PUBLICITY

Publicity Committee Report

30 June 2014

Publicity Committee members: Alicia Weimer, Jeff Saxton, Jim Gartner, Jim King, Joanne Cronin, John Lamb, Michael Mitsch, Nancy Kelner, Pam Robinson, Pat Brangs, Paul Fisher, Loretta Brooks, Jean Scully and Cathy Ballard

Webmaster Report – John Lamb

June was a slightly less busy month for the web team. We updated a few email forwarders and created two new subdomains (openstage.folkproject.org and minstrelbooking.folkproject.org) that serve as more easily remembered links to existing pages on the site. We put a temporary notice on the Minstrel page to warn of the impending admissions charge increase. By the first Friday in July, we should have the temporary notice removed and the new price in place. Allan noticed some unsuccessful attempts to exploit a weakness in security that was fixed several months back, and he has been busy making the site even more difficult for outsiders to hack into. Charles made changes to the Acoustic Getaway portion of the site to remove information specific to the last festival and to prepare it for the Fall Getaway. I will update the Minstrel Tally Sheet before the next Minstrel to reflect the price change and make a couple of other minor updates requested by Mike. As always, thanks to team members Allan, Charles and Lori. Please address any questions, concerns or comments to webmaster@folkproject.org.

Facebook Report – Pam Robinson

FaceBook - looking good. Keep the posts, videos and photos coming.

985 likes!

Twitter Report – Jean Scully

We have 272 followers, we are following 845 individuals and organizations, and I have sent out 405 tweets, with about a dozen in pending status. I've included all FP activities in my tweets.

We have been favorited and retweeted this month by Kim & Reggie Harris, Mary Gauthier, Lords of Lichtenstein.

The biggest response was on a tweet I sent out about the article I sent around to the board about folk music and social change from Bill Moyers; that was retweeted 11 times and seen by thousands of people.

On Friday 6/27 I live tweeted from Minstrel from the first time, with pictures of Boxcar Lilies and Oakes & Smith.

Report From “The Chair” – Paul Fisher

Another complex month with some improvements but not a lot of details to report.

Follow ups on some websites have found and corrected some errors for several events.

The Publcity Committee received a Uke Fest flier for distribution as requested.

The committee continues to function smoothly, getting out releases as needed when the chair provides them on time.

Nancy continues to be very helpful with ideas, suggestions and reminders.

Other news:

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Online

· The Minstrel continues to be frequently listed among the Top Ten Monthly Events by the Morris County Tourism Bureau.

· Minstrel event was listed in njskylands.com.

· Folk Project events listed on northjersey.com

· Several Minstrel events and Uke 2 NJ have been posted on http://www.njartsmaven.com/.

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In Print

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Working with Performers and Their Publicists

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On the Radio

· There is an ongoing discussion on connecting Minstrel performers with local radio stations and how to most effectively provide promotional CDs.

· Some performers have been sent lists of media contacts for their own outreach efforts.

· A discussion is ongoing about providing free tickets to The Minstrel to a small group of radio stations (such as WFDU, used by a number of other venues this way) for giveaways.

Other Items

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