Tech Table Wednesday, November 13, 2013
November 13, 2013
Justin: Welcome to MPA’s Tech Table. I’m Justin.
Diana: And I’m Diana.
Justin: And we’re your hosts. We’ll be serving up a heaping spoonful of all things tech.
Diana: We promise it’ll be easy to digest. Hi, Justin.
Justin: Hi, Diana. It’s Wednesday.
Diana: That’s right. We talk about stuff on the Web on Wednesday, but first, I want to talk about real life stuff that’s not the Web.
Justin: Okay.
Diana: Have you gone to any events lately? Do you have anything coming up?
Justin: Have I gone to any events? Do I have anything coming up? Well, I have a lot of things coming up. Yeah, I do, but most of them, they’re not really public things. But what are you looking for? I feel like you’re probing me for information.
Diana: Well, what we’re talking about today is creating event invitations on Facebook.
Justin: Right.
Diana: And so, have you ever created one of those?
Justin: No, I always ask you to do that.
Diana: That’s right. But have you ever responded to one? You’ve seen people invite you to things.
Justin: Yeah, no! Or maybe. Very rarely do I say yes to a Facebook because a lot of times, I feel like people use those, they invite every person on their entire friends list.
Diana: Oh, yeah, you get invitations for things in, like, Budapest.
Justin: Yeah, a baby shower in upstate New York.
Diana: Yeah, definitely going to that this weekend.
Justin: Well, probably not.
Diana: I’d love to.
Justin: I know, right? Does it come with a plane ticket? That’s my question.
Diana: Yeah, but it is really cool because you can create…
Justin: Oh, I just lost a Facebook friend.
Diana: You can create these events, make them public or private, invite only certain people. You can set all of the privacy settings however you like.
Justin: Right, so do you know, what does Facebook think these events really should be used for? I mean, do they just think you can use these Facebook events for anything or do they think, are they made for a person having a party or a grand opening? Or are they made for a concert? I mean, all these things.
Diana: Well, they’re really made for how, I think, however the user wants to use them. Facebook really wants people to use their tools.
Justin: Right, I’ve just found they work better for some events than others.
Diana: They do work better for some events. They work best for events that are one time events in my experience.
Justin: And not long running, either.
Diana: Exactly.
Justin: Not like a sale that’s happening for a week. That gets really awkward on Facebook events. But you can use Facebook events, you know, this time of year everyone’s having a Christmas party or something like that, and you can create a Facebook event for your Christmas party, right, Diana?
Diana: Right. Or I threw together a party for my friend who was getting married. Literally, she didn’t have a party coming up, so we said let’s do this, two days before the wedding. And we just put together this nice event, telling her friends and family to come to dinner that night, and letting them know, and we got some good, decent response.
Justin: Great, so how do you do it?
Diana: First, you have to log into Facebook.
Justin: So, you have to have a Facebook account.
Diana: You have to have a Facebook account.
Justin: Makes sense.
Diana: So, log in, and then there’s a tab called “Events.” You’re going to click on that tab, then click “Create Event,” and then fill in the details on the form. There’s the who, what, the when, the how, the why, that sort of thing. You know, make sure you get the details on the form, and the you’re going to invite the friends. That’s your who you want to come. And, like I said, you can set your privacy to public.
Justin: And it’s everyone you can invite, can you invite people other than people on your friends list?
Diana: Not in my experience, no. You have to be friends.
Justin: So, you have to be Facebook friends. Great. So, that doesn’t always work for someone who has, you know, great-aunt Doris that’s not Facebook connected. You can’t invite her, so you have to remember to call great-aunt Doris if you want her, too. Talk loud into the phone for great-aunt Doris, too. We all have one of those.
Diana: Right, but then you can set it so your friends can invite other friends and invite other people.
Justin: Ooh, so it could get crazy!
Diana: It can. This can be a big deal, so set your privacy, then click “Create Event,” and you’re good to go.
Justin: Great. Excellent. So, that’s how you create a Facebook event. So, you could try that maybe for your New Year’s party or your Christmas party, even your Christmas program at church, something like that. You could invite everyone you know and it would be a great outreach. Great. Excellent. Well, until next time.
Diana: Take care.
Justin: Tech Table is brought to you by MPA of Bloomfield, Iowa, and God’s Country Radio. You can visit us online at AskMPA.com.
Diana: If you have questions or comments, please send them to questions@askmpa.com. That’s questions@askmpa.com.
Justin: And thanks for listening.
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