“The interesting thing with the Internet and online promotion is that for the longest time, corporations have been stealing underground methods of advertisement. They were absorbing methods of dissemination, ones we basically created because we were broke, into their own marketing tactics. For the first time, we are in a position so subvert their tactics of dissemination for our own benefit. For the first time, using Facebook and email tools, I feel like I am on a similar playing field.”

-Joe Ahearn of SleepWhenDeadNYC.

“Don’t underestimate Facebook,” says Joe Ahearn of the social networking site.

[Along with Entertainment4Every1 and showISmonster] SleepWhenDeadNYC, led by Ahearn, put together a huge show that was scheduled to take place at the Jamaica Bay Research Wildlife Preserve. Over 10 bands were slated to preform and over 400 people had RSVPed via Facebook. However, a little over twelve hours before the show was to go off, the weather report pushed the Parks Department to revoke the permit that SleepWhenDead had worked for over a month to procure. It would be another month before they could host another show.

Fortunately for them, with less than a day to maneuver, they moved the show to an accommodating venue in Brooklyn. What trouble did they run into along the way to doing so?

In the past, Ahearn has used a mailing list service and worked with a “decently sized” list, though he was recently booted for “not properly documenting” how he collects his subscribers. And since there is a cap on how many emails can be sent through Gmail in a day (500), his 1000-contact-strong mailing list is too big to manage there.

So in this event, he turned to Facebook.

“One of the bands started the [Facebook] ‘event.’ As a side-note, when I organize these things, I don’t usually let people see [the RSVP list]. ‘Cause I invite 900 peoople and if it looks like not a lot of people are going to show up, I don’t want someone to think, “Oh shit. Uh…” and not come.

“This one was big. Right before show got moved, 400 people marked that they were going to be there. But it was opened under this other kid’s page and if it is opened from by someone else, they have to make you an administrator [and that didn't happen]. So I kept calling him over the past two weeks telling him to make me an admin, but he didn’t know how to. And it was frustrating, especially when it came to moving the show around.”

Fortunately, at the last minute, the message was disseminated accordingly by various folks related to the show and it was an overwhelming success.

-Filed in Uncategorized