Publicity December Report

Publicity Committee Report For December 2015 Board Meeting

29 November 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

Report From “The Chair” – Paul Fisher

The Publicity Committee continues to expand the type of activities that will be reported to the Board

through this monthly report. The latest addition is the work of Merchandising, which has been

moved from being a Board-level committee to one being reported through the Publicity Committee.

This work will be taken over by Margaret Crowl, who reports that she has already received most of

the known products but has not yet done an inventory to see what is needed. Requests for email list

and web page updates have been submitted.

The web team has been busy updating both content and capabilities. Enhancements to our email

notifications, freshening web pages, updating our internal mailing lists and doing their part in the

effort to enhance our branding with consistent logos and the use of trademarks. Links to our

Facebook and Twitter accounts have been added to the website. They have also been through

software upgrades, which are never painless. Full details below!

Our Social Media Coordinator, George Otto, continues implementing the proposals of the Tech

Committee. His end of year report is below.

Pam Robinson reports that our Facebook efforts continue to gain traction on the web and that we are

reaching a new audience through the connectivity of our fans. She is also trying to get performer

publicists to link to our events.

Nancy Kelner continues to work on updating our radio outlet information with the goal of being able

to give performers publicists the information they need to get out CDs for airplay and possible

interviews.

The Publicity Committee will be building and/or updating a contact list of Jewish organizations and

outlets in advance of the March 4 Minstrel appearance of the Odessa Klezmer Band, which features

FP member Miriam Libove. A volunteer to champion this effort is needed, as are suggestions for

additions to the list.

We need to build a list of our members that take pictures at our events who would be willing to share

them for Publicity uses. For example, the Morris County Tourism bureau has asked for high-res

event shots (performers, audience and participants). Please email publicitychair@folkproject.org

with any suggestions.

Webmaster Report – John Lamb

Nestled as it is between Halloween and Thanksgiving, November has proceeded in fits and starts for

the web team.

We survived software upgrades that were forced upon us by DreamHost, to php 5.5 and MySQL 5.6.

We have looked around pretty thoroughly and have not yet discovered any problems related to these

updates. If anyone notices pages operating differently than they used to, please report the

differences to the web team.

We have made a major change to the newsletter signup procedure that cuts out the middlemen

(middlepeople?) and allows our users to sign up and maintain their own contact information through

Constant Contact rather than through the web team. In doing so, we have addressed nearly all of a

long list of changes and suggestions received from Mike Agranoff, at which we have been picking

away these past few years.

Although not directly web related, we assisted Elizabeth Lachowicz in obtaining MS Office from

TechSoup at very low cost. Those not familiar with TechSoup should have a look at techsoup.com

because Folk Project has already been approved to receive donations brokered through them.

As always, thanks to Lori, Allan and Charles without any of whom our website would be a far more

disorganized place. Continue to send questions, comments and suggestions to

webmaster@folkproject.org

Social Media Coordinator – 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.

Facebook Report – Pam Robinson

Group - had to Remove a Group member who was using the Group exclusively to sell his music

instruction program, from Florida. (ie- he was not a FP member.) Otherwise Group is holding steady.

Page - Upcoming Events are getting some notice and spreading around FB among the FBs Folk

Project Friends. I have been IMing the performers via FB and sending them the Link to the Event,

asking them to Join and Invite their Fans to the Event. I have seen that when they do so, the Event

reaches a much larger general FB audience, unfortunately most performers do not Join nor Invite

their Fans to the Event.

Twitter Report – Jean Scully

Pending.

Merchandising – Margaret Crowl

Margaret has already received inventory from Gloria and Carol but has not yet inventoried what she

has. If anyone else has merchandise, please find a way to get it to Margaret as soon as possible

(MaggieNJ42@aol.com or 973-585-4666).

It is requested that venues and other committees not order any new merchandise on their own

without consulting with Margaret first.

Publicity Happenings

Paul has straightened things out with the Morris Tourism ad. We will eventually be billed but for

now the next step will be the new ad copy. This will get done this week.

We received some unexpected publicity on WDIY (Allentown, PA) when they interviewed most of

the members of Frostwater live on the “Live from Godfrey Daniels” show (Tuesdays from 7-9 PM at

wdiy.org). Bill Hall mentioned the upcoming Minstrel appearance several times, with detailed info.

MUF has produced a flier for their 12th Annual Holiday Fair that gives a big chunk of space

promoting coming to both the fair and Chorus Song Night! They suggest readers should “combine

two events in one great night”.

Online

 The Folk Project continues to be listed by the Morris County Tourism Bureau

(morristourism.org).

▪ They have Uke Fest pictures on “our” page and can use new ones.

 NJARTS.net continues to list most Minstrel events and Special Concerts.

 JerseyArts.com is listing most Minstrel, Special Concerts and Swingin' Tern events.

 The Daily Record has listings for Minstrel concerts and Special Concerts.

In Print

 Listings were seen in a number of local outlets, including Ledger Local.

Working with Performers and Their Publicists

 Once again, we have been contacted by Joe Crookston's publicist regarding his appearance at

The Minstrel on 5-Feb-16. We will provide the usual information plus our new Radio list for

her to use.

On the Radio

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Other Items

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