A Great Social Media Story?

Advertising is one way but we can do better

Let me share why I think what we are trying to do at FaveQuest, and the Bluesfest ViewTube, we just launched is such a big deal.

Way back when, when you had a product to sell, you would get attention by holding press releases and buying advertising. If you had something really compelling, you could argue that you were doing people a favour by sharing your story. Beyond that though, you were interrupting them. Apparently, it still goes on:)

Serve Your Customers Instead

When we pitched the “social video calendar” to Mark Monahan (exec director of the Ottawa Bluesfest) and his team, we proposed something else. We suggested building a tool to solve problems for music fans. They could use this tool to get to know the bluesfest acts better, create a calendar and invite friends. To make it even easier, we would build an extension to their website and a facebook application so people could invite their facebook friends and see who was going to what show.

We built it and launched version 1.0 April22nd. It was not built to sell more tickets, though it likely will. It was built to provide fans with a better and deeper way to engage with the festival. There’s even a bonus if we hit certain engagement metrics. Not tickets sales, engagement!

More Ticket Sales?

I think all involved realize that more engagement is likely going to translate to more attendees. People are going to discover stuff and decide to go check it out. Friends are going to invite friends that may have not considered going to a particular show. Or they may see that a friends is going through their facebook newsfeed. In the next release coming very soon, as people check out the calendar of events, they’ll even be able to see which of their facebook friends is going to a particular show.

Help Your Customers Carry Your Torch

You don’t have to be a social media expert, or have even heard about social media, to realize that such a tool is going to lead people to go to more shows and buy tickets that they would not have bought otherwise.

The real point is that such tools have the power to transform the way some businesses reach out and connect with prospective customers. It is so much better to serve your customers and have them carry the torch for you, don’t you think?

Cheers,

Allan