Publicity

Publicity Committee Report for March 2012

Webmaster Report - John Lamb

Not much to report on for February because most of the web team was pretty busy with other concerns. We made sure the site kept rolling along, answered some questions and assisted with some updates for the festival portion of the site. In response to some reported problems with the membership registration forms on the site, we are exploring the use of the event promotion capabilities of Constant Contact for paying annual dues that will have the added benefit of automating the signup process for the email version of the newsletter. As always, we welcome questions, comments and suggestions sent to webmaster@folkproject.org.

Facebook Report - Pam Robinson

On March 3rd, the Folk Project's Facebook Page switched over to the TimeLine view. It looks really cool. The Page now has 525 "Likes". For the week ending March 1st, the Page reached the newsfeeds of 480 individuals. Photos of events both recent and old seemed to generate the most traffic on the site. If you have old photos (negatives even better) please either scan them and send me copies or loan them to me and I will try to post them.

Of our "Likes" -

0.19% are 13-17 years old

6.2% are 18-24 years old

7.7% are 25-34 years old

13.1% are 35-44 years old

34% are 45-54 years old

36% are 55+ years old

2.81% did not have an age specified.

Publicity Report - Nancy Kelner, Chairman

The bad news is we lost four more committee members. Life is just too busy for Carolyn Messina, Will Miles, and Cheryl Cronk. Debby Edelman has retired from the committee after many years covering our major outlets and preparing special Minstrel and Swingin’ Tern flyers for mailing every month. We thank them all for their help.

The good news is Karen Justin, a Swingin’ Tern regular recommended by Leigh Walker, has agreed to join the committee. I will be discussing her assignment(s) with her soon. We could still use more help, though.

Feb 17 and 24 Minstrel and Feb 18 Swingin’ Tern were in the Cranford Chronicle; March 16 Minstrel was in the Princeton On Line email newsletter; March 16 Minstrel was in NJ Monthly’s March issue. A couple of first-timers at the Minstrel on March 2 said they saw an article about Nuala Kennedy in the Madison Eagle. However, every silver lining seems to have a cloud around it: NJ Monthly had the wrong phone number – again! Our contact there apologized and told me they plan to print the April 20th Minstrel in their April issue and he’ll make sure they get the phone number right. I’ll keep an eye out for it.

For the February mailing of paper flyers (for March events), Jim Gartner used the Minstrel and Swingin’ Tern pages from the Folk Project bulletin for the first time. They looked very nice. This procedure saves someone from retyping all the information into two different flyers each month.

I spoke at length to Marc Silag, the publicist for Buskin and Batteau. Gave him information on our publicity outlets and radio stations for possible interviews and told him more about the Minstrel. (He was thrilled to learn more about it and hopes to attend on March 16th.) The very same day we spoke, journalist Bill Nutt of the Daily Record emailed me and said he wanted to interview Buskin and Batteau, so I “hooked him up.”

We renewed our membership in the Morris County Tourism Bureau. A recent letter from them acknowledging our renewal states: (a) There was a 72% increase in traffic to their website from 2010 to 2011; (b) They will launch an updated website in late March.

After Debby Edelman retired from the committee, I discovered she had been sending our info to WPRB DJ John Weingart. There’s a link from his page on the WPRB website to a folk music calendar of events, where Minstrel and Swingin’ Tern are listed. Reviewed the calendar and emailed him, asking for corrections where necessary; he complied promptly. The description of The Minstrel states in part: “A national model of a great, well-run folk club with high-quality music almost every Friday night.”

Additional Information:

On Feb. 23, I represented the Folk Project at a meeting of Jersey Arts Marketers – Northern Region held at the Montclair Museum.

Kevin Coughlin of Morristown Green will be honored by the Arts Council of the Morris Area on April 10 at its annual Celebrate the Arts event.