Let's Party! Facebook, Please!

   In a few hours, I'll be attending a party in Boston, Massachusetts with a few friends of mine. You might be asking who's party it is or where it's held. To be honest, I don't know where it is, nor do I know who's party it is. Now, you might be asking yourself again where, how, and from whom did I hear about this party?
   Simple. Facebook! I'll keep this as simple as I can. A friend's-girlfriends-brother is hosting a going away party for his roommate who is leaving to California to pursue another gig that's paying him more money. This all went back to a week ago when I received an electronic invitation to attend a party in
Boston for a "Bon Voyage" party for Joe Nginn. My initial reaction was how on earth did they find my facebook page. I have it blocked from anyone and everything who isn't in somehow related to me. Secondly, I wondered why on earth was I not going if over 200 people had already placed their R.S.V.P.!
   If we scroll back a few chapters (chapter 4) in the New Rules of Marketing textbook, Scott gives us an example of the Tattoo club that drove over 15,000 members to Singapore to see a show that was held in January of 2009. The show had been launched from various sites including facebook, twitter, and other social media blogs/sites. It became a HUGE success.
   If we were to scroll back a few years, before the social blogs took over our worlds, how on earth would a group of people even start to organize such an event? Mailing out 15,000 invitations would obviously be extremely expensive and spreading the word out orally would in turn mean replacing your jaws 50 times over.
   Social networks and blogs are becoming so common, we often tend to forget how important they truly are to us. How on earth would I had known about this upcoming party had I not received an invite? We tend to block out the fact that our earth is getting smaller and smaller and people we would have never met in our lifetimes, are now just a left-click away because of social networking.