How to Have a Facebook Party
I’m having a Facebook Party for Beneath the Skin!
Tomorrow is my big day. Beneath the Skin will be released to the world! In celebration, I am holding my first ever Facebook Party. In preparation, I have done a ton of research. Below is what IÂ learned goes into having a successful party.
Steps to a Successful Facebook Party
STEP 1 Choosing a Theme for Your Facebook Party
Consider having a topic or theme and color scheme or graphic image to unify the party and draw the interest of your readers. For my party, my book  Beneath the Skin is the topic and the color of the cover is purple and blue. But you could also feature a character or a setting or a special element from your book or book series.
Step 2 Choosing Prizes for Your Facebook Party
All parties have prizes. Consider prizes that will be easy to get to the winners. Gift cards always work well. Signed copies of your books is another common choice. I have chosen the following:
1st prize – A signed copy of Beneath the Skin, a canvas Beneath the Skin bag, a tattoo coloring book and colored pencil set, purple earrings, lavender lotions, a Zara West pen, bookmark, and Beneath the Skin temp tattoo.
2nd prize – A basket of all natural, organic Beneath the Skin soap (cucumber melon scent) hand crafted by Laurel’s Garden.
3rd prize – a $10 Amazon Gift Card
3 Runners up – $5 Amazon Gift Card
STEP 3 Setting up How People Win Those Prizes
Next, you need to determine how participants will win the prizes. You should assign points for the different activities and set a time frame. Some parties are run so there is a new game and new way to win every 1/2 hour or on the hour.
Since I am just starting out, I don’t think I will have a tremendous amount of competition so I want my Facebook party to be expansive. So for Friday, I have decided to post the games at 8 AM EST and leave them up the entire day till midnight PST so people can come and go and still get to play them all. At midnight June 17th PST, the person with the most points wins 1st place, next 2nd place and so on. Participants receive points as follows:
- Join the party 50 points
- Invite a friend 50 points
- Like a post 10 points
- Play a game 20 points
- Win a game 50 points
- Join or subscribe: For example, join Zara’s Readers Club  50 points (If you are already a member you get 50 points automatically)
- Volunteer for Zara’s Street Team 50 points (Five will be chosen at random)
STEP 4 Selecting Games and Activities
Facebook Party Games are a lot like those played at birthday parties with some digital searching and selfies thrown in. Here some examples:
Roll Call: Time to get to know each other
- Tell us you’re here and post your favorite ___
- How do you know _____ (your name or the name of the book)?
- Where are you from?
- What do you like to read?
- Post a selfie
Glamor Name Game:
- Google search “your name +glamor shots” and post first picture that comes up
Favorites
- Google search “Romance Novel Covers” and post the cover that is your favorite’s
- Name a romance novel that starts with the same letter as your first or last name
- Name your favorite romance hero (heroine) and tell us why
- Name your favorite romance genre
- Name your favorite romantic movie
Keep the story going
- Keep adding two words to my story starter
- When I add THE
- First person to add END wins
BINGO
- Choose 5 words from the list posted here
- Direct Message them to me
- When you see one of your words in my party posts, check it off your list
- First to check off all 5, shout out BINGO in the comment section, and you win.
Scavenger Hunt
- Here is a list of ___Â facts found on my website, each on a different page
- When you find one, post URL on the event wall
- Each person to post a fact gets 10 points
Perfect Guest
Earn 50 points if you do the following
- Participate throughout the day
- Play every game
- Post a selfie
Alphabet Soup: Movies/Romance novels/authors
- Every 30 minutes I will post a letter, first one to post a movie star/novel/author whose first or last name starts with that letter gets 10 points
Door Prize
- Every hour I will roll a die. The person who posted that number of times gets 10 points
Secret Word
- I will post a “Secret Word” at the start of the party. Every time someone sees it in a post and announces it in the comment section, they get 10 points
Word Scramble
- Post a scrambled word every hour.
- First person to unscramble it gets 10 points
Tic Tac Toe
- Chose three items in a row
- Do all three and get 30 points
STEP 5 Ending the Party
After an exciting day, the party should wrap up with a summary of what was learned over the day, and an announcement of the winners. Don’t forget to take notes on what went well and what needs changing so you will be ready for your next Facebook Party!
I invite you to join my Beneath the Skin Book Release Facebook party and see how it works. Then let me know what your think!
Your comments are always welcome!
The best post I’ve seen for having a Facebook party!!
Thank you. I used all the games listed here in my party on the 17th. I think the Roll Call, Door Prize and the Story completion were the best activities myself. But all of them worked. Even the Tic Tac Toe which I was sure was too hard to do.
This is the best post I’ve ever read on hosting a FB party (and I’ve read a few). I am saving this for future reference.
Thank you for sharing all your information.
Thank you for the compliment. I had the party on the 17th and it went very well. There were over 40 participants from all over the world including the UK, Canada, & Australia. Putting up all the games at the start and leaving them up so people could come and go as they needed to worked great. This is apparently different from most Facebook parties in which games are posted for an hour. The only change I will make in the future is preparing an Excel score sheet ahead of time so I can track that many participant scores more easily.
Awesome information! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you Linda. I was quite pleased how my party worked out.