Once upon a time parents used to worry about ten or twenty gatecrashers turning up to a teenager’s birthday party, but with the advent of Facebook these days you need to add a few zeros to that. A NSW girl set up a public Facebook event to promote her 16th and by this morning 200,000 people had RSVP’ed. Police have been notified, the event deleted and the girl’s Facebook account voluntarily closed. The damage, however, may already be done – her address and mobile number are circulating in cyberspace and the riot squad have been informed. Such is life in the 21st century.
According to Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, the parents of the girl blame naivety and say she just didn’t know how to use the Facebook privacy settings correctly. The event was “public” and the girl encouraged her friends to share the event to help get the word out.
For the record, the party, which was to take place next weekend, is definitely cancelled, though the cops may still show up just in case.
The lesson for small business: if the offer is compelling enough and targetted appropriately Facebook can be a powerful way to achieve word of mouth referrals. You may not get 200,000 new friends coming to your birthday party but it is certainly possible to create a bit of buzz about your topic of interest using Facebook.
