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”.

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?

It’s All About Passion!

I found a book that pairs perfectly with this blog.  The book is called Crush It! Why Now is the Time to Cash In On Your Passion. The book is written by Gary Vaynerchuk. 

Like you, I don’t have time to read a ton of books so I am selective in my reading.  With this book, I actually downloaded the audio book to my iPod.  The book is about living your passion.  It talks about social media and how it has leveled the playing field.  It talks about how Facebook and Twitter are marketing tools not a media strategy. It discusses how we should use this recession to cash in on our passion.  Does all this sound familiar?  We have discussed all of this in the past on this blog.  I have met Gary a few times and I can tell you he lives this book. 

I made a decision last summer to take my passion for culinary and my 25 year career in entertainment marketing and meld the two together.  With this, I have a number of new business ideas and opportunities.  While many of these projects and opportunities are still in concept form, it has given me a new energy and excitement. My brain has not pumped out this many ideas in 10 years.

Even if you have no plans to leave what you are currently doing, you can use your passions to create new opportunities for your business.  If you enjoy what you do, then come up with new ways to make it even more fun.  If you don’t have fun at your career, then you need a new career.  Don’t think of it as a job, think of it as “This is what I do”.

All of us in event & entertainment marketing have passions beyond what we do at our daily business.  What if you could take that passion and apply it to the events, shows, and venues you promote?

Becareful Of Too Much Free eMarketing

We can all agree that too much of anything can hurt you.  Too much food, drink, drugs, etc…  This also goes for marketing through technology.

As many of you know, I follow event & entertainment marketing peeps through Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.  Many of these marketers are using this social technology to market, which is great.  If you are using the technology too much are you losing your customers interest?

This morning I received a Facebook invite for an event from an arena venue.  They use Facebook on a regular basis to promote their events.  Today’s problem is that I received the same invite at least 10 times.  I am sure this is not the venue’s fault.  Something is probably “whacked” with Facebook.  This is a potential hazard with using other’s free technology.  You depend on them to help you get the message out but you are also at their mercy when they f*** up.

Another potential hazard with using today’s free marketing technology is the question of when is too much?  If you send out emails everyday are people reading them or are they deleting them?    Do you start going unnoticed?  The same goes for promoting your event on the social networks.  If you are pushing every single day, sometimes several times a day, are your customers reading it? 

The internet is very different from television.  When you run lots of TV spots, you hope to reach all your potential customers with at least one of the spots.  When you send messages directly to a customer via email or a social network site, they are most likely getting your message the first time.

Feedback Friday

From: Tweeter is Finally Cool with the Younger Gen 11/02/09

I think it’s interesting to discover how different demographics use Twitter. Perhaps the older generation are using it more for business, and perhaps the younger kids are using it for more social purposes. I think you’ll find this is also relative to mobile phone use. I use Twitter on my phone, but hardly ever log in online. However, I use Facebook more online.  Iain Bluett, Ticket Alternative

From: Want to Move Tickets: Push Group Sales 11/11/09

Joe I believe the reason group sales is not held as very important to the industry is because the industry is far better at order taking and making an additional profit on the order taking transaction than they are on providing and managing a true sales process and staff which is viewed only as an added expense. Those are the thoughts of a very old timer who once knew what the term customer service really meant and worked for employers who did too.  David Rosenwasser

Have a great weekend!

Twitter Is Finally Cool With The Younger Gen

I read an Associated Press story today about how Twitter is finally catching on with the younger generation. 

Since Twitter started, it seemed to be a social site for older generations.  The article discussed how the young generation was staying away from Twitter like a plague.  The group that you would think would be on top of all new technology stayed away. 

The social network world has gone through some interesting transitions over the last few years.  It was not that long ago the MySpace was number one.  Now I find very few who actually still use it unless they are in the music business.  MySpace has become a great site for bands and music lovers to show off their stuff.  My teenage son was on Facebook before I was.  Today, it seems everyone from pre-teens to senior citizens have a Facebook page. 

My theory of why the younger generation is moving to Twitter has to do with the following statistic.  The article states that the median age on Facebook is 33 years of age and Twitter is 31.  If MySpace is not the place, and Facebook has been taken over by geezers, then maybe there is a place for the young on Twitter?

If the young are taking over Twitter, is it just a matter of time before AARP starts marketing their own social site?

No matter where generation groups go, the bottom line is that everyone is getting into social networking.  Marketing our shows and events on these sites are very important.  When I first started discussing social network marketing over a year ago, I said you didn’t need marketing budget for it.  Today, you still don’t need to spend money but is that the right decision?  Don’t we want our marketing dollars going where the customers are?

Just New Ways Of Doing It

Free food always brings attention

My marketing / PR friend Adam Klein did an old PR event with a new spin on it.  In case you are not aware, October is National Pizza Month.  Adam’s client is Uno’s Chicago Grill.  Adam and his team spent last Thursday morning delivering pizzas to radio/TV personalities, celebrities, and politicians in the Boston area.  These were not just your typical deep dish pizzas, they were pizzas with pizzanility.  Uno’s created pizzas that fit the personalities of the recipients.   Check out the link above for a picture example.  The idea of delivering food for PR is not a new idea.  But as they always say “there are no new ideas, just new ways of doing it”.

If the movie industry does it, then so should we

There is an article on today’s Ad Age website about how the movie industry is using social network sites to market.  While social sites may not have taken over word of mouth yet, they are having an impact.  The article discusses how Sony Pictures used social media as part of the marketing mix. The results of their last three releases were impressive.  They also gave an example of social networks having a negative effect on the box office.  Many industry people believe that Twitter and other sites helped with the quick drop in tickets for Bruno.  People bitching on these sites is very contagious.  Negative breeds negative.

Ticketmaster scalped?

There is an article in today’s Wall Street Journal about TM being sued.  The article says that a ticket broker has filed a lawsuit against Ticketmaster claiming that brokers were paid to sell tickets at premium prices.  This was part of a secret trial project from a couple of years ago called “Project Showtime”.  While I am not always known for defending TM, I do smell a rat with the timing of this lawsuit.  The merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation is close and ticket brokers are getting very nervous.

You Can Be A Blogger Too

The cool thing about today’s web 2.0 is that anyone can communicate with the rest of the world.  If you handle PR or marketing for a venue, show, sports team, or event you should start a blog.

When I talk to someone about this blog, the most asked question is “how do you find time to write it”?  We have all heard the term “time is what we make it”.  That is how I look at this blog.  It is part of my daily routine. The average time to write this blog is one hour. It shouldn’t take that long but you have build in interruption time. Some of you may be saying that you don’t have an hour to write a blog.  What if the blog is part of your job?  Blogging is a PR or marketing tool.  If you find the time to write a press release, buy media, or pitch promotional deals then you can find an hour a week to write a blog.  Use your blog to publish the press releases.

Posting blogs can be done for free.  Most blog sites host for free.  For example this blog is on WordPress.  I also use a free email subscription service call FeedBurner.  By using free services, I pass the free service to my readers.  You can also link your blog to other online and social sites such as Facebook.  If you are not yet using Twitter for your business, start a Twitter account today.  Twitter is a 140 character mini blog.  You can also send your Tweets to Facebook or even link them to your blog site.

This blog is used for marketing my event & entertainment marketing services.  It works.  Not only does it create online exposure for the business but it does generate leads and clients.  Why not try blogging for your business?

IAAM In Boston

The International Association of Assembly Managers (IAAM) is currently hosting its 84th annual conference and trade show in Boston.  It actually started on Friday and ends Tuesday. 

This morning I attended the trade show. If you are in operations or food & beverage for a venue, then it’s like being in a candy shop.  The rest of us marketing people walk around to network and see who we know.

Today was the last morning of the trade show, the attendance was pretty light.  My understanding is that the conference is down this year.  Of course no one should be surprised by that.  As I walked around, I did hear a few exhibitors complaining about the smaller attendance. 

As I mentioned, everyone likes the trade show to walk around and mingle.  I was no exception.  When I first got to the convention I met up with my mentor David Rosenwasser.  David started in this business back in the 1970′s with Ringling Bros.  Today David is the Director of the Greater Saint Charles CVB.  David has been a very dear friend over the years. 

I saw Frank and Sally Roach at the University of South Carolina booth.  Frank is the senior lecturer at the schools Department of Sport and Entertainment Management.  Frank is running the Sport Entertainment & Venues Tomorrow (SEVT) conference November 11 – 13 in Columbia SC. Check it out at www.SEVT.org.

Went by the Ticket Alternative booth to say hi to Iain Bluett.  Iain and I have become Twitter friends so it was great to actually meet him outside the digital world.

Ran into Amy Latimer from the TD Garden hanging around the silent auction area for the IAAM Foundation.  Hope she won something.

While I was at the silent auction I also saw Sherry Powell.  I have known Sherry & Bill since I started in the business.  Speaking of the Powell family, the last time I saw their son Cory he was a little kid running around summer meetings at Feld Entertainment.  I saw Cory at the trade show and found out he is about to graduate from Frank Roach’s program at University of South Carolina. He is looking for his first job.  He gave me a flash drive with his resume and other info on it. Very clever idea!  If anyone is looking for a young, smart, event & entrainment marketing person ready to learn and take on our crazy business email him at corywp@gmail.com.

I ran into Brandon Lucas from Carbonhouse.  He was walking around checking everything out just like me.  He was there to get face time with venue managers about their digital needs. 

I stopped by the Global Spectrum booth to see who I knew and saw Joe Flanagan.  I first met Joe when he was at the Hartford Civic Center.  Today he is the Assistant GM at the MassMutual Center in Springfield MA.

I understand that conferences in general are having a tough year.  However, I still believe they are necessary for any industry.  Networking and meeting in person once or twice a year with others in your industry not only keeps you relevant but also re-charges the batteries.

Who Said Twitter Doesn’t Work For You?

As many of my daily readers know, I am a fan of Twitter.  I believe that if used correctly it can be a great PR and marketing tool.  Below are two examples where Twitter works.

There is an article in today’s Ad Age Online about Southwest Airlines using Twitter.  Last week you may recall Southwest had an incident with one of its planes.  To be exact, a hole opened up while it was several thousand feet up.  This is never a good thing!  As with our technology today, people on the plane started sending tweets out.  They were getting the news out before anybody.  Southwest is a very savvy digital marketer.  Their head Twitterer countered by getting out the company message on their Twitter page immediately.  She was able to get the correct message going before the issue hit the news.  Southwest has 290,000 followers on Twitter.

My wife is one of those out there who doesn’t get Twitter.  She saw no purpose for it.  She thinks collecting followers is like collecting Pokemon cards.  Our kids have been away at camp.  I found out that the camp director has a Twitter account.  He tweets everyday from camp.  As a parent, this is a great thing.  Kids are not always good at sending letters or communicating what they are doing at camp.  The camp’s Twitter page is updated daily and sometimes several times a day.  After showing this to my wife, she admittedly saw a purpose for Twitter.  We even know what the kids had for dinner on the opening day of camp. 

Have a great weekend!

Use Your Marketing Skills for You

One of the biggest surprises for me at this year’s Event & Arena Marketing Conference was the amount of unemployed event marketers.  I know the recession has done damage to our business but I didn’t realize how much. The percentage of the unemployed at this year’s conference was really high.  We are talking about very talented people.  For those event marketers out there looking, I dedicate today’s post to you.

As event marketers you know how to market. You write your marketing plan, pitch your media deals, and put your marketing into play.  Now you find yourself looking for a new job.  I am sure part of your daily search routine includes checking the internet job sites, making phone calls to your contacts, and reading the trades.  But what else are you doing?  How can you apply your event marketing skills to marketing you?

Marketing Plan

If you write a marketing plan for your shows, why not try it for yourself?  Make yourself the event.  Put everything down just like you would for a show.  Write down all the stats.  This should include what is happening in your industry.  If you are looking in a certain market, research the market. Who are your potential employers? What are their goals?  What are their needs?

Media

Write down your media plans.  No, you don’t have to buy TV, radio, or billboards.  That would be cool if you could afford it.  I did see where someone did this recently.  But you can afford to use non-traditional (21^st Century) marketing.  Use the internet and social networks to promote yourself.  The key to the internet is having your name everywhere.  Your goal is to have your name rise to the top of the Google search.  You don’t want to this happen only when someone searches your name.  You want your name to show up on marketing searches.  You want your name (brand) to be associated with marketing.  This blog is a perfect example. My name and this blog show up in marketing Google searches all the time.

You need to use Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter.  Linkedin has become the number one online social tool for the unemployed.  It is designed to post everything you have ever done in the professional and educational world. They also have a job finding tool. Being active on these social sites will also promote you on Google searches.

Promotions

Why not create promotions around you?  I am not kidding on this.  Why not offer a contest for free marketing services?  Offer this contest to any company or industry that you are interested in.  This will get your name out there, tell them what you offer, and someone will win a free taste of your expertise.

If you skip over everything I just wrote then remember one thing:

You are re-building and marketing the brand called “You”!