We’ve discussed various ways to inform your contacts about your band, your recordings, upcoming gigs. But MySpace provides yet another way to get the word out: the Event. This option is located under the “More” tab on your MySpace profile screen. Place your cursor over the tab, select “Events” to open the Events home screen. MySpace Featured Events are displayed here, which may or may not be music-related. You also have the option of browsing existing events that have been created for the MySpace community by other members. Planning a trip, and want to find out what’s happening at your destination city? Enter the country and postal code. Looking for an activity for a specific date? Select the Start/End dates from the dropdown menu.

Now, let’s get up close and personal, with events relating to you and your profile. At the left side of the screen is the following menu:

• Event Invites
• Events I’ve Posted
• Events I’m Attending
• Create Event



Each of these is self-explanatory, and the middle two are particularly welcome to those of us who tend to maintain multiple reminder lists and calendars due to a hectic schedule. (I’m not so much a supercharged social butterfly as a scatterbrain.) Let’s examine the Create Event option. Select the link to open the Create Event screen, which provides plenty of choices for customizing your invitation. Start by typing in your Event Name. You then can choose to write either a short description (400 characters max), or a long description (HTML may be used here); you also can add a photo. The Category dropdown menu allows you to pinpoint your audience for this event (e.g., Models & Fashion, Politics); for our purposes, select Band Shows. Under Event Type, choose Public or Private. Public means the event can be viewed by anyone on MySpace; Private means it will be visible to your Friends only.




Once you’ve filled in the information to your satisfaction (double-check those dates and locations!), click “Save Event” to open the Invite MySpace Friends form. This screen also provides options such as whether to allow comments, whether to make the guest list visible, and so on. Complete this form, and you’re done. As with so many MySpace features, using the Events Invitation can open your gig or happening to a wider audience than you know, thanks to the word-of-mouth from one profile to another. If certain Friends on your invitation list are unable to attend, they’re likely to pass along the information to some of their contacts they feel would be interested, et cetera. And the Public option allows everyone in the MySpace community to view your event, which opens it to an even wider audience, thus increasing the likelihood of standing room only at your gig – which, as all musicians know, makes clubowners very happy and willing to bring your band back for future dates. So next time you’re looking to fill a room, give the Events tool a shot. And who knows, if the date doesn’t coincide with something already on my calendar, perhaps I’ll be there :-)


-- Pam
http://myspace.com/pammysongs