Social Media Campaign Takes A Gold

Boise, Idaho- The International Festivals & Events Association (IFEA) paid tribute to the 2010 Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival on September 15, 2010 during the IFEA/Haas & Wilkerson Pinnacle Awards Ceremony held at the IFEA’s 55th Annual Convention & Expo in Saint Louis, Missouri, U.S.A. – September 15-17, 2010, where they were presented with three awards in the prestigious IFEA/Haas & Wilkerson Pinnacle Awards competition. Awards were won in the following categories: 

• Gold Pinnacle (top honors) - Best New Promotion Social Media/Facebook & Twitter Campaign
• Silver Pinnacle - Best Media Kit
• Bronze –Best Media Relations Campaign 

All three award-winning entries were produced by Melody’s Ad Works, Inc. of Wildomar, the Festival’s Public Relations firm. Melody’s Ad Works Inc. has been marketing and promoting the Festival for 14 years. The firm also produced the three 2009 IFEA Awards for Gold Pinnacle Award (top honors) for Most Creative/Effective News Stunt, and Best Media/Press Kit. The Bronze award was for the best printed piece and was awarded for the Festival’s rack card. Melody's Ad Works, Inc. The firm also produces and promotes six events for the City of Temecula, including the Temecula Bluegrass Festival.

 

Temecula Bluegrass Festival 2010

Sponsored by industry leader Haas & Wilkerson Insurance, the professional competition draws entries from among the world’s top festivals and events. Winning entries came from organizations as diverse as the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, Denver, CO; Borderfest Association, Festival of Lights, Hidalgo, TX; Shows Etc.-Idaho State Capital Building Rededication Celebration, Boise, ID; Kentucky Derby Festival, Louisville, KY; Saint Louis Art Fair, Saint Louis, MO; and the International VSA Festival, Washington DC.

 

International contenders included such diverse event organizations as Baekje Cultural Festival, South Korea; Ludwig Van Beethoven Easter Festival, Krakow, Poland; Rotterdam Festivals, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Festival Lent, Slovenia and Sentosa Development Corporation, Sentosa, Singapore.

 

Awards were handed out in 69 different categories in total including Best TV Promotion;, Event Program; Commemorative Poster; Overall Sponsorship Program; Environmental Program; Educational Program, Children’s Programming; Media Relations Campaign; Overall Merchandising Program; Festival & Event Management Degree Programs to the highest award reflecting the best overall festival & event in the world – the Grand Pinnacle.

 

“We would like to congratulate all of our Pinnacle winners for their outstanding entries into this year’s competition,” said IFEA President & CEO, Steven Wood Schmader, CFEE.

 

“The IFEA/Haas & Wilkerson Pinnacle Awards represents the hallmark of excellence in the festivals and events industry. Entries in every budget category, from every corner of the globe, allow us to recognize the best in our business while raising the standards and quality of media promotions and events across the board.”

 

Headquartered in Boise, Idaho, the International Festivals & Events Association (IFEA) is The Premiere Association Supporting and Enabling Festival & Event Professionals Worldwide. In partnership with global affiliates under the umbrellas of IFEA Africa, IFEA Asia, IFEA Australia, IFEA Europe, IFEA Latin America, IFEA Middle East, and IFEA North America the organization's common vision is for "A Globally United Industry that Touches Lives in a Positive Way through Celebration," The Association offers the most complete source of ideas, resources, information, education and networking for festival and event professionals worldwide.

 

For a complete list of winners and more information on the IFEA, go to http://www.ifea.com/.

 

Temecla Valley Balloon & Wine Festival

The Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival is held the first weekend in June annually. The Festival has a 28-year history of celebrating Southern California Wine Country’s finest assets of clear skies dotted by hot air balloons, mild temperatures, and rolling vineyards. For Festival information visit http://www.tvbwf.com/ or call (951) 676-6713.

 

Classic Bluegrass From Smithsonian Folkways

Temecula Valley Wine Country
301 Ways to Use Social Media To Boost Your Marketing

How to Hire a Social Media Marketing & PR Expert

Are you looking for someone to implement your new Social Media marketing strategy?  Here are some tips. First, I am not a social media expert. I am an advertising and public relations expert who specializes in event marketing with small budgets (under $250,000 annually).  That's my niche, and as such, I often have to learn, study, and implement new methods and media for my clients without the big budgets of hiring out.

There are top professionals in the business whose knowledge and expertise help Fortune 500 companies. If you have a large budget - hire one of these thought leaders and their company: Brian Solis, Dierdre Breakenridge, Lee Odden, David Meerman Scott, Kary Delaria, and Jennifer Kane. Why? because these are the people I read, follow, and whose seminars I attend. They are miles ahead of any one in your hometown unless these folks work in your town. They are ahead of any learning curve, and creating the next trend before it is ever reported. (I am currently reading "Engaged")

Most likely you wouldn't read this blog if you could afford them, so here is her second best step. Hire someone they recommend or that follows these thought leaders. It's easy to find out if your candidate knows anything about social media and in particular, the best strategies. Ask what they think of the thought leaders I've mentioned. Research the "expertise" of your prospective hire. Ask for their Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Linkedin and Slideshare identity. Ask about their blogs, white papers, and online press rooms.

Clues that your expert is just trying to cash-in on the social media hype:

• Twitter: Followers to Following ratio. Less than 66% a social media virgin ( following 1,000, followers 6), check out frequency and type of tweets. If all advertising for that "expert's" site, expert is a hack. Check out the experts I listed. Their ratios are closer more like 1000/1 followers. They've been doing it awhile and are followed for their "information." not ads.
• Facebook: Number of "likes" or fans, number of pages attributed to expert, fans, friends, likes of those. Again, check out posts for "shouting ads." Do they engage the reader or just shout like a marquee of unending specials
• YouTube: Videos and types of videos. (I'm a hack at this I admit. Gary Vaynerchuk and Steve Garfield those are the experts. For a good laugh and inspiration watch Web 2.0 from 2008.
• Slideshare: Does your expert have anything on slide share. Has this expert taught anyone else? If not, how will your company learn to manage their social media strategy?
• Website: None? Forget them. Simple, clean, easy to search, linked to social media. There's hope.
• Blog: Do they blog or ghost blog? Find examples of their work. See how they label or tag their blogs. Find out if anyone follows or comments to their blogs.

Do you currently have a marketing firm or consultant? Are they Social Media Literate? Are they willing to learn - they better be. Can they help you with the strategy and implementation in house? 

My clients and I work together. We don't have the big budgets - one client has a $80,000 annual budget to market an event that has to advertise to 3 major Southern California markets. One of those being the L.A./O.C. DMA where media buys are three times that of the regional market, and 5 to 10 times the local budget. To get results and 40,000 guests we have to leverage buys against sponsorships and promotions.

Our social media campaign last year doubled our website traffic and increased  Facebook Fans from 0 to 3600 in 5 months, 900 to 3600 in six weeks. We worked on it together - their staff and mine. And, we learned while doing. Another client has events 20 weekends a year and an advertising budget under $40,000. Without social media, e-blasts, and buy extensions these events would fail.  Yet there is no money to hire an expert. We again, learn by doing and do on the cheap. See Twitter.com/SocalWineCntry.

If your PR/Marketing  firm can do this for you, keep 'em. If they continue to use tired traditional campaigns, consider social media implementation is nothing more than creating a Facebook page and a regular e-blast. Dump 'em. Proper engagement of Social Media is a marketing strategy. While appearance on social networks is free - maintaining and engaging with the audience is not.

A quick course on PR/Marketing 2.0: (The following books I have read, tagged, highlighted, and devoured along with a plethora of Vocus/PRWeb Webinars - which by the way are mostly free).
"Engage! The Complete Guide for Brands & Business to Build,Cultivate and Measure Success in the New Web" by Brian Solis

"PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences" by Dierdre Breakenridge

"The New Rules of Marketing & PR" by David Meerman Scott

"Social Media Marketing an Hour a Day" by Dave Evans

"Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time" by Joel Comm

"Barack 2.0 Lessons for BusinessBarack Obama's Social Media " by Brent Leary and David Bullock (like him or not - it's what got the man elected.)

"Putting the Public Back in Public Relations, How Social Media is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR" by Brian Solis and Dierdre Breakenridge

"Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business" by Steve Garfield and David Meerman Scott

Integrate Social Networks & Traditional Media for Maximum Event Promotion

1. DEFINE CORE MARKET: What demographic age/income/marital status/psychographics dominate your current customer base. Be specific on age, income, psychographics, geographic (zip codes of residence), habits, and media preferences. Know their frequency of attendance and how much they spend.

 

2. DEFINE SECONDARY MARKET: The fringe market – older and younger age group. The older is the age group that will produce the most attrition, the younger age group you should woo into your event through specific venues and programs. 

• a. DETERMINE THE CURRENT MOST EFFECTIVE MEDIA/PROMOTIONS/PUBLICITY venues to use in promoting your event:
• b. Radio – match demographics/age/psychographics of radio station to your entertainment and venue offers.
• c. Television – Cable is most cost effective with many having broadband bundled packages that extend outside your geographic market on super networks or cross/market networks. If you can afford major networks go for it.
• d. Print – Magazines, Newspapers, Travel Sections, Food/Wine or Family editors that match your event market profile.
• e. Direct Mail 
• f. Billboard/Outdoor

 

3. DETERMINE WHICH SOCIAL NETWORKS HAVE THE MOST OF YOUR DEMOGRAPHIC: You don’t have to use everything, just the most effective for your market.  

• a. In the 35-54 age brackets currently Facebook is kicking every social network’s booty with a 276% growth in that age bracket for 2009.
• b. 75% of all global consumers actually “check-in” to a social network weekly.
• c. And remember that fringe market – 25-34 year olds using Facebook are doubling every six months, and the 55+ is growing at a 194.3% rate.
• d. Best Day to “share” on Facebook – Saturday. And since social networks are fluid and change rapidly, now you know this fact, it will most likely change within six months.
• e. Twitter 2009 median age 31, 47% are 18-34 year olds, 311% 35-49 year-olds
• f. Best Days to Tweet and be retweeted – Friday and Monday – but now that you know that – this too will change.
• g. Myspace media age 27
• h. Linkedin Median age 40
• i. This year 42% people 50 and older are posting status updates, 47% of the people between 50-64 are using social networks.

 

4. ESTABLISH A STRATEGY: It isn’t good enough to just “communicate” via Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and blogs – you have to become involved, “engage” as Brian Solis says, and create a relationship. The day of mass broadcasting a repetitive message and seeing results are fading with declining audiences, ratings, and readership. Today’s audience is more informed, more capable of digging to the bottom of an claim, and more willing to go the extra mile to uncover the truth. I keep telling my clients DON’T SHOUT at your fans and followers. Involve, engage, enrapt, inform, and interact. Your entire marketing campaign will require this technique. And it is a talent, a technique, and an acquired skill belonging to someone who knows how to communicate without shouting. Here are some tips:

 

• a. Ask for feedback:
• “What bands would you like to see on stage at our next Festival 
• “Would you like workshops and what kind at the next event?
•  “Would you be willing to spend more money for catered drinks and reserved seats or less money for Festival seating?”
• b. Ask for volunteers:
•  To work the event, form an advisory committee; help with office or social media communications.
• c. Create a contest or Sweepstakes:
• Be sure to follow rules of the social media – Twitter and Facebook will disable you for violating their rules.
• d. Create albums for photo and video uploads
• e. Offer information only available through Social Media:
• Ticket discounts
• Ticket bundles
• Special Incentives at sponsors
•  Traffic and Event Info during event
• Latest concert information

5. Tie the Social Media Strategy to your Traditional Media campaign:

•  Insist on links with other media to your social media pages and websites
• Involve the media in your contest or incentives
• Offer incentives for interactivity with the media’s social networks – this can increase your fans, “likes” or followers.

6. Assign a Team to monitor, communicate and oversee your Social Networks. This is a 24-hour operation requiring more than one person with Social Networking skills.

7. Give yourself plenty of time to plan, launch and integrate. This is not a Shoot, Ready, Aim media campaign. Errors made in social networks can go viral. Failure to communicate, or communicate poorly and you’ve done more harm to your event image than missing the Social Media boat completely.

The Grand Social Media Experiment - Final Report on Facebook Contest

For full transparency, I must admit there will be an epilogue to this report. I and my client began the Social Media Campaign in November. We did not know what it would do for ticket sales of the event. Our purpose was just to get the event word out, to connect with our volunteers and guests, and to help the public understand why a hot air balloon can't fly in hot windy air.

My company promotes the Temecula Valley Balloon and Wine Festival. (http://www.tvbwf.com/)  In its 27th year, this event is truly, if you know how to count people, cars and tickets, the biggest event in the Valley. 38,000 to 40,000 annually attend the event.

November 2009 I and the staff met to discuss the Social Media campaign and what we hoped to accomplish. First we wanted a nice Facebook Fan Page that we managed. There were several different fan pages out there, done by friends, volunteers and even bands that played at the Festival  previously.

So we deactivated them and began the Social Media Experiment with the sole goal of having all social media up and running by March 1, 2010. March 29 we would start a Facebook contest, teased by Twitter and our radio media partners. We started with zero fans and followers. By March 25 by working it part time on my part and the office staff we had 950 total fans, 270 visits in a week, and 3 wall posts in a week.

The contest ended May 9th and here are the results of the six week campaign:
We added an average of 200 fans a week, one weekend 650 fans.
We ended with 2,471 total fans. (net of 1521)
Wall posts ended at 301 for the final week of the contest (compared to 3)
Visits to the page were 1,649 for the final week, 1,090 the previous week. (six times more visits than when the contest started)

The Festival's fan page is still adding fans at the rate of 150 a week. Total fans 2,732.
There were 995 visits last week to the fan page so we are maintaining the momentum as we lead to the Festival next weekend.

We have also added Twitter followers at a steady rate (from 0 to 173) Twitter was not a priority. Within our community and demographics of the Festival Twitter is a misused and understood microblog. What the campaign did include, however, was following all of the wineries and performers at the 2010 event. This provided us additional audience of the Festival message that we may not have reached otherwise. Frequent Tweet backs to those we followed helped us find new friends.

Our Social Mention (http://www.socialmention.com/) quotient at this point (there is debate on its accuracy as it does pull up irrelevant sites) has a strength of 2, sentiment of 22 and passion of 27. While I understand what it all means, in the manner of social media, I don't know how it will translate to ticket sales. After all, that is what a marketing campaign, be it traditional, social or mixed, is all about. Sell the product. Cute and clever doesn't always sell. Just ask Joe Izusu and the Lizards of Bud. Then again, there is the Aflac Duck.

For the Festival, our goal was to have 10% of our normal audience as Fans on Facebook. Oh wait - Facebook changed that to "Like." (Gees - sometimes you geeks need to get a life.) It was also to reach more people with the complete Festival message. Remember when I mentioned Hot Air Balloons. Well, it never fails, in the 15 years of doing this event, and no matter what we write in a press release, put in the news, say on television, there will always be a handful of guests who walk into the Festival at 1 p.m. and complain that there are no hot air balloons.

Science 101 - HOT AIR RISES guys ... that is what we have been able to say to all of our Fans and followers, who have actually answered the critics on blogs other social media. They have reminded our guests that a Hot Air Balloon must have cool air to fly. And, if that is ALL we accomplish, it will be something that couldn't be done in 27 years of the event.

As for attendance and ticket sales, we will know on June 6th about 1 p.m. when the trickle into the Festival slows. I can say this much, on May 15 & 16, I was promoting another event in town, Western Days & Chili Cookoff. The budget for these Old Town events continues to shrink. It has been hacked and hacked again. Every time it gets hacked in down economies - it doesn't get blessed in good. While costs of promoting go up, the budget doesn't. I say this so you understand the limits of growing an event without money to promote it.  The attendances is always between 2,500 to 4,000 a day depending on the weather. 

Not this year. Whether it was the extremely clever radio commercial we produced on KFrog, the Westways article or the intense web promotion, with email blasts and social media, I truly can't say. But the event clearly doubled in size. Chili was sold out in an hour. The high noon gunfight crowd looked a bit like the Rod Run crowd. (http://www.temeculacalifornia.com/)

As the marketer and promoter, I'll say it was all of the above. If, however, we see an increase in attendance at the Festival where we can actually count tickets and attendance, I'll know social media marketing had a major impact.  Expect an epilogue.

PR 2.0 Is Here: Combine Traditional PR with Social Media for Heightened Results

Advertising 2.0: Social Media Marketing in a Web 2.0 WorldA Step by Step Guide to Social Media Marketing and Web 2.0 OptimizationMarketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap between Seller and Buyer through Social Media Marketing

Social Media Scorecards and the Grand Social Media Experiment

Let me just say this. DON'T DO A CONTEST on Facebook for six weeks unless you have 4 people monitoring the contest pages at all times.  Of course that also depends on if you have 5 people playing, and a fan base of 80.  My client started with 1,100 fans. Our goal is 4,000 by the time of the event.  We're at 2,390 fans on Facebook today and we're about 30 days out from the Event. We are averaging an addition of 120 per week, with one weekend adding over 600 fans as part of the contest.

But how does this help us? Somewhere in my spare time I have found time to read yet another book on this new media that changes faster than the speed of sound. But it is Brian Solis' latest "Engage" and the last 20 pages of the book are on measuring your return on investment, knowing your "Social Influence" score or value and how different gurus are measuring the results.

We will measure results at the gate and cash register. But for now, we are seing and hearing the buzz of the event. Last week 102 links were made to our fan page -- they were all SPONSOR LINKS...giving our sponsors tremendous interactivity and exposure to our 2,390 loyal fans. There is a great free measurement site that has us with pretty high scores for posts and sentiment. The site also measures passion, although I don't know how. (Something else to read.)

And what I really found of great value, was the numerous categories of measurements, from links to news, to blogs and microblogs. Bottom line, I was able to find some news coverage on our event that hasn't popped up in any of my usual media audit services.

The site is socialmention.com. But while you dig through all this with me, you might want to tap into another little gem on the web ... an article "10 Social Media Monitoring Tools..." http://tiny.cc/mrt88.

And 4 people? Well we have one monitoring comments, another the points and me the entire game. All part time ... which means to pull it all together ... someone has to work it. That would be me. 7 a.m. to midnight and I'm anxious for this contest to be over. What I thought would take a few hours a day divided up between three people, became eight hours.  And that is the biggest lesson of learned from all of  this. Get lots of help, have someone write you an app to keep better track of things and make it easier.

There are lots of tools out there to use, but all are partial in the general scheme of a BIG CONTEST totally conducted on social media. Praying my nephew can figure out the app by next year.

Sorry for any typos -- I'm a bit brain dead.

Grand Social Media Experiment V -

Just an update - April 14th the Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival had 1,244 Facebook Fans. Today, April 20th we have 2,019. We were adding 110 fans a week prior to our contest. It is a lot of work and I'm beat. Even with people monitoring the site, I watch it like a hawk for problems, complaints, discrepencies in points. It helps. We can answer questions, solve problems and help our Festival guests feel like guests and a part of the process.

This campaign could probably be done easier. I have utilized as much automated widgets and apps as possible - or that I know - or that doesn't cost money. What most folks don't get is the Festival is not a cash cow. Their mission is to promote the community, to spread the word of the valley's finest assets. Over the years of mini-ad budgets they have done a phenomenal job. In essence, they have branded the valley because you can go to conventions and say you are from Temecula. The reply is always the same "Oh you have that Balloon & Wine Festival."

For 27 years this event has promoted the valley. It's contributions to the growth of the wine region and community often go unheralded. I have friends who moved here because they attended a Balloon & Wine Festival. (I think it was the one where I had the grape stomping and waiter waitress contests in the dirt of home plate at the sports park.)

The message goes far-reaching. It is an internationl message. They have won marketing awards against 1400 other international events - and they have done it regularly at the IFEA convention. They compete against Kentucky Derby's, Miramar Air Shows, Rose Parades and major events with much bigger marketing budgets. And they still win. They still spread the word that the Temecula Valley is a great place to live, work, play and grow a business. And it takes 1,000 volunteers to pull this off. Kudos Festival! Someday you will get the Chamber of Commerce Lifetime Achievement Award. (Hint Hint)

Melody Brunsting first volunteered for the Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival in 1986. She continued to provide her support and services until she was hired to promote the event in 1994. At that time their entire advertising and marketing budget was $10,000. Today, Melody is president of Melody's Ad Works, Inc., produces annual events in Old Town Temecula, promotes numerous events and non-profits, including the Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival, Temecula Bluegrass Festival, Western Days, Hot Summer Nights and the Great Temecula Grape Drop on New Year's Eve. To see her events visit www.temeculacalifornia.com. To see more about Melody see www.melodysadworks.com

How's Your Fan Base Growing? Getting lots of visits on Facebook?

In two days, a client's Facebook fan page added over 500 fans, grew 44%, more than doubled the visits to the page and had more than 10x more posts. How?

With an interactive contest.

Read the Grand Social Media Experiement.  Here are the media tools I'm using: Facebook, Twitter, Pingfm, Blip.fm, Cotweet and Youtube.

There are lots of books out there ... but stay tuned with my day to day story and learn from my mistakes -- and hits.

Social Media Marketing and Events - the Grand Experiment IV

Okay the weekend is over and all of our contestants did a great job of sending Fans to the Festival Facebook page (Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival.)  In fact, where we were growing 100 to 150 a week we grew 500 over the weekend. That's 500 more people who will see the Festival updates, 500 more folks who have folks seeing their updates. A good long tail of the cat experiment.

The key now is the interaction, welcoming them and making them feel a part of this contest too. Always with social media the key is to engage with content and interaction.

We have more weekend projects for our contestants and remember, they are all going for a coveted campsite at the Festival. Plus this week they will be winning tickets at sponsor locations.

During the weekend, Vinnie, our spokesperson, posted a new video, has played around with his blipfm radio station, and basically kept a dialogue with the contestants.

Stay tuned.

Grand Social Media Marketing Experiment Part III

Gotta luv it! We launched the I'm a Fan Because campaign on Friday. All current fans can earn points towards the one and only remaining campsite at the three-day Balloon and Wine Festival. Nearly 400 sold in 40 minutes this year. So for every fan a contestant sends us they get 25 points. That means for the weekend they can add thousands of points to the coffers and thousands of fans to the Temecula Valley Balloon and Wine Festival fan page.

In 24 hours our fans have added 140 fans to the page that was adding 140 a week. Not bad for 24 hours - more folks to communicate our message. Stay tuned. We love it and we love our fans.

The Grand Social Networking Experiment - part II

We are two weeks into our campaign and have 5% of our Facebook fan base as active contest participants. We expect more as we open up some of the points earning areas, and announce more prizes. Those enrolled in the contest are playing it most of the days. But what has it done for the event? We are adding more than 100 fans per week to our site

And here is the surprise, sponsors. Event sponsorship is hard to come by in our ever penny-pinching "back to the basics" economy. Sponsors like the campaign, the constant attention, inter action with our Fan and e-blast subscriber base. And so we are adding -- adding to the campaign as it continues. It is a fluid promotion that allows for expansion. We're sending contestants to sponsors. We're sending them to their website. We're sending new prospects to their data base. Heck - we're sending them to the stores and place of business. You gotta love that!

The not-so-much-surprise … It takes constant vigilance and we have several folks doing that 24-7. So for those of you wishing to launch a similar campaign -- better either hire staff that know social media manners, an agency or both. Where you save marketing money on print and broadcast now -- you should invest on your web strategy.

(For the record, I hate it when someone tells me they have gone back to the basics.  The "Basics" are dead. What they have done is stopped spending on effective marketing; put people on phones; blamed advertising for their bad economy, and usually wasted money on a passive print campaign. Don't tell me you went back to the basics. You got cheap and tossed away creativity. And I just love it when you tell me you would rather buy an iphone app than a mobi site. Count you as one of the new complainers who tells me internet marketing doesn't work. Look around you … How many of your business associates are on i- phones? and … did you notice the network? I did … I'm on ATT went to a 2g phone because their 3g network drops calls.. So Verizon will eventually get an i-phone... they have what droids now?  Think about it. Are you going to invest your entire mobile strategy on a fraction of the market?)

If you're trying to figure this all out ... some of my reading material for the past 18 months. "New Rules for Marketing and PR," "Twitter Power," "Social Media Marketing,"  and "Putting the Public back in Public Relations."

Melody Brunsting is president of Melody's Ad Works, Inc. and marketing and public relations company that specializes in event promotion, non-profit events and specialty retail.

The Grand Social Media Experiment

Last November when I sat with the Temecula Valley Balloon and Wine Festival and discussed our plans for marketing the 2010 event, we considered the opportunity of  expanding our social media community and utilizing that network to sell tickets.

For the last year my company (http://www.melodysadsworks.com/) had been using Facebook and E-blasts to promote events along with our traditional radio, cable and television advertising. I had seen some growth in the event attendance where I sent e-blasts. What my event clients needed was a way to grow that email list and connect with more people through social media.

During the City of Temecula's holiday promotions, Facebook, Twitter, E-blasts, and good old-fashioned flyers in schools were used to promote the Ice Rink. A Fios-buy on family oriented channels helped that new rink exceed all sales goals. Could the Temecula Valley Balloon and Wine Festival do the same thing? (http://www.tvbwf.com/)

The first step was to redesign the website, Facebook Fan page, and Twitter accounts. Over the years volunteers had created a variety of these accounts, pages, groups, you name it. We wanted all fans accessing the same page.

Mission accomplished and the event now has over 1100 fans and growing on Facebook. But Twitter, now that's the tricky one. The Festival wants fans to know when bands are booked, reserved seats near sell-outs and well - camping is available. (No, there is no camping available for you guests of the Festival.) Utilizing only the web for promoting camp site reservations, the Festival opened camping on March 9th and sold out in less than an hour with more than 650 people oline at one time for 400 camp sites.  However, most found out through e-blasts, Facebook at the website.

Twitter wasn't growing.

Enter stage two of the campaign: We have now been linked on our major radio station partners in Los Angeles and San Diego markets. We have also begun our "I Want to Camp" contest where guests earn points towards one - yes only one - campsite remaining. It is a coveted grand prize and for the next five weeks we will be Tweeting clues to earn points, pick up tickets at sponsors and walk away with souvenirs.

Last week when the numbers weren't growing fast enough, I tweeted "Want a Campsite?" Facebook had 18 posts in less than an hour and the  Festival's phones went crazy. So we had to reword that little tickle.

Currently we have 36 of our Fans playing the game. (That's 36 in 5 days and we have a few dozen photos, two blogs posted to our wall as part of the contest.)  We've also added about 20 followers on Twitter. We hope to have much more. Afterall, the goal is interaction. I'll keep you updated with the experiment but here are some things for newbies to social media "special event" promotion. Over the next few weeks, as tickets are left around town and teased on Twitter we should see more growth. Stay tuned.

HINT: If you have entertainers as part of your event - be sure to follow them on Twitter and Facebook, create a list of those performers on Twitter, and when pertinent, respond to the tweets and posts. Best of all, watch for fan messages and tweets. I was carrying on a conversation with one of our followers who saw a band posted and checked the band's website. I had already been told the band's website had a bad date on it, so when the question came through "Is this right? It says they are somewhere else on June 4th?" I was able to respond - and quick response - sells tickets.

Cool Tools for Social Media Newbies

If you are just jumping into the Social Media Revolution for your event marketing, you are probably overwhelmed by all of the lingo, applications and sites. You can Tweet on Twitter, Ping with Pingfm, post on Facebook, upload to YouTube, and blog. But who has the time? Most event promoters - large or small - were working 60-80 hour weeks before social media.

Life in the PR world has gotten tough for any traditionalist. (That's why I call those folks who try to live on press release mass mailings, pitching and whining to editors, and stagers of the meet and eats.) Magazines are going belly up. Newspapers have gotten smaller and in some cases unethical - demanding cash expenditures for news coverage of your event, and some television news teams "sell" live broadcasts of their show from your event. This means we are all working harder to get the story in print, on-air and then seen.


Enter Social Media - the New Darling of the promotion world. It's free. It's abundant. It's full of niche markets. And all it takes is time ... well time and a little bit of knowledge. So here are a few tools for you newbies to the new media wave.

RESEARCH: Discover the most common search terms used when browsers search the web for your event. It's free - go to google ad word keyword tools. Type in your event name and see what search terms come up. You'll see a list of search terms. Some that appear more frequently than others - some that are used millions of times. Make a list of the top terms and keep this within your eyesight whenever you write about your event.

BLOG: Whether you choose WordPress, blogger or live journal, start with a blog about your event. Be concise and friendly. Judiciously use words from your keyword search tool research. Dont' overload or force the use but be cognizant of the key search terms. Make sure you include a boiler plate at the end of your blog that directs readers to your event website and contact info. When relevant use links and incorporate links.

TAG: (or label) Establish tags for your blogs that pertain to your event, and preferably utilize some of your key search words.

WIDGETS: Add these to your blog connecting or providing a diary of your Facebook and Twitter accounts, or provide a link to your Twitter and Facebook pages.

FACEBOOK: Develop a PAGE for your event and an individual account in the administrator or your name. Why? You can have an unlimited amount of fans, but a limited amount of friends. And, there are some things you can do as an individual with Facebook, that you can't do as a business or organization. This goes both ways - there are some special things you can do with a fan page you can't do with an individual. Create Invites to your event and send to your "fans" and friends. This allows fans and friends to also forward the invite.

TWITTER: Develop a twitter page and immediately begin following key individuals. (Board members, other events, media representatives.)

LINK: Twitter to your Facebook page so posts are synchronized on both.

YOUTUBE: Create videos, upload commercials and b-rolls of your event. Be aware of the copyright laws for entertainers music though. Encourage fans and followers to upload event photos to Youtube through your social media.

PINGFM: Very cool free tool that you can use to post to all social media at the same time. You can blog from Ping, Tweet, or Facebook - or all at the same time. Ping has lots of cool applications and tools. Check it out.

FOLLOW AND FRIEND: Other social media and public relations experts. They are posting great info daily. The media scene changes daily and the only way to stay updated is to stay linked to the hottest gurus.

Vocus and PR Newswire have free webinars teaching everything from SEO of your public relations campaign to social media etitquette.

YES! Virginia. There is Social Media Etiquette and if you violate it you will lose followers, fans and credibility. Twitter is not the place to post endless tweets about your latest book, your online ticket office, or your sponsorship packages. It is the place to tell followers about your entertainment lineup, when and where tickets are available, how to save money on tickets, tips for the best way to enjoy your event. Do not sell. Teach, share, inform.

Once you have "blogged" you can notice your blog on Facebook, Twitter and Myspace. Some applications allow you to "tweet" pieces of your blog throughout the day.

GOOGLE ALERT: If you haven't signed up for Google Alert - do so immediately. This cool app lets you know whenever there is a story about your event, you and board members. It all depends upon what terms you post when signing up for the alerts. This will also help you keep track of the effectiveness of your social media, as well as traditional media mentions and coverage.

CAMPAIGN STRATEGY: Develop a campaign strategy that also ties to your traditional media and public relations. Be sure to provide blogs, Facebook, Twitter widgets on your website linking back to your event pages. Include social media info on flyers, postcards, brochures. Be sure to have an online press room with all of our press releases ... make them easy to download and "copy and paste."

READ: There are tons of great books... actually being published daily, on social media and PR/Marketing 2.0. Some of my favorite

“Twitter Power,” by Joel Comm

“Putting the Public Back in Public Relations. How Social Media is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR” by Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge.