How Do You Rank?

Everyone is always so concerned how many hits their website gets. But more important than hits is where do you fall in the food chain of web exposure?  There is a TV spot running that tells the small business owner that without a website, you are invisible on the web.  This is partially true but it’s not just about the website. As a marketer you know that one marketing tool is not enough.

Everyone that uses the internet uses Google, Bing, or some other search site. Most people will stop the search as soon as they think they found what they are looking for.  But are they finding you?  What if you are half way down the search page or even worse on page 2?

There are tons of companies that claim they can get you to the top of the search page.  Most of them are full of shit! I get email from them every day making this claim.  They must not Google my site. There are two ways to get you to the top.  One costs money and the other does not.  You can buy ad space from the search sites or you can work to get yourself on top.  

Just having a website is not enough.  The more exposure you have on the web, the better your chances of coming out #1 on a search.  For example, I have a website, a blog, two Twitter pages, LinkedIn, and Facebook.  Google my name and I am the top eight of nine rankings.  The only reason I am not all nine is because my great great grandfather was a famous doctor listed on Wikipedia. 

Some people think I waste too much time on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. There is a method for my madness.  As a marketer I understand you have to work the web to get the results.  Every time you post anything you raise your overall ranking.  If you use Twitter for your business then you need to tweet every day.  This not only helps with your ranking but also gets you more Twitter followers.  

Next time your boss catches you playing on Facebook, just tell him/her you’re marketing.

I’ve Seen The Future

Last night I went to my local high school for curriculum night. This was for my daughter who will be entering high school in the fall.  What really amazed me was how the curriculum changed just since my son started there 3 years ago.  While I was sitting and listening to all the department heads, I realized that all of us in the live entertainment biz should be engaged in the schools.  All these kids in high school are our current or future customers. 

In past blog posts, I have discussed major & minor league sports teams supporting their respective youth teams.  We should be doing the same in the schools.  For example, our high school is offering a course called Live Stage Music.  In this class they are teaching kids how to take their talent live.  Teaching them stage presence and performing in front of a crowd.  As the department head said “how to be a rock star”.

The technology department and the English department discussed the use of new media.  They are teaching the kids not to just play on Facebook and Twitter but how to use it as a business communications tool.  These kids are the future of the internet.  Soon, they are going to get 99% of their info from the net.  As marketers, we should be helping them with this.  By helping them we are helping ourselves.  We need to stay current on what reaches our customers.  This will do it. 

Schools want to teach our kids the future but they don’t have all the money to do it.  This is a good investment for all of us in the live event and entertainment business. I know you would love to market into the schools.  How about helping them with our future?

Follow Me, Follow You

So the good news is that most of us in the event & entertainment business are now using social media to market.  You have joined Twitter and Facebook.  You might have thousands of friends, fans, and followers. But are you following them?

What makes social media different from the old fashion marketing & PR is two-way communication.  Not only can you get your message out but your fans can communicate back to you.  But are you listening?

Having friends, fans, and followers is not a collection.  You should not be gathering them like a kid collecting Pokémon cards.  They are more than a database.  They are real potential customers who want to be a part of your world.

I read an article in today’s Wall Street Journal about how Gatorade has a full time people searching the web for mentions of Gatorade (I bet they just found this blog).  They are looking for what people are saying about them.  They are looking for online conversations to join. They understand this is 21^st century marketing.

On my Twitter page, I have currently have over 1,100 followers and I follow most of them.  I look for people who fit my interests. I do read many of their tweets because I want to know what they are saying.  In my case I’m not looking for them to say things about me but what they are saying that influences the event & entertainment industry and the culinary world.  These are my two passions.

If you’re a venue, why not use social media to help book your events.  Ask your fans, friends, and followers what they would like to see at your venue.  If an event does not sell well, why not ask them why they didn’t buy a ticket?

Communication is a two-way street.  We finally have marketing tools that make it possible.  Make it work for you.

Post Conference Thoughts

It was a whirlwind trip to Chicago for the Event & Arena Marketing Conference last week.  If the conference didn’t create its own excitement, being ground zero for the Stanley Cup celebrations brought it over the top.

I really enjoyed Ross Bernstein’s keynote presentation on the late Herb Brooks.  Ross seemed to bring the full spirit of the 1980 Olympic hockey coach to the conference.  After hearing Ross’s speech, you can really understand how “Herbie” was able to take average college hockey players and turn them into Olympic champions.

I attended the session on viral marketing.  Wanted to hear how it is evolving or should I say “going viral”.  The session was very interesting.  When many people think viral, they think YouTube.  But viral marketing is way more than that.  Marketing on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and FourSquare is viral marketing too.  Have your Facebook fans create an “event” for your show.  Have each of them invite all of their friends to the event.  This will spread the word to thousands very quickly.

Since I have been in this business for 25 years, I don’t get overly impressed with the type of family shows that tour today.  However, I think Walking with Dinosaurs is pretty cool.  They had a Baby T at their sponsored luncheon.  Now that is what I call a really great advance costume.  Baby T is the size of an actual baby t-rex. I was also impressed with how Cirque du Soleil has grown over the past 20 years.  The brand is now worldwide with 20 plus shows and continues to grow every year. 

I was part of a panel discussion on marketing & advertising basics.  The panel took an interesting twist. Instead of talking about how to buy media or what are the right GRP’s, we discussed actually understanding our customers.  You can’t buy media if you truly don’t know your customer.  It is more than just reading the stats.  You need to ask the customer, listen to the customer, and follow through for the customer.

We Are All Critics – Hear Us Roar!

Today’s web 2.0 has offered up a great marketing opportunity and a possible marketing nightmare at the same time.  Our customers can give their two cents.  What are you doing with this?

Ten years ago the internet was very one sided.  Companies and brands put up a website to market their product.  Today, we can actually participate in two-way communication.  We can praise something when it’s great.  We can complain when something is not great.  We can have an actual dialogue.

As marketers we need to jump all over this.  A big reason we don’t like two-way communication is because we think we can’t control the message.  We are afraid of “negative”.  We need to get over the fear because two-way communication on the net is not going away.  If we sit back and do nothing, then the negative boo birds are going to rule the roost.

For many years we have run advertising that included customer testimonials.  We all know they work.  Today’s internet gives us the opportunity to take it to the next level.  NEWS FLASH:  Your customers are googling you!  What are they reading about you?  We should be encouraging our customers to give testimonials.  Have them offer real-time feedback on Facebook and Twitter.  Give them an opportunity to post comments on your website.  There are websites that offer customer feedback such as Yelp. Yes, you will get some negative feedback.  However, if you have a great product your loyal customers will take care of you.  Plus, I believe a little negative is good.  It gives you real customer feedback to fix any issues. It also makes your overall customer comments believable.

Today’s internet had made everyone a critic.  We don’t need to wait for the review to come out in the newspaper after the event.  Plus, we should really be listening to our customers not a newspaper reviewer.

We can’t control today’s internet but we have the marketing know-all to make it work for us!

Answer From A Reader

In the last post one my readers wrote an email asking how to deal with discounts and fire-sales.  Here is an answer from a live event promoter:

 Hello!

 I work as a promoter for shows – and I too read your blog every day.

 In regards to fire-sales and discounts, I think the issue is the fact that the venue is endorsing the last minute fire sales and discounts by displaying them on their twitter and Facebook accounts. I would be mad at them, as a patron, as well. As marketers, we need to get more creative in our discounting when a show is not selling well. We need to reach out to our media partners and venue sponsors to ask them to “take ownership” of a discount that they are bringing into the market. When the local radio station is offering their listeners 50% off tickets – the venue is not seen as the one to blame. When the local TV station, channel 10 for example, gives their viewers a $10 discount on tickets, this becomes their discount. Using the media allows for a separation between the venue and the media partners who are the ones putting out a ‘fire sale’. This eliminates (hopefully) upsetting those patrons who already paid full price for their tickets. At least it eliminates patrons getting mad at the venue directly.

Another thing I never do is discount the top ticket price. Those are your big players – the ones that get upset when their full price ticket they purchased later gets discounted. This way, those people receiving discounts are purchasing those tickets that are “less desirable.” 

To reply to the Facebook message that the venue received they could say:

We appreciate your purchase of tickets early. You will be rewarded for your early purchase by having the best seat in that price level. 

Name Withheld

From A Reader

Just as I was sitting down at my computer to write today’s blog post and thinking “what am I going to write about” I received this email from an arena marketer in the Midwest.

“Hi Joe, I subscribe to your blog, read it immediately whenever it hits my inbox and often share it with co-workers.

 I have dilemma that I thought you might be able to enlist your subscribers for their thoughts on. Here lately, it seems as though our building has had a string of events that don’t sell very well (priced too high) and we have been forced to roll out last minute, fire-sale deals to move seats. One of the ways we get the word out about the deals is our social networking…Facebook and Twitter. Facebook is great for us, but we often get complaints as comments from folks who paid full price earlier. What is the industry (good PR) thought on how to respond to the Facebook comment complaints? 

I am in a position as an arena marketer to take directions from the show’s promoter (who rents our building), but this practice of pricing things too high and then putting out last minute discounts and making our early buyers mad…just irritates me. 

Any help you can provide on the Facebook question would be appreciated. Should I respond? Should I delete the comments?” 

Name Withheld By Request 

What the author of this email stated is a topic that is an ongoing issue.  This problem is not new.  It has been happening for years.  The only difference now is that our customers have more avenues to express their comments and complaints.  

To answer his last question first; I believe you should always answer every question or comment you receive from a customer.  Part of social networking is creating the dialogue. With social networking you need to take the good with the bad. 

As for taking direction from promoters, I understand both sides because I have been on both sides.  Promoters do need to listen to the venue marketers who live in the market.  They are the first line in what is happening in that city.  They know if the economy is healthy or unhealthy. No one likes a fire-sale.  Besides upsetting customers, it also cheapens the show which makes the producers and artists mad. 

The writer of the email and I want to hear from other event & entertainment marketers.  This goes for both promoters and venue peeps.  Send me your comments!

More Social Network Discussion

My last post on LinkedIn was one of the most popular posts since this blog started.  Not only did I see a spike in readers but I also had some great comments. Most of the comments disagreed with me.  I think that is great!  This is what blogs are all about.  Communication is a two-way street.  Sometimes it even has a HOV lane.  Let’s keep this social network conversation going and discuss Facebook and Twitter. 

Facebook is by far the biggest social network site.  It seems like everyone I know (except my wife) is on Facebook. I have hooked up with friends that I have not seen since high school.  However, I have noticed that Facebook has changed over the past six months.  It seems to be very cluttered.  Not with people, but with crap!  This is not a good thing if you are a marketer and want to use Facebook as a tool.  It has become filled with Mafia Wars, Farmville, Lover of the Day, and all the others.  We need to figure out how to rise above the clutter and use Facebook to market our customers.  Facebook has 100 million members.  They are an interactive audience that not only you can speak to, they speak back.

Twitter is growing on me.  It too is evolving.  I am finally seeing less of “I am going to the bathroom” and more tweets of substance.  It also has its issues.  If you are on Twitter, have you noticed how many followers are SEO experts? What’s up with that? I am now over 1000 followers on Twitter.  Most of these followers seem to have common interests with me in the marketing, entertainment and the culinary world.  This is why I follow most of them.  I am learning new stuff from them and I find you can have two-way communications.  There are some I don’t follow or I will get in trouble.  For example the ones that want me to see their “special private photos”.

LinkedIn: Lots Of Connections And…?

All of you know that I am a big fan of social media.  I discuss all the social network sites and preach about how we need to use them as marketers.  I am currently signed on to four of them.  I am active on three.  One of these is LinkedIn.  This one is bugging me.  What is it really good for?

I do understand what LinkedIn is all about.  It is a business “networking” website.  Anytime you can network with others in business, this is a good thing.  You can join online groups that apply to your industry.  You can share business ideas.  You can look for a job.  You can see how everyone in this world is connected by just a few people (makes Kevin Bacon proud).  But with all of this, is it really doing anything to help you?

I have been on LinkedIn for almost 2 years.  Yes, I have connected with a lot of people. Many of which I have not seen in many years.  This is a good thing but that is why I also use Facebook.  I have joined a lot of groups.  But what has LinkedIn done for my business or job world? What has it done to make me money? The answer is: not really anything.  

If you have the basic free membership (which I have) to LinkedIn, you are limited to its resources.  They are always asking me to upgrade to the paid membership.  I have thought about it and would do it if I thought it would really help me make money. I just don’t see the value prop.

Virtual networking is a part of our 21^st century communication. It has a place but it also has its limits.  It is easy to connect with people online. However, nothing will ever take the place of face-to-face networking.

Brand Yourself

Today’s career and business climate is brutal.  The days of working for one company your whole career are very rare.  The days of the company protecting their employees are over.  This is why it is so important to brand yourself. You have a talent and you should make sure everyone knows this. 

As a marketer, you know how to market and brand the products you sell for a living.  It is shocking that so many of these same marketers don’t brand themselves.  What are you doing to get your name out there? 

How many of you have “Googled” yourself?  I bet all of you have.  How many times did you pop up?  Today, when anyone wants to find out about someone, they usually Google them first.  The more you show up on a Google search the better.  Of course you hope only good things are popping up.

There are lots of ways to brand you.  If you are on social network sites like Facebook and Twitter you can start today.  In fact, you are already branding yourself.  What you put on these sites can be passed around to thousands of people.  I get Google alerts everyday from stuff I post on Twitter. Are you on Linkedin?  If you are, do you belong to groups?  Do you contribute comments and feedback on these group sites?

Do you attend conferences for your industry?  If you do, what are you doing at these conferences to get your name out there?  If all you do is sit and listen, you are not branding yourself.  Get other people to listen to you.

How about writing a blog?  Start a topic you are familiar with.  Write your thoughts and opinions.  You will be surprised how quickly people will start reading it. If you know what you are talking about (and you better), you will soon build yourself a reputation as an expert in your field. 

Even though we don’t currently live in a “me, me, me” society it is still very important to market and promote yourself.  If you don’t do it, who will?