Comments on: Forums are so 2004 http://www.danceweekend.com/2009/10/23/forums-are-so-2004/ Where are you going next? Fri, 28 May 2010 17:43:40 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: John Ford http://www.danceweekend.com/2009/10/23/forums-are-so-2004/comment-page-1/#comment-666 John Ford Fri, 28 May 2010 17:40:54 +0000 http://www.danceweekend.com/?p=33#comment-666 Hey Shawn, Sorry I missed your post among all the spam. You make great points and hyperbole aside, I never meant to say that posting on local forums isn't worthwhile. It definitely is. The only thing is it's a very time-consuming and laborious process. I think it is worthwhile to start a thread about your event on any related forum you can find. Not just national forums like Yehoodi but even the smaller local forums like aseda.org in Atlanta. However, I don't think it's worth going back and posting an update on each forum every time you book a new band or secure a cool venue, or every time a new price-increase deadline is looming. It's just too much work for very little return. Those things are much better posted into a twitter or facebook stream. Hey Shawn,

Sorry I missed your post among all the spam. You make great points and hyperbole aside, I never meant to say that posting on local forums isn’t worthwhile. It definitely is. The only thing is it’s a very time-consuming and laborious process. I think it is worthwhile to start a thread about your event on any related forum you can find. Not just national forums like Yehoodi but even the smaller local forums like aseda.org in Atlanta. However, I don’t think it’s worth going back and posting an update on each forum every time you book a new band or secure a cool venue, or every time a new price-increase deadline is looming. It’s just too much work for very little return. Those things are much better posted into a twitter or facebook stream.

]]> By: Shawn http://www.danceweekend.com/2009/10/23/forums-are-so-2004/comment-page-1/#comment-203 Shawn Thu, 11 Feb 2010 06:19:20 +0000 http://www.danceweekend.com/?p=33#comment-203 I must disagree. Facebook and Twitter present real problems for event information dissemination. The first and foremost is that they both require subscription to an event before notices can be received. The boon of local forums is that members are already listening and paying attention to topics of interest. Getting their attention is easy. The fantastic point of it all is that for your Twitter/Facebook promo to work, you must first promote in "traditional" means -- emails, local forums, local list-serves etc. Of course, only a small percentage of individuals will subscribe to your announcement list. If you then rely on the Twitter/Facebook only, you fail to reach the majority of your potential audience. This brings me to a touchier subject: age-ism. Sure, a certain group of tech-savvy individuals are on Facebook and Twitter, but there's a significant portion of the population that is not. By restricting advertising means to Twitter/Facebook you lose access to this population as well. People self-subscribe to local forums and even larger ones such as Yehoodi; only a percentage of those will respond positively to a solicitation to join an events list-serve. (Use all the buzz words you want, you're talking about using twitter as an announce-only list-serv.) Because of this, any advertising method that requires subscription to the service is inherently a diminishing return. As years progress, you draw fewer and fewer new folks to your list and many of the folks on your list become in active. At the end of the day, on it's own the list is meaningless. Twitter and Facebook are useful tools, but they will only ever make sense in the context of broader promotional efforts. I must disagree. Facebook and Twitter present real problems for event information dissemination. The first and foremost is that they both require subscription to an event before notices can be received. The boon of local forums is that members are already listening and paying attention to topics of interest. Getting their attention is easy.

The fantastic point of it all is that for your Twitter/Facebook promo to work, you must first promote in “traditional” means — emails, local forums, local list-serves etc. Of course, only a small percentage of individuals will subscribe to your announcement list. If you then rely on the Twitter/Facebook only, you fail to reach the majority of your potential audience.

This brings me to a touchier subject: age-ism. Sure, a certain group of tech-savvy individuals are on Facebook and Twitter, but there’s a significant portion of the population that is not. By restricting advertising means to Twitter/Facebook you lose access to this population as well.

People self-subscribe to local forums and even larger ones such as Yehoodi; only a percentage of those will respond positively to a solicitation to join an events list-serve. (Use all the buzz words you want, you’re talking about using twitter as an announce-only list-serv.) Because of this, any advertising method that requires subscription to the service is inherently a diminishing return. As years progress, you draw fewer and fewer new folks to your list and many of the folks on your list become in active. At the end of the day, on it’s own the list is meaningless.

Twitter and Facebook are useful tools, but they will only ever make sense in the context of broader promotional efforts.

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