Social Media CASE STUDY - For the Capital Fringe

First - let me tell you YES.

After the Capital Fringe I am convinced that using Social Media is a KEY part of the marketing for events.
Like everything - there is more to it than just saying YES.

Summary
Lessons learned:

• Social Media is an important addition to marketing for events.
• Include Social Media in your planning and start early
• Widen your reach with all voices - follow on Twitter, friend on Facebook and link on Linked-in
  
• Coordinate your planning: paper, social media, press, and web
  

• Develop a group within your contacts or organization that can support social media efforts.
• If possible - have a Manager for the Social Media Campaign for an event.

Above all: PLAN

IMPORTANT: Social Media is here to stay. Learn more about how to use Social Media and develop your skills.

Details:
In my case, my daughter, San Francisco-based certified Social Media and Inbound Marketing Coach and Strategist Robin Schoettler Fox, added skills I didn't have. She brought to the table not just her expertise in social media but well-honed networking instincts and marketing experience.

Robin describes our activities and lessons learned at the Fringe in a series of blog posts on her Inbound Marketimg Training blog in a Marketing Mini-Case.

So far there are four posts:

1. Pushing Boundaries at the DC Capital Fringe: 1970s Networking in a Social Media World
2. Event Marketing & Social Media Tools
3. Storytelling Program, the Fringe & Twitter
4. Schmaps: Free & Easy Landing Page with Twitter Reach

Robin and I started working together using social media when we began our on-going effort of collecting stories of the women's movement of the 1970s through our Facebook page Second Wave Album. It was natural for us to expand our work together to include the launch of Pushing Boundaries at the Capital Fringe.

Four months ahead of the opening of the fringe we developed:

• paper tools (cards and posters) and ordered early for best prices and developed images to use on the net and other aspects of the campaign
• Facebook Page - we created a Pushing Boundaries Story page to engage in the Pushing Boundaries chatter during the event.
• a website for the Pushing Boundaries Program

• expanded contacts in Facebook and Linked-in to support social media later
• identified groups of people (beyond storytellers) who might be interested in Pushing Boundaries and sought ways to contact them
  
• developed mailings for Constant Contact - and expanded the mailing lists
• compiled press lists
  
• planned and developed press materials - which we mailed cold or sent after a personal call three weeks prior to the Fringe opening.
  

Two weeks before the Fringe opened Robin - now the event Social Media Manager - became the primary player with Facebook and Twitter for both of us. It was seamless even though she was in California and the Fringe was occurring in DC. Once the Fringe was really in full swing it became even more fun when Tim Ereneta and Slash Coleman arrived to perform. They are both active with Twitter and Facebook and as we four supported each other's programs with comments and re-tweets our collective megaphone was stronger.

Important lesson: building audience for an event with only one voice is not effective - but it really works if you have a team or many others who will comment and re-tweet to others to widen the reach and bring people in.

One last thought: Storytellers often talk about not attracting a younger audience - Social Media is THEIR world - are we speaking to them WHERE they are listening?