by Karen Chace
Storytellers share wonderful tales and offer amazingly creative shows, but do they have great marketing behind them? We lament the lack of attendance at venues, yet many times I receive an e-mail publicizing an event that is taking place the very next day. Often that e-mail was the only marketing tool used and I have to wonder how committed the producer was to ensuring the program’s success.
People lead full and busy lives and often a day’s or even a week’s notice is not enough to get them in the seats. If you want to fill the room, put your marketing hats on early and often and go beyond the traditional advertising routes. Embrace the array of social media tools at our fingertips; the promotional opportunities are endless.
Let’s make sure the follow-up publicity includes the words “standing room only!” Here are some tools to help you make it happen!
Blogging Services
- Google Blogger – www.blogger.com
- WordPress – http://wordpress.org/
The CMO’s Guide to the Social Landscape
This chart will help you decide what may work best for your needs.
http://tinyurl.com/3lt894w
Email Marketing Services
- Constant Contact – http://www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp
- IContact – http://www.icontact.com/
- Mail Chimp – http://mailchimp.com/
- Vertical Response – http://www.verticalresponse.com/
- 2011 Email Marketing Services Review
http://email-marketing-service-review.toptenreviews.com/
Event Calendars
- Adsglobe.com – http://www.adsglobe.com/events/
- Gary’s Guide – http://www.garysguide.org/
- Upcoming – http://upcoming.yahoo.com/
- Whofish.org – www.whofish.org
- Zvents.com – www.zvents.com
Below are two examples of free newspaper events sites from Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Check your area newspapers for similar services.
- Boston.com – www.boston.com
- Projo.com – Rhode Island – http://www.projothebeat.com/
Event Marketing
- Vertical Response – http://www.verticalresponse.com/event-marketing
- Eventbrite – http://www.eventbrite.com/
- Event Wizard – http://www.event-wizard.com/features/
Press Releases
We don’t have to throw the baby out with the bath water. Some of the old tried and try methods can still work. Here is a great tool to help you jazz up that press release!
Community Media Workshop –A guided press release creator tool with media strategies and techniques to help you produce a press release with pizzazz! http://communitymediaworkshop.org/tools/create_a_release.php
QR Codes
Connecticut Storyteller Carolyn Stearns offers and easy “how to” on the latest rage since bar codes were invented! http://www.lanesrepct.blogspot.com/2011/08/qr-what-is-it.html
Social Media Sites
- Facebook – www.facebook.com
- Twitter – http://twitter.com/
- LinkedIn – http://www.linkedin.com/
- Ning – http://www.ning.com/
- Need more? Top 15 Most Popular Social Media Sites
Remember, the event is not done when everyone leaves. Make sure to stay connected by uploading video of your event and create buzz for the next time!
- YouTube
- Vimeo
- Viddler
- Stupeflix – Integrate after-effects and pictures to your video without editing software.
Hootsuite
When you have all of your marketing ducks in a row, you can streamline your web activities using this social media dashboard. http://hootsuite.com/
Social Media Tools
And for those of you who have already rounded the learning curve, here are some of the newest social media tools available. 22 Hot New Social Medial Tools Worth Exploring
Storybug.net
The following two sites are links to my blog where I have compiled websites and information to help move your work forward using various types of business tools.
- Grow Your Business in 2010 *Yes, the post is from 2010 but the information and articles are still very useful.
- Hitting the Business Bulls-eye
About Karen
When she isn’t telling stories Karen is teaching children to share their own tales. A workshop leader and author she writes for Storytelling Magazine as well as her own blog and newsletter with resources for storytellers and educators. She is a contributing author to the National Storytelling Network’s publications, A Beginner’s Guide to Storytelling and Telling Stories to Children and offers her own publication, Story by Story – Building a School Storytelling Troupe. Karen was the recipient of the 2011 National Storytelling Network’s Oracle Award for Leadership and Service in the Northeast and the 2009 recipient of the LANES Brother Blue-Ruth Hill Award.
Contact Karen
Website: www.storybug.net
Email: storybug@aol.com
508-763-8565
I highly recommend Karen’s StoryBug blog! Just like this entry it is always full of useful and interesting information.
Thanks Karen!
Thank you Addie! So very kind of you to mention the blog. If folks would like to get to it directly, without going through my website, here is the link
http://www.karenchace.blogspot.com/ . There are also additional resources in my free, bi-monthly newsletter, which you may find here:
http://storybugnewsletter.blogspot.com/
Thank you again and thanks to the NSN for allowing me to take part in their amazing blog.
Warm wishes,
Karen Chace
Great blogpost, Karen. Thanks for so freely sharing your expertise and research.
Thank you Linda, so glad you found it helpful.
Thanks Karen, i always get new ideas from your posts! You are right artists need to marked themselves nowadays in order to be seen. And i have the impression the more technology we have it gets more and more. Before when i was hired by a cultural instiution here in Germany they made all the promotion and now ( with web 2.0 ) they expect me to take over some part of that as well. It is not enough to do our art, we need to be our own publicity agency, tax-office…sometimes i feel like i spend more time with promotion, homepage, mailings, creating flyers, office-work…than with my artform. I know it makes sense and it has an effect, but still i look for more simplicity and am not happy spending so much lifetime for something people forget about so easily.