Publicity

Publicity Committee Report

9 November 2015

Publicity Committee members: Alicia Weimer, Jeff Saxton, Jim Gartner, Jim King, Joanne Cronin, Howard Goldman, John Lamb, Michael Mitsch, Nancy Kelner, Pam Robinson, Pat Brangs, Paul Fisher, Loretta Brooks, Olga Alvarez, Eileen Napolitano, Susan Lembo, George Otto and Jean Scully

Report From “The Chair” – Paul Fisher

With the addition of multiple additional functions under Publicity, this section will be made into an Executive Overview of the activities under the umbrella of this committee. At the end of the report, there will be a Publicity Happenings section where we will list some of our sightings around the world and the web.

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.

Please welcome this month the first report from our Social Media Coordinator, George Otto. He has already taken big strides in converting the Tech Committee report into concrete activities that will help get our word out in a unified way.

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.

Many thanks to Liz Pagan for her re-design of the Folk Project business cards. We should have them in hand in a week or so.

Nancy Kelner has started working 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. This is an expansion of our capabilities suggested by Mike Agranoff.

Webmaster Report – John Lamb

A busy month for the website with a several changes of note. Lori updated our mailing list signup so that those who wish to receive periodic notifications for Getaway, Minstrel Volunteers, the Minstrel-Gram, Special Concerts and Swingin' Tern can now sign up directly through Constant Contact rather than having to ask us to enter their names on the list. We handled several requests for updates to existing email forwarders, and creation of a new one - socialmedia@folkproject.org - which forwards to George Otto. Speaking of George, we provided him with a couple of old photos of David Cornell, so that he could show them to him at the Getaway. We updated captions on the About Us page photos for Bill Staines, Pat Donahue and Jay Ungar & Molly Mason to reflect more recent appearances than had been previously there. We made a couple of changes that you may have noticed at the very top of each page - the Trademarks on the name "The Folk Project" and on the light bulb logo, as well as adding a link to the Twitter page alongside of the link to the Facebook page that has been present for some years. Special thanks to Liz Pagan for updating our background image to include the TM marks. We also trademarked the name "The Minstrel Acoustic Concert Series" at the top of the main Minstrel page, at Mike Agranoff's request. As always, thanks to my team of Lori, Charles and Allan. Please send questions, requests and suggestions to webmaster@folkproject.org.

Social Media Coordinator – George Otto

On October 28, a meeting was called at the home of Barrett Wilson to discuss implementing the recommendations of the Ad Hoc Technology Awareness Committee that had been adopted by the Board several month prior. Attending the meeting were Barrett (FP President), Paul Fisher (Publicity Committee Chair), and George Otto (former Ad Hoc Tech Committee Chair), who went through the list of recommendations that had been adopted.

One of the adopted committee recommendations was that the social-media activities of the Folk Project should fall under the Publicity Committee. After some discussion, it was agreed that it would be simplest if the task of following up on implementing the Tech Committee recommendations were to be handled by one person. Since he was most familiar with the details of those recommendations, George agreed to join the Publicity Committee in the new role of Social Media Coordinator, with the charter of implementing those recommendations.

Of the three channels recommended as official FP social media outlets, only one was NOT already being used in the name of the Folk Project: YouTube. Chris Riemer had previously expressed an interest in setting up such a channel, and George asked Chris if he were ready to set it up. Chris said yes, and he has been moving to set this up for the past week, uncovering requirements, making applications, identifying artwork assets needed, figuring out YouTube content that we could link to, etc. It looks like we are on track to have this channel up and running by the December Board meeting. There are issues of copyright to be considered, but currently the plan is to link to content that is already posted to YouTube, such as the "Horses Sing None Of It..." shows or past Minstrel or Getaway performers who give us permission to link to them. The idea is to provide access to the kinds of music and activities that are typical of the Folk Project. We would not post our own videos to the channel unless it was clear that there were no legal problems in doing so.

Another of the recommendations of the Tech Committee was that the social media channels "should be cross promoted, linked to from the website, newsletter, emails, and each other." The FP website had a button linking to the FP Facebook page but not one for Twitter. At George's request, webmaster John Lamb added such a button. When the FP YouTube channel is running, a button will be added linking to that as well. These channels should, in turn, provide links back to the website.

The FP business cards have been redesigned by Liz Pagan to include the Facebook and Twitter links. Unfortunately, due to the time pressures of getting the new cards out, the link to the YouTube channel could not be added since it still does not exist.

The Newsletter has added the links and icons for our Facebook and Twitter channels to its masthead, and will add the YouTube information when that becomes active.

Activity Chairs are asked to consider adding such links to their individual publicity efforts, including emails sent out in the name of the Folk Project, to further this cross promotion.

Facebook Report – Pam Robinson

The FaceBook Page is doing well with well over 1,200 Likes. We have fans in 32 different countries.

The good news is that in the 25-35 age range, our posts are reaching the walls of more folks than have Liked the page. This means that our fans are sharing our posts which results in more people seeing it than just our fans. Awesome.

The FolkProjects FaceBook Group, is starting to gain some traction. With 213 members, folks are starting to share posts to the group wall. Everything from cute cartoons about ukes, to come play at the farmer market's open mic, to news articles about what is happening in the world of music. It results in wonderful discussions.

Twitter Report – Jean Scully

Pending.

Publicity Happenings

Bill Nutt did a great article on the Pat Donohue / Diane Perry show prior to the event.

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 month.

Morris Tourism has repeated their request for audience and performer photos from Folk Project events for their website. Who should we contact about this? The request mentions “Performers, performers with a bit of audience and anything else that you think would best represent your organization and talent.”

Online

· The Minstrel continues to be listed by the Morris County Tourism Bureau (morristourism.org).

· 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.

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In Print

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

Working with Performers and Their Publicists

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On the Radio

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Other Items

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