Publicity Annual Report

November 30, 2015

End of Year Publicity Report (Updated)

Report from The Chair – Paul Fisher

December 2014 – Publicity Committee members: Alice Weimer, Cathy Ballard, Deborah

Graham, Jean Scully, Jeff Saxton, Jim Gartner, Jim King, Joanne Cronin, John Lamb, Loretta

Brooks, Michael Mitsch, Nancy Kelner, Pam Robinson, Pat Brangs, Paul Fisher, Susan Lembo

(16)

December 2015 – Publicity Committee members: Alicia Weimer, Deborah Graham, Eileen

Napolitano, George Otto, Jean Scully, Jeff Saxton, Jim Gartner, Jim King, Joanne Cronin, John

Lamb, Loretta Brooks, Margaret Crowl, Michael Mitsch, Nancy Kelner, Olga Alvarez, Pam

Robinson, Pat Brangs, Paul Fisher, Susan Lembo (19)

The Publicity Committee has had a very busy year!

Between the Morris Arts award and the 40th anniversay work, many hours were spent above and

beyond what would have been done for a normal year.

This past year, we have seen a large increase in contact and interaction with performer publicists

and have gained the respect of a lot of professionals.

We have also grown from sixteen to 19 members and will probably add one or two more as the

result of the inclusion of the Social Media Coordinator (George Otto) under publicity. He has

really jumped into implementation of the Technology Committee report, enhancing our branding

and tying social media in with our other outlets (web and email especially). Independently of

Social Media, we have added Howard Goldman, Olga Alvarez and Eileen Napolitano. We have

also lost one or two members who we have to thank for their contributions while on the

committee. Thank you, Cathy Ballard.

Even before the establishment of the Social Media Coordinator, we had seen increases in our

outreach via Facebook and Twitter. These efforts continue to grow as Pam and Jean extend their

understanding of how to use their outlets to reach a larger and more varied audience. From

Pam's report, our “Likes” should be close to 1200! People are sharing more in our group and

Pam encourages people to submit posts with photographs or links, which get the most attention.

When you like or share one our events, this reaches all of your FB friends, which indirectly

expands our audience.

Jean's Twitter report arrived with the numbers. Best of all, we have 542 followers! More

details below.

Our web team has quickly responded to requests for new content, reports of issues and day to

day maintenance. Behind this, they continuously work to improve our website and enhance the

security of our content.

Merchandising (Margaret) just joined the committee this past month, but things are proceeding

with good speed.

Liz Pagan worked hard to get us new artwork for business cards. We should be receiving them

soon.

Nancy Kelner continues to make important contributions to the committee and keep The Chair

on track. She is currently finalizing a list of radio contacts for performers with information on

who to send CDs to for air play and who to contact for possible interviews. Thanks, Nancy!

A number of our efforts achieved surprisingly wide coverage this year. The Morris Arts Award,

Uke NJ! 3, the Tom Paxton concerts stand out.

There are always more opportunities but never enough time!

Webmaster Report – John Lamb ( Web Committee - Allan Kugel, Lori Falco, Charles Lamb )

Annual Highlights:

- The website kept ticking along despite two forced major upgrades to php and one to MySQL,

technologies that are at the core of our web design

- The site survived another hacking attempt with minimal damage and very little down time, in

part due to our use of locally-developed code rather than a prepackaged design and in part due to

swift action by the web team

- Domain registration was renewed and moved from Network Solutions to DreamHost, saving

both cost and aggravation

- The site assisted in publicizing major achievements, such as the Morris Arts award and 40th

Anniversary concert

- In cooperation with new Social Media Czar George Otto, the site has added a link to Twitter at

the top of most pages and added trademarks for items on the home page and Minstrel calendar

page. It will add YouTube links once that channel is ready.

Social Media Coordinator Annual Report 2015-12 (George Otto)

At the end of October, George Otto took on the role of Social Media Coordinator under the

Publicity Committee. The goal of this position is to implement the recommendations contained

in the Ad Hoc Technology Awareness Committee report that was adopted at the July, 2015,

Board meeting.

Even though this position has been in existence only a short time, some significant action has

already been taken:

1) The Folk Project website added the display of a Twitter button along with the Facebook

button, to encourage greater use of these two already-existing FP social media channels.

2) The Folk Project newsletter is displaying both the links to the FP Twitter and the Facebook

channels on its masthead.

3) Chris Riemer has been asked to set up a Folk Project YouTube channel, based on linking to

videos already posted by past and current performers, including those posted by the FP TV show,

Horses Sing None of It. A YouTube button and link will be added to the FP website and

Newsletter masthead when this channel becomes active.

4) When the FP business cards were recently redone, links to the FP Twitter and Facebook

changes were added. No YouTube link was included since that channel has not yet been set up.

5) A subscription has been started with the social media monitoring service Hootsuite that allows

monitoring, reports, and analyses of up to 50 social media channels in a single tool. Setting up

this tool will take place over the next several months.

Further implementations of the Technology Committee report will continue in 2016.

Facebook Report – Pam Robinson

The Year in Face Book

Page - The Folk Project (New Jersey)

Since January we have gained 156 likes. We have more female fans than male.

Our Posts are reaching more folks in the 35-44 age catagory then have Liked the Page. This

means that those who have Liked the Page are sharing Posts with their Friends.

Most of our Posts reach between 100 and 200 individual people’s FB Walls. Posts with Pictures

make the most splashes. Posts with a Link result in decent showing. Straight Status Posts result

in the least notice.

At some point during the year FaceBook has set up the ability to Subscribe to Events on Pages.

When I found out about this i stopped creating Events in our Group and started creating them on

the Page. I try to have Events created going out at least 3 months. I periodically Post them on

both the Page and the Group. If you see a FP Event please Join or indicate your Interest, this

results in your Friends seeing the Event. Better yet, after you join, invite your Friends to the

Event.

Group - The Folk Project

Created early in 2015, the Group now has over 230 members. Several members have been

Posting some fun and interesting info about music, musicians and the music industry which

results in some wonderful discussions.

I have been Posting Links to the Events that I Created on The Folk Project’s Page.

Some of our members have been Posting Links to other Events that they are involved in.

Twitter Report – Jean Scully

We've sent 835 tweets. We have 542 people and organizations following us, and we are following 1,120.

Virtually every tweet we send out about performers is retweeted at least once; this increases if we include

the performer's Twitter handle in our tweet, so they're sure to see it and then they can re-tweet it to their

followers. This basically gives us a free ride on their mailing list/list of Twitter followers.

So before you send a tweet out for your event, take an extra minute, go to the performer's website and

find their Twitter handle and include it in your tweet, with the "@" sign before it. They will automatically

see our tweet. It's worth the extra few minutes, and they really appreciate it.

So far only Minstrel and Special Concerts are taking advantage of Twitter to send out info about

upcoming events. If Swingin' Tern or other folks want to use it, please get in touch with Jean at

jean.scully@verizon.net

Merchandising – Margaret Crowl

Quick start in taking over from Gloria and Carol, to whom we owe thanks for their work over the

years.

Gathering current product in order to inventory what is on hand so that planning for ordering

additional stuff can begin.

It is requested that venues/committees not order any new merchandise on their own without

consulting with Margaret first. This help coordinate efforts and message and eliminates

redundant expenses.

(end)