BellaOnline Forums Computers Blogs & Social Networking Running a Book Launch Party on Facebook

One of the keys of the launch party was the series of sweepstakes I did. I had 31 items to give away, and even at giving one away every ten minutes it still took nearly five hours to get through them all . So what I did was post a prize and give a five minute window. People had to enter within those five minutes. Then I ended the contest and drew a winner. By then it was pretty much time to start the next contest.

I want to note again that I **DID NOT DRAW THE NAMES VIA FACEBOOK** - that would be against their rules. I had each sweepstakes link to my own personal SuttonMass.org website so it was completely separate from Facebook. That way I did not violate their rules. Make sure you're quite careful about this when you do prizes.

I had a visual timer on my desk -



that way I could glance over and see how close I was to the end of a contest and do a "last call".

People enjoyed the contests immensely, and it kept them hanging around. There was always something new being offered.

Here's the prize list -

2 hanging origami cranes
6 origami flowers
A Sense of Duty paperback
Aspen Allegations ebook
Aspen Allegations ebook
Aspen Allegations paperback
Aspen Allegations paperback
Aspen Leaf Totebag
blue window mobile
champagne cocktails recipes book
Clover embedded soap
Dark green round soap
Dark green round soap
Finding Peace paperback
green 6-crane origami mobile
Green clover soap
Lake Singletary mug
Lake Singletary Water Bottle
no-cook cookbook
Oval Irish soap
Pair of Hyacinth Heather soaps
Pair of Lavender soaps
Pair of Lavender soaps
pink 8-crane origami mobile
Ramshorn Pond mug
Round Irish cross soap
sangria recipes book
Sutton Mass Bleeding Heart Mug
Sutton Massachusetts mug
weddings courtships France
weddings courtships Italy

Here's a sample of how one ran -

Here's a general view of how the party would look. There would be various posts, various images, various sweepstakes, and people would chime in on them as they flowed by. Facebook auto-updates the page for you, and you also hit "refresh" on the page occasionally in case it gets stuck.

Here's a view of the top of the launch party page. This is what someone would see when they first got to the page of the event. There's my banner on top, the list of attendees on the left, the main description in the middle, and then below that the flow of discussion began.

Another sample discussion stream, to show that visitors could post questions too.

OK I think I've hit all the main parts of the launch party! Now that it is over, my remaining task is to send out the prizes. So I have to contact each person who won, get their address, and send them out in the mail. So that will be a task of mine for today.

Let me know if you have any questions at all about how to set up, plan for, and run a Facebook event! Again this is great for book launches, product launches, anniversaries, and anything else you can celebrate. It's a way to build publicity for the things you do.