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
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, April 19, 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, April 5, 2010
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.
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.
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