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yoyoma02
06-05-2010, 04:59 PM
Hello!
I'm working on a new social networking website, to be launched in August. I'm looking for creative & effective strategies to market the website.

Just a bit of background:
The basic concept of the idea is to give entertainment artists (bands, comedians, authors, etc..) a tool to book their own tour throughout the country. Basically, think of LinkedIn on steroids, where bands and venues can connect to book shows.

As I put the final touches on the website, I need develop a marketing plan. I have a budget of $500 for marketing the project - I know, small budget so I need to get creative.

What is the best way to get venues to sign up for the website (it's free for venues, and it will cost artists $1 a month to use). Will developing a solid SEO plan to get the page ranked higher the best bet? Should I hire a PR person, to try to create some national buzz?

Let me know if you have any ideas, thanks!

vangogh
06-05-2010, 05:19 PM
First let me welcome you to the forum yoyoma.

You have that catch22 thing going where you need to build the community to attract the community. Like you say $500 isn't a huge budget for marketing, but it's still something.

I think the main thing is going to be growing the community to the point where it doesn't look empty when people find the site. Maybe in the beginning you could target a smaller community. How about starting locally. Visit all the venues in your area and try to get them on board. Let them know it's free for them and that you'll do all of the work to get them set up. Make it as easy as possible for them to say yes to joining and walk them through how the site can help them. Try to get them signed up and updating their profiles as much as possible.

While you're at the venues talk to the artists and tell them about how your site can help them. You might not want to charge them even the $1 at first if it will help get them to signup. Maybe you could offer the first X months for free or just let them join for free forever. Remember that until you have a community you're going to have a hard time attracting more people to the community.

Local doesn't have to be the only way to start smaller. You could also choose a specific style of music or focus solely on the comedians or authors. The basic idea is to specialize and start by building a smaller more targeted community. That way you won't need as large a community to attract new members.

Once you have something active it will become much easier to expand.

So in the beginning your main goal is to build some kind of community. Don't worry so much about the money at first because without an active community you won't be able to make any money. Once you have the community you'll be able to grow it and money shouldn't be as much of a problem. The key early on will be to build some kind of active community even a small one and make sure to provide value to them. If you do that they should start spreading the word and you'll more easily be able to convince more people to sign up since you'll have proof of how your network is helping others.

Patrysha
06-05-2010, 06:50 PM
Once you do what VG suggested and build enough of an audience that you can promote it, $500 can get you a lot of media coverage if you put it all towards publicity and social media...but you're gonna have to put a lot (if not all) of the grunt work in yourself and that means a lot of research, reading and practice. If sales and marketing are not your forte then it's going to take a significant amount of time to learn what you need in order to get good coverage off from the launch date.

You budget simple is not enough to get even a small advertising campaign going in any media...so it'll pretty much have to be a complete media relations campaign.

You won't be able to afford anything close to a specialist when it comes to PR...though you can get a month of social media expertise with it...but that won't be nearly enough without getting some solid foundations in marketing/publicity for yourself.

Spider
06-05-2010, 11:49 PM
I think I understand what you are trying to do — however, I wouldn't even think about marketing anything with a budget of $500. Marketing must be a continuous thing and that means $x per month for many months. What can you do on a regular basis for $500 total? - $100 pm for 5 months? What marketing can you do for $100?

I realize how much more exciting it is for you to have your OWN social networking site, but unless you have more going for you than you have explained, I would suggest finding an alternative. Can you set up YOUR social networking niche WITHIN the Facebook environment?

-- You will have a total universe of 400 million people at your fingertips
-- Facebook advertising is very cheap and your $100 per month will go far
-- The software system and apps are already written - you just have to fill in the details
-- What cannot be done within Facebook can be done on your own site that your "fans" - users - can access from Facebook

The point is, Facebook already has the people you are looking for. Go where your people are, then dig them out from the crowd. Don't start trying to locate your people with only $500 when they have already been located for you - for nothing.

yoyoma02
06-06-2010, 09:43 AM
Thanks for the replies!

The good news: I already work in the entertainment industry. I have some contacts at bigger venues (probably not the ideal venues to be using the site, but it's a start) that would probably sign up for an account and play around with it. I also have various friends who tour and know several local promoters, who I wanted to ask to play with the program, populate the community and test the site before it goes live.

What other ideas should I consider to try and populate the site so there is already activity going on once it goes live?

While pitching the idea to the venues, I want them to actually sign up and use the account. The site will go dead and no one will use it, if there are a million venues on there, but they never respond. I'm looking for carrots to dangle in front of them... any ideas?

How much of a budget do you think I'll need to come up with to create an effective marketing campaign? $1000? $10,000? I can come up with more money, but I want to be sure it's effective.

I'm brainstorming creative ways to create buzz and receive FREE advertising. Some ideas I had: Network with entertainment blogs, promote on entertainment forums, music gear sites for reviews, pitch the site to technical websites, utilize SEO marketing, develop relationships with larger music outlets to giveaway "free memberships", etc... any other ideas I could use for free?

The map out for the website:
- Test the site for glitches, populate the website in July.
- Go live in August with free signup (for artists and venues)
- Pending on the number of users, my goal is to start charging artists for memberships in Sept. (one week "to try it out for free")
- Prices will be $1 month or $10 year. I've been told by artists that if the website was effective, it would definitely be worth that amount of money. It's a pain to book a tour with myspace & google.

Thanks for your help!

vangogh
06-07-2010, 10:34 AM
Working in the entertainment industry is a nice advantage. Definitely start with your contacts and network to get started.

To keep people actively using the site you have to find some way to provide value to them for doing so. Is there any kind of content you could create that would be of interest to them? Articles you write or even let them write, news feeds you can pull into the site? Maybe a good place to start is with your contacts. Talk to them. Find out what kind of information they want from the web every day and then give it to them.

To me it's less about dangling carrots and more providing real value. Once the carrot is gone you have to find another carrot and there are only so many of them to dangle.

With the budget the more the better, but you don't really need money to promote the site. It really comes down to figuring out who is going to be interested in the site (which you already know) building something of value to those people, and making sure you maintain a presence in the places where those people currently spend time.

yoyoma02
06-07-2010, 11:27 AM
Interesting. I’ve done some brainstorming this weekend, and this where the website will provide real value:

-Venues will be able to promote and advertise their products for free
-Website will provide convenience and allow artists to easily find and reach out to venues to perform in from long distance
-Venues and artists will have a rating system and a review section, where others can tell them what they think. Example: Artists can rate the venue very high if the location is great, the sound system is stellar, great drink prices, and is a fun atmosphere to perform.
-Artists will be able to network and connect with other artists around the country to play with
-No booking fees. No agent fees. This is independent artists connecting with real venues around the country. No middlemen.

I was also thinking about throwing in contests, example: Songwriting Contest, Best Music Video contest, etc… In addition, the homepage will have a featured artist and featured venue section, where artists/venues can pay to be featured.

I was thinking a newsfeed option, but it will cost me an additional $250 to build. I am debating on cutting into my marketing budget to make it happen, but it would only give me $250 to launch the website. I’m a little nervous on cutting it down that much. Do you think it would be worth it?

vangogh
06-07-2010, 12:13 PM
All the things you mention sound good, but keep in mind the value to the venues requires them to spend time and effort on your site promoting themselves. There are lots of things that provide value to those same venues if the venues put in the same time and effort. Why your site?

When I say provide value to attract venues an artists I mean providing something of value where they don't need to do any additional work to get that value. That's why I thought maybe a news feed. Once you've attracted them to the site you can point out how and why spending a little more time will bring that much more value to them.


Venues will be able to promote and advertise their products for free

They can promote and advertise for free on just about any social site. At the moment those other sites have the communities so if anything it would make more sense for them to spend their time on those other sites. Once you've built the community then your site becomes the valuable place to market and advertise.

You have to think of a reason why venues and artists will want to visit and use your site before there's a thriving community. That's the catch 22. Until you have that community the value your offering isn't really there. You have to find something else that offers value to the the community you want to attract in order to attract them.

It's why I suggested starting on a small level. If you start locally then you don't need to build the community as large in order for it to become valuable.

yoyoma02
06-07-2010, 12:52 PM
You have an awesome point. A newsfeed would provide a lot more value to them, without them having to do anything extra. I’m tossing around the idea of spending the extra $250 just to get that additional value.

What if I made my “Featured Venue” section on the homepage to be venues with the most interaction and most profile visits?

I will be having a eblast being sent to all members each month. I could incorporate free venue publicity with that.

What else could I do to provide extra value for the venues? Is there any way to turn the message forums into extra value for the venues?

vangogh
06-07-2010, 01:50 PM
I forgot to mention it in my last post, but yeah I think that $250 might just as well be spent on the site itself. At some point you're going to want to spend more money on marketing. For now it's about being as smart as you can with the money. I think early on your marketing is going to be more an investment in time than money.

The featured venue idea can work. The main thing to remember is most of what you see as offering value is dependent on there being a community interested and invested in the entertainment industry. Unfortunately until you have that community those things don't really have any value.

The key is to come up with a way to build the community so you can later offer the value you listed above. Talk to your contacts and call in some favors. Ask them and beg them if you have to, to join the site. Offer to help them set up profiles and walk them through what they can do with the site. Make it as painless as possible for them to sign up and do something to keep them coming back. The favors you call it can get them to sign up and play around with the site for a few days or weeks, but if they aren't seeing any value by the end of that time they'll stop interacting with the site.

You might even want to ask your contacts what they would want in the site and even better spend some time observing what they do online. What they tell you they want and need isn't necessarily what they really want and need.

Find some way to provide value and give people a reason to come back and interact with the site that isn't dependent on the community being there. Then as the community begins to grow all those things things that will add value with the community will take over.

yoyoma02
06-07-2010, 02:45 PM
Thank you so much for the help. I think I'm going to try to negotiate the newsfeed price down a bit… I’ll pull the trigger on it today if I can’t get it down to $200.

I can call in favors, locally, and get venues and artists to sign up, play around with it, “seed the community” so to speak, and provide some feedback for me. My hope is to do this by the early July.

By August, I can call in some favors from my national venues (all a bit bigger, who may not actually “need” a website like this), but would probably sign up just to have a presence and help me out. They can seed it some more and give me more feedback.

Where in Boulder do you live? I used to live on 23rd and Walnut, near Pearl Street.

vangogh
06-07-2010, 06:20 PM
I'm in the north east part of town near 119, though I've lived in several places in town. How long were you in Boulder and how long have you been gone?

You've probably noticed how a lot of companies release sites as a beta open only to special invitation. Part of the reason is to be able to test bugs, but just as much is to build a small community inside. The site then goes to a more open beta bringing in the next layer of the community.

By the time the site officially launches there's an active community inside and anticipation for the launch on the outside.

yoyoma02
06-08-2010, 10:39 AM
Nice! I lived there in 2006/2007. I had an internship out there. I almost scored a full time job at the Fox Theatre, near CU, up on “the hill.”

Yeah, I am definitely going to have a beta version and start locally. I’m in Minneapolis now and have PLENTY of contacts that can test the site and get interaction going. However, I plan to move to Los Angeles in August to develop contacts out there, as well.

I have a lunch date with a friend of mine who does national booking. I’m going to pick his brain to see what I can do to make the site more appealing to venues today.

vangogh
06-08-2010, 11:18 AM
I lived on the hill when I first moved here and worked there (at Art Hardware) a few years later. I have a hard time ever seeing myself leaving this place.

Cool about the beta version and starting locally. When a site depends on a community I generally thinking starting out smaller works best. It's a catch 22. People don't want to join an empty community, but you obviously need some of them to in order for the community not to be empty. You can look at Facebook. They started out in a single college and I'd bet the first few users were the developers and their friends. You can easily picture it spreading from there at first slowly to friends of friends and then eventually across campus.

yoyoma02
06-08-2010, 11:22 AM
Exactly! I’m going to keep you updated. Thanks for all the help and if you have any other ideas, please pass them on.

vangogh
06-08-2010, 11:24 AM
Yeah, definitely keep us updated. Glad I could help if I did and I will post back here if I think of anything more.

By the way is one of the venues you want to have join the Fox Theater?

yoyoma02
06-08-2010, 11:29 AM
Eventually, yes. I know the marketing person at the Fox very well (she interned with me). I also know someone at the Boulder Theatre. Again, I know I have the right contacts to “join” but I want to them to use it. It doesn’t work if there are thousands of venues on there, but never login to check the site.

Do you mind if I show you a beta version of the site and get your feedback in a few weeks?

vangogh
06-08-2010, 09:44 PM
Sure. Send me a PM with a link and any info I need to access the site. I'll be happy to take a look and let you know what I think. Might take a few days for me to find the time for it, but I will take a look. I'd bet a few other people here would do the same.

I used to know some of the people who worked at the Fox. I think I cut all the materials for every frame hanging on the walls inside. There was a woman (Roxanne?) who would come in specifically when I was there, since I wouldn't charge her the full price we were supposed to charge. If I remember I was supposed to charge $1 for every cut we made in a frame. Most every other place in town would do that stuff for free. I'd write up a ticket for the register, but never with an accurate count of how many cuts were actually made.

The owner of our place was a little unreasonable in some of the prices he set. For example if I had a bag of scraps I was going to throw out it was fine. It was garbage after and completely unusable for the shop. But if on the way to the dumpster someone asked if they could have the scraps I was supposed to take them back inside and charge the person. I thought things like that were ridiculous and refused to comply with them.

yoyoma02
06-12-2010, 03:07 PM
I sent you a PM

vangogh
06-14-2010, 11:19 AM
Got it. Sorry I haven't replied yet, but I'm about to do that now.

Patrysha
06-15-2010, 12:40 AM
I just joined a newer social networking site today (Empire Avenue (http://empireavenue.com))

Looking through their blog it seems they started with 600 beta testers and are in a beta stage...appears to have been live to the public for three months now.

I do have three invites available, let me know if you want one and PM me your email address if you do. I would suggest that it be a lesser used address and not your business address as it does seem a fair amount of email comes through when you first get on and people start buying shares in you and following you.

prova.fm
06-23-2010, 07:11 PM
yoyoma02, how's your publicity coming? I'm researching publicity today, too, & I'm curious what's working for you. I've developed a site that uses crowdsourcing technology & I'm trying to find out how to take my community to the next level & attract small business clients. What's really worked for me is a story in a local newspaper. The problem is figuring out how to successfully contact reporters.

I'd love to hear what's working.

-David

yoyoma02
06-27-2010, 11:54 AM
yoyoma02, how's your publicity coming? I'm researching publicity today, too, & I'm curious what's working for you. I've developed a site that uses crowdsourcing technology & I'm trying to find out how to take my community to the next level & attract small business clients. What's really worked for me is a story in a local newspaper. The problem is figuring out how to successfully contact reporters.

I'd love to hear what's working.

-David

Well, I still don't have the website up and running, so I'm not sure how my efforts will pay out yet. I can tell you, I've been in contact with local trade magazines, trying to get PR that way. I'm scheduled to be on a few local entertainment podcasts to talk about the website. I'm trying to brainstorm a way to get a solid word-of-mouth marketing campaign going - still haven't found "the idea" yet.

I can tell you, until the website is functional, I'm sorta at a stand still. I'll need people to test it out, provide feedback, and improve before I actually do any type of advertising.

My goal is to have people start testing the website by mid-July. I'll keep you updated.

DarrenNegraeff
07-12-2010, 08:05 PM
Not sure if this is direct competition for you or not, but it's always good to know what's out there. Came across this site the other day while doing some research. They seem to have attracted a lot of press.

Get a Gig Online. It's Free. | GigMaven (http://gigmaven.com/)

Cheers,