As I see it, the problems are:

• You limit yourself to people with Facebook accounts – not everyone has signed up
• Some workplaces ban access to Facebook
• Your info won’t be found by a Google search
• URLs for items in Facebook are long, ugly number-stuffed things – not the sort of thing you’d want on a poster or flyer
• You have no control over your content and can’t back it up easily. What if your profile is deleted?
• Your group/event/page looks just like everyone elses – not excitingly creative is it?
• Facebook isn’t futureproof. Chances are you didn’t use it a couple of years ago – chances are you won’t be using it in a couple of years time

A couple of provisos:

• Of course I’d encourage people to use Facebook to promote their events – there are several great features to use there and, after all, you should go where the people are
• One size doesn’t fit all – it might be perfectly sensible to promote your event solely through Facebook

However, in most cases I’d definitely advise against using it excusively. The problems listed above can all be avoided by getting your own website (blogs work well for this and have the added bonus of being free).

• Being unique makes it easier for people to find you online, and
• Using Google Alerts and the Social Media Firehose is an awful lot easier if you’re not sifting out irrelevant search results.

Choosing names for things is difficult at the best of times but there are a couple of tools that will make the process a little less painful.

Domain name availability

I tend to use Instant Domain Search to see if the .com domain for a given name is available (as well as the .net and .org).  There might be a better tool – if so let me know – but I’m happy enough with this for the time being as it’s ridiculously quick.

Checking username availability

As well as the domain name, it may make sense to have matching profiles on sites like Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, etc and so on.  When I was picking a name for the film competition I ran (Film Dash) I spent far too much time checking username availability on the principal social media sites.

The Username Check service simplifies that process massively, although perhaps replacing it with an urge to sign up to every single service.  (Thanks to Phil Oakley for the heads-up on this one).

My talk was only 20 minutes long so I rattled through many of the websites and services listed below – this post is for further infomation and in place of notes.

The talk and this blog post have been written to apply particularly to music events but most of this will apply to promoting many other sorts of event.

Basics

• Choose a unique name – search Google and check a good domain name and social media usernames are available
  
• “Nothing you can’t spell will ever work” Will Rogers.  Why make it hard for people to remember the name of your event?

Profiles

• MySpace (choose your friends well)
  
• Facebook (group or page + events)
• Twitter
• Atomkeep to update all your profiles together

Email

Your mailing list is one of the most important tools you’ll ever have for promoting your night.  Build it and look after it.  Here are a few tips:

• BCC all recipients – making everyone’s email addresses public will not make you popular
• Have the same info online and give a link to it in the email (this should be on your own website but at the very least try using Posterous)
• Learn the opt-in rules
• Don’t send images with no text
• Don’t spam – be sparing with how often you send emails out
• Don’t waste peoples time – it’s an email, not an essay.  Make your information clear and easily digestible
• Remember that many people will get your emails at work – don’t make them have to unsubscribe
• Give an easy way to unsubscribe (this is a must)
• Consider the costs/benefits of using a paid service like Campaign Monitor

Listings (general and Birmingham specific)

• Dontstayin/Skiddle
• Last.fm
• Live Brum
• What’s On In Brum
• Birmingham Alive
• Birmingham Gig Guide
• The Music Network
• Brum Rock
• Eventbrite (this populates Google, Upcoming, Eventful and Zvents automatically)
  
• Ents24

At/after the event

• Take photos, put them on Flickr
• Take videos, put them on YouTube (TubeMogul) and Vimeo
• Give reviewers/photographers free entry in return for a review/photographs (see Birmingham Live)
• Set up tagging conventions and tell people about them

Blogging

• Get a blog (WordPress/Blogger/Typepad or self-host one)
• Buy a domain name
• Comment on other blogs
• Talk about others on your blog
• Suggested blog topics – upcoming events, collective memories… (to be continued)
• Your blogroll defines you, just as your MySpace friends do
• Learn from those who do it well (there are loads but off the top of my head – 7 Inch Cinema, Capsule, Autumn Store, Marc Reck, Rich Batsford, Robot v Dinosaur, Colour)
• Use Google Alerts for your name (esp if unique) and Social Media Firehose
• Is someone out there enthusing about your night and telling people about it? Give them free entry, an exclusive mixtape for them to distribute, etc – help them to help you

Further reading

Subscribe to New Music Strategies (do you use an RSS reader yet?) and browse through the archive, especially:

• What websites should I be on (and pt 2 and pt 3)
• What’s the best way to manage a fan list
• How many social media platforms

Also have a read of this Wired article on how to promote your band on MySpace.

The lovely folk at Colour have written a long post on how to promote a gig, both online and off. It’s well worth reading – they actually do this stuff.

Your suggestions

I’ve been far from comprehensive.  Using each of the above is a blog post/talk in itself but the intention was to get people started. What did I miss?