Friday, June 21, 2013

JANICE HORTON - HOW TO HOSTESS A VIRTUAL PARTY

It's the turn of the lovely Janice Horton to visit the blog today, with some fantastic tips on how to run a virtual party.



Virtual Party – Real Fun…?

Janice Horton escaped a city-chic lifestyle and a career in corporate brand placement to live in a remote cottage on the side of a hillside in Scotland. Previously traditionally published and now writing as an Indie, Janice writes fiction with humour and heart and with a hint of tartan. Janice is a regular blogger and you’ll often find her partying on Facebook and Twitter. Her latest nonfiction title ‘How To Party Online’ is available now from Amazon for Kindle.

When I tried to explain to my husband that I was planning to host an online ‘virtual’ party to celebrate the launch of my latest book, he thought I’d gone completely crazy. When I told him about the music, the games and the virtual food and drinks that I planned to offer my guests, he could hardly move for laughing. ‘How can anything virtual be fun?’ he scoffed in disbelief.

Well, firstly, let me assure you, dear friends and party peeps, that online parties can indeed be fun. In fact, with a bit of careful planning they can be an absolute blast, entirely capable of sending your online popularity through the virtual roof and your next book zooming up the Amazon bestseller charts!

As well as being lots of very real fun - online parties are environmentally friendly and cost effective. They take advantage of today’s technology and make it easy for anyone to organise a truly global event with an unlimited guest list. Plus, you don’t have to clean the house before or afterwards and you can attend dressed up, dressed down, or not dressed at all (who’s to know unless you’re using a webcam?)!

Since hosting my very first online party I’ve organised more and I’ve attended lots. I love the clever fun themes and the involvement with other online party peeps. I enjoy virtual parties all the more if the fun spills over from Facebook to the Blogosphere and to Twitter. I’ve even ended up in Twitter jail! But how to you go about hosting and organising an online party you may ask? Here’s a few tips:

Decide on a date and time
Pick an online venue – eg: Facebook, Blogs, Twitter, Pinterest?
Think up a fun and original party theme
Create a guest list
Send out invitations
Ask your guests to ‘do something fun and specific’ on the day
Start organising
Plan party spot prizes, a prize draw, or a giveaway
Think about a music playlist – use Spotify or uTube
Think about virtual drinks and food – yes, really!

Mmmm… still not sure about the virtual food and drink?
Then try out these suggestions for virtual ingenuity!

Order a virtual and totally free party pizza at http://www.superpizzas.com/ – choose your toppings and simply email them in to your guests!

Get your ice creams – cones or sundaes at http://www.cybercones.com/– there’s even a variety of flavours and topping s with m&m’s as a choice and it’s all completely free!

Still not sure…? Then why not start an online virtual food fight using http://www.foodfighting.com/

How To Party Online:
Online parties are a fabulous and fun way to launch your book or introduce your product and to engage with your target audience. Social media applications are perfect forums for parties - the venue capacity is infinite, the guest list is global, and the fun and games can lead to bestselling success!

                                                           



This book aims to show you how you can produce measurable results from your very first online party while you are still working towards building up your social network.
The purpose of this book is to walk and talk you through each step of the planning and implementation of four very different online promotional parties. We will look at how much work and effort is involved in implementing each step and we will experience the party format, explore the outcomes, and quantify all the successes.
And I’ll show you how to make it lots of fun!

Find out more:
Janice’s Author Blog: http://www.janicehortonwriter.blogspot.co.uk/
Follow her on Twitter:
@JaniceHorton
Like her on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JaniceHortonAuthor
Link to Janice on Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Janice-Horton/e/B004S6DKRC/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1/278-4553972-9740221


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Many thanks, Janice - with the popularity of virtual parties increasing at a rate of knots, your expertise here is invaluable.




9 comments:

Sheryl Browne said...

I've got the book! I can attest to Janice's fun online partying success and fabulous organisation! Well done, Janice, and thanks for sharing! :) xx

Mandy said...

Great post from Janice! Best thing about on-line partying is you can do it in your pyjamas...or not!

Mandy :)

Georgina Troy said...

Great tips, thanks Janice. Here's to the next virtual party!

Linn B Halton and Lucy Coleman said...

I've read it from cover to cover and also made notes when attending some of Janice's infamous virtual parties! A must-read for anyone self-publishing a book.

Melanie said...

I've read Janice's book from cover to cover, too, and attended her virtual parties. What fun they are!

This book is definitely a must for anyone self-publishing a book.

Janice said...

Thanks for the lovely comments, ladies! You are all such fun party peeps!

Janice xx

Emma Calin said...

I bought Janice's book a couple of weeks ago and put many of her tips into practice on Wednesday this week when I held a virtual party on Facebook and my blog to launch my new book Love in a Hopeless Place.
(you can check out the final blog link with all the activities that took place in that hour - the music, the gifts, the book excerpts etc here: http://emmacalin.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/love-in-hopeless-place-live-launch.html)

There were some great ideas and check lists that helped me to get organised and it was good to find out how to get music at the party.

A really useful guide to anyone planning an online event Thanks Janice!

Emma x

Sue Fortin said...

I've been to Janice's virtual parties and they've been so much fun.

Well done, Janice on your book. Look forward to seeing you at conference.

xx

Janice said...

Thanks for your comment, Emma, and congratulations on your latest release. I'm so glad your launch party went well and you found 'How To Party Online' both useful and helpful!

Thank you also to Sue!

Janice xx