The attendance rate of the Facebook attendance rate

By Luke Lipsky----It's a roughly rough estimate. It's a few clicks away from putting your party invitation on everyone's virtual doorstep and the cheapest and fasted method of getting the word out for your event. But how reliable is it? And when is a Facebook event not the right idea for invitations?

If a Facebook event were to be used for a wedding, there could either be hundreds of empty seats (and dollars) left unused, or not nearly enough for everyone. For your neighborhood's monopoly night it might be the the perfect method, but you might end up with the crazy cat lady from down the street that creeps everyone out. Hopefully this will clear some things up and help guide your online event planning. Before you log in, figure out where your event falls using this guide:

• Are you relying on the "people attending" as your only telling of who shows up?
• As you may already know, people don't use their Facebook calendar as their primary agenda, and can forget or change their plans without getting it through to you. When your expectations are high, this can get you into a lot of trouble. By making your page more serious, detailed and legitimate, your invites will show you the same respect in return and you'll have a more accurate calculation.
• In many cases, the "maybe attending" option is in the majority. The higher the number, the more uncertain you are. This might be an indicator that a Facebook event might be good for PR, but not effective at getting an attendance estimate.

• How many (minimum) do you want to attend?
• If you're shooting low, you definitely want to keep the event private. That way there's no posting on others walls when they RSVP. On smaller, Facebook-private events, people will be more likely to give you the real deal of if they are definitely coming or not, and more likely to post a wall response explaining their situation. The exclusivity of the event will also be a plus for your attendance rate-- people won't be worrying about the surprise crash from an ex-boyfriend and you won't have to worry about strangers popping up out of nowhere. 
• If it's high number, you better be careful. Especially if you're throwing out a big net just to see what happens. You can really lose some credibility if your basically spamming your 1,000+ friends to a dull page with a one-sentence description and a clip-art logo of a beer for the event picture. The who, what, where, when, and why is going to have to be a lot more convincing, and will definitely be reinforced with links to associated parties, entertainers and others involved. 
• You also need to make sure the right audience is getting your invite, and not people you know aren't going to be interested. Facebook now has a button to "Always ignore invites from X" and that first irrelevant invite you send someone might be the last they ever see from you.
• How many (maximum) do you want to attend?
• Again, throwing out a big net gets complicated but pays off when done right. Make your page look as professional and interactive as you can, so that invites can get the whole story up front. Write a detailed description that paints a picture of what you want the event to look like. Incorporate customized tabs that feature different aspects of the event and describe multiple benefits of attending on each page. If you're hosting a pot-luck use tabs for different types of foods that you think would fit well. 
• Include good pictures. If it's an annual event, definitely include pictures from previous years. The discussion on photos will start up and create hype to get the ball rolling. 
• If you don't want more than just a few people, you have the privilege of keeping things simple. Just make certain that it's posted as a private event. With lower numbers, your responses will be far more accurate than a larger, public event and people better come up with a good reason as to why they pulled a no-show the next time you see them in person!

After your event, post a heart-felt genuine thank you on the event page's wall. Include pictures and talk about some of your favorite moments if you can include everyone. For smaller events, it's even nicer if you can write a personal Facebook message Thank-you.

Upon conclusion, try and recap and calculate how many people said they showed up, and actually did. If you're within 90%, you've done a great job. Then take a look at the maybe's. Usually, people might not want to decline right away, and just forget about it. So if your maybe's actually remembered and came out to your event, you've done a great job marketing the benefits to them and they'll be looking forward to marking "attending" next time.

Omega Mind Upgrade

Somewhere today between cooking, cleaning, and regular daily chores I realized my functionality wasn't what it was weeks, months, even year ago. It was taking a toll on more than just my gut... it started to eat away at my brain.

All of a sudden my memory was diminishing. I would stand up and forget where I was going before I left the room. My first thought was the overused self-diagnosis of ADD/ADHD, but I knew it couldn't be that-- I never had these sorts of difficulties before. When I told my doctor about it, he put me on an alternative ADD diet high in Omega-3s and the results were great and in full swing within a week.

Fish Oil is number one when it comes to Omega-3s. I thank fish oil first for my regaining of mental awareness and even better mood. Fish Oils are known to enhance effects of anti-depressants, and the countries with the highest intake of fish oil have the lowest suicide rates. (Flax oil is a perfect substitute.)

Right after fish oil is Valerian root. In pill form it's probably the most grossly pungent pill I've ever ingested, but it works wonders. Though it's mostly suggested as a sleep aid, it helped to ease my mind and allow me to focus on one thing at a time again. This effect is probably a big reason as to why it is often suggested to take to sedate nervous tension, hysteria, etc.

The most important part of my mental re-construction was my avoidance of stimulants: caffeine, all sugar, candy, Yellow dye #5, 6 and 10 and Red dye #40. I quickly found out (especially after cutting down to on caffeinated drink a day) that my mood was much better and my mind functionality more consistent when I wasn't craving something.

So there's my two cents. It's been going great and I'm happily back to exercising both mind and body. I encourage anyone else to try this diet if your looking for better mental awareness, positivity, clarity, and overall productivity. Let me know what your think/ your experiences below and feel free to post questions as well, I'll answer them. Feedback is much appreciated.

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Congrats to Mom and Dad!

Congrats to mom and dad! Love never fails.

Zodiac changes are more buzz than anything

All over social media today, people are in a fuss over their "change" in signs. In a whisper down the alley fashion more and more people are looking up their "new" sign and learning about what that sign's way of life is attributed to. But at the beginning of the alley is the Minnesota Planetarium Society.

Wow. Over new years eve, just about the entire population of the Earth has shifted their astrological ties. There's even a new sign- Ophiuchus, between Nov. 29th and Dec. 17.

According to Time.com, 31% of Americans believe in astrological signs, and certainly many more happen to browse through the horoscopes whether they believe them or not. More likely than not, this sort of uprising in interest will be nothing more than a quick tick in interest in astrological signs, simultaneously jeopardizing whatever credibility whoever writes the horoscopes already has.

Besides, I just got my Pisces tatoo. This study better not gain any more momentum!

CoolIris's Cool Previews is cool and sneaky

I received a tweet the other morning from @Firefox about the launch of the newest add-on, Cool Previews 3.1.0625 from Cooliris. The application allows a roll-over icon to appear on links to new pages, that can be viewed without leaving the current site in a smaller, pop-up style window.
Cooliris-- as it normally does, had me blown away when using the app on Facebook-- where users can even engage in Facebook chat through the Cool Preview window while still navigating their original page.
I remember some other add-ons that included roll over icons and was quickly turned off by the nagging icons popping up next to my cursor, but there's about a two second delay before the icon appears at the bottom right hand of the link/image, which is much more convenient and less distracting than right next to the cursor. (These are the default settings, which can be adjusted under "options" in your Firefox add-ons manager.) Other features include two selections of themes, "dark" or "ice" for the Cool Preview window.

Overall, it's an easy download and install, and even easier to enjoy and modify. About an hour after installation I was using Cool Previews for checking NFL stats while I had my fantasy team displayed in the preview window-- a much more convenient method than having multiple windows open.

I'd encourage any Firefox faithful to add-on Cool Previews with confidence that it will be enjoyed by all. Also check out other great add-ons from Cool Iris that can combine multiple entertainment bases like Hulu.com