Thursday, January 15, 2009

Family Reunion on Facebook

Reunion sites are used primarily to "get the word out" about the reunion (e.g., location, events, cost), gather people's information (e.g., family member names), collect dues, and share family media (e.g., stories, pictures, videos).

Traditionally, I've been the guy that gets asked to build the reunion website --- as I'm involved in the planning meetings. Through the years, I've built a few high school reunion sites and a family reunion site. Through the process I have reused much of the code, yet they have all been "custom" websites. Although I had big plans to make my code generic enough that anyone could create a reunion site, I never took the time to do it. Since creating my last reunion site there have been a number of others that have taken the time to do this. For example, Ning and MyEvent are among a host of such sites that people have used to create reunion sites.
Currently, I believe that the quickest and most efficient way to do a reunion website is on Facebook. Here are a few reasons why I currently believe it to be most efficient solution:
  • It is free
  • No coding is necessary (saving time and money)
  • Lots of your family is likely already using Facebook, so they will not have to register for another account or re-enter information
  • People using Facebook already have media shared and can easily share more, which makes it easy to "catch-up" with family members
  • It is easy to create a Group specifically for you family reunion allowing family members to join
  • It is easy to create a "Related Event" for the group (i.e., the reunion activities) that members can easily indicate whether or not they plan to attend
  • In general, it is much more interactive than any of the other reunion sites
  • It may even be "one of the most fulfilling experiences of [your] life"
  • The Network will continue on, even after your planned event is over
So, to all that may wish to utilize my services to build them a reunion website... I'm still at your service, so long as we do it on Facebook. ;)

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