also helps. For live band karaoke, we have a group page, where participants can sign up to follow our happenings, as those shows tend to be infrequent. You have to take into account what Waffles & Scotch said above. With many musician friends, I get many invites, and can peruse what's going on, if I have no gig of my own, at any given point in time.

For me, it is more about being a genuine friend, and having a life away from music, so that when my non-musician friends get curious and interested in seeing/hearing me play, there is no need for additional enticement, and the FB invites have maximum effect.

[mikegug]

Originally Posted by Mudcat35

For a Saturday gig, our invites go out on Tuesday. That's proven to be a pretty good time frame for us.

1.5 weeks out and Wednesday or Thur before.

[Actium]

~2 weeks out is enough time for people to know if they can make it or not. Doing it on facebook is great for finding ride shares too. You can see who else you know is going and carpool.

[Turock]

I usually block people that keep sending me invites.

[AltGrendel]