Dance Weekend

Last week, I posted an article about which is better for promoting your event: groups or fan pages.  While similar in appearance, I think fan pages are better, both for the users and for promoters.  But some people weren’t convinced.  Fair enough and understandable, because I purposefully left off the biggest advantage of Fan Pages.  It’s something so cool that I decided it deserved a post of its own.  This is that post.

It’s simple, really. Fan pages can add applications. “Huh?”  Yes, with a Fan page, you can add functionality to your page in the form of additional profile tabs. Now, you’re probably wondering, “Why in the world would I want to put a Farmville tab on my workshop’s fan page?”  Hopefully, you wouldn’t.  Please don’t!  But what if you could have an extra Venues tab or a Competitions tab?  What about a tab where people could register for your event right from within Facebook without ever leaving your fan page, pay using paypal, set their RSVP status on your events-page, and post to their stream, automagically, without ever leaving your fan page?

Hmm, now things are getting a little more interesting, eh?  What if you could completely offload coordinating housing simply by adding a Housing tab to your Fan-page where dancers and hosts can signup and make their own arrangements without stressing out one of your volunteers?  Or maybe you’d want a Volunteers tab where people could select their own working hours on a first come, first-served based on the time-slots and positions you’ve configured?  All of that is possible with a fan-page.  With a group: none of it.

But don’t get too excited because most of these things don’t exist yet.  But it’s an idea I’ve had for a long time.  Over the past several nights, I’ve whipped up an example Fan-page to put a more concrete face on what I’m imagining.  Check out the fan page and play around with the Registrations tab for an example of what can be done.  You’ll be prompted to add the “Dance Weekend Registrations” app.  Facebook requires this so you know you’re dealing with a non-Facebook app but don’t worry, it doesn’t collect any information about you, save anything you submit in the form, post anything to anyone’s wall, or send any invitations.  It’s just to show the kinds of things that are possible.  And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

If after taking a look at the FubarEX fan-page, you’re interested in having something like this added to the fan-page for your event, workshop, class-series, whatever, I’d love to work with you.  For free.  I’m just looking to work with a real organizers to make sure I’m building the types of things you’re interested in using.