Publicity Committee Report
6 April 2015
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, Susan Lembo, Jean Scully and Cathy Ballard
Webmaster Report – John Lamb
March has been another busy month for the web team, with much activity related to the Minstrel 40th Anniversary concert, the recognition by Morris Arts as its 2015 Outstanding Arts Organization Award recipient, and updates for the upcoming Acoustic Getaway. There has also been a bit of work updating Swingin' Tern and Evenings of Music, getting Board Meetings posted to the home page, handling notices for a weather-related cancellation for Minstrel and continued tweaking of email addresses in response to the trouble we have been having getting email to our contingent on yahoo.com. As always, many thanks to team members Lori, Charles, Alan and Barb for all they do. Please address comments, suggestions and questions to webmaster@folkproject.org.
Facebook Report – Pam Robinson The Folk Project's Page and Group are moving along.
Twitter Report – Jean Scully
We've sent 745 tweets We have 484 followers We're following 1098 groups and individuals. We've added 23 new followers in the last 6 days.
Report From “The Chair” – Paul Fisher
March was yet another very hectic and busy month with a lot of discussions and activities around our two big upcoming events (Morris Arts Award and the 40th Anniversary Concert).
We got our normal release out and then focused on support of the Morris Arts Award and began looking at the Tom Paxton concert. Extra mailings were done for the MA Award.
Pam's new Facebook work continues to solidify, reaching 89 members in The Minstrel group. We need people to join The Minstrel Acoustic Concert group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1534475933484323/ – this you “join”, you don't “Like”).
I see from the 3 new additions today that at least the owner (“Tern Folkproject”) can add people directly. It looks like any member can invite someone else by email. Please join and help spread the word!
We are still considering the options of taking adds with Fun New Jersey and The Morris County Tourism Bureau (the latter we have done for at least two years). We have been asked to consider taking a membership in njskylands.com, which often posts our events. This will be revisited as soon as things calm down from our special events. We need to prepare and print new business cards. The need is approaching critical and I hope to get to it soon. Nancy has been gearing up for the EastRiver Chinese Ensemble in June by trying to create a Chinese niche listing for outreach. If you have any ideas, please share them via email. We are considering writing an additional special press release for this list. Many outlets have a deadline of the 15th for press releases, so the monthly package will start to go out around the 10th starting this month if possible. On the downside, one of our committee members, Cathy Ballard, has asked to leave the Publicity Committee because her schedule often prevents her from being near a computer at critical times. She intends to continue to help out, probably moving her efforts to volunteering at The Minstrel. Any suggestions for new blood for Publicity would be greatly appreciated. We have received many requests and suggestions these past two months and have not been able to respond to all. Nothing has been lost and all will be considered in the near future now that the Morris Arts event is behind us.
Online
The huge write-up of the Morris Arts event by Morristown Green must be out lead-off here!
The Minstrel continues to be frequently listed among the Top Ten Monthly Events by the Morris County Tourism Bureau.
All of our events were posted to the northjersey.com calendar.
Jay Lustig has left the Star Ledger and begun a new web presence, NJARTS.net. We are listed.
The Minstrel events are listed in MorristownGreen.com
In Print
Listings were seen in a number of local outlets.
Several outlets continue to “reschedule” the Jim Kweskin & Happy Traum event from last Fall.
◦ We have not yet gotten to the bottom of this.
Working with Performers and Their Publicists
Working with Joe Crookston's publicity team.
On the Radio
Other Items
(end)