Communities in Peril… (Part One)

 We all know that the economy in North America and, for that matter the world, is in deep recession. As a result, this has created great turmoil within communities! Businesses have closed their doors. 1000’s of people have been laid off or worse, lost their jobs. Municipality revenues are lower and they are reducing services. People within the communities are becoming more depressed and despondent as time goes on; their self esteem is much lower! Where does it all stop? Even community minded volunteers are starting to have self doubts. Their groups are looking at cutting back or disappearing altogether! All of these negative thoughts feed on one another! However, history shows us that if we can reverse these trends and thoughts that just the opposite will happen! Positive thoughts and actions will create new opportunities! This is where citizen groups can really make a difference! Rather than pulling back or giving up, these groups should move forward with enthusiasm and hope! By their leadership, others will follow! If you run a great event, it will attract others! Success will build on success! 

(To be continued in Part Two)

Event Development (Part Three)

 

The following is a continuation of my Event Development Series. Last weeks Blog started describing the “Commitment” section. This week’s Blog will continue this description. As suggested previously, any thoughts and idea are more then welcome!

Commitment (continued)

To help you get started in the commitment process, the following are some of the questions that need to be asked and answered:

1.    Why do you want to hold an event?

This is the BIG question. You need to answer this question first. Do you want to raise money for a project? Is it to celebrate an anniversary? Is it just for the fellowship of your organization? Is it a community awareness project? Or is it a combination of some or all of these? Whatever the answer, there must be solid agreement by everyone involved that it is a project that they want to participate FULLY in. If not, you’d better re-evaluate the “WHY”, otherwise you will never obtain full commitment.

2.    Who makes the final decision as to whether or not the event is held?

The people who make the final decision have the biggest responsibility. They must take all the information gathered and then make an educated guess on the future of the event. It is important that they consider all questions and concerns before making their decision. Make sure all potential stakeholders are heard.

3.    Who else needs to be involved in the decision making process?

It is not enough to ask the immediate members of your group if they want to proceed with your event. There are others who should also be consulted and considered. Have the spouses been asked what they think? If the community is to be involve, have you talked to community officials to see if you have their support? If it involves food or alcohol, can the necessary licenses be obtained? I think you get the picture. Everyone who are or could be involved should be questioned and opinions solicited. You don’t want to get halfway through the planning of the event only to find you’re stopped by some unknown factor.

(To be continued - Part Four)

Event Development (Part Two)

 Commitment

I can remember many years ago being approached by someone who asked me what I knew about planning and running an Art Festival. It may seem like a strange question, until you realize that I was participating in a consumer show and my booth was selling art. It was a simple question, but it was the beginning of a life long journey into the world of planning and managing events. Being naive, I thought all we needed was a great idea and the rest would follow. How wrong I was! My partner in crime (the fellow who had approached me at the show) and I started off pitching the idea to the local community services manager. He was all for it and thought that the mayor would like it too. Then he asked 2 big questions! Who’s going to pay for it and who’s going to organize and run it? Fortunately, my partner was a Lions Club member and he thought his organization might be interested in participating. They were, but they had A LOT of questions. They were hard but necessary questions. It took a long while to answer these questions to the clubs satisfaction, but finally they, along with their Lioness Club, agreed that they would take on the project.

Their agreement was not only for money, but more importantly; their membership was COMMITTED to making the Festival a success. Over the last 17 years this commitment has never wavered and as a result, the Festival remains one of the top art festivals in the country and has allowed the clubs to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars back into their community. 

(To be continued in Part Three)

Event Development (Part One)

 Some time ago, I started writing about “Website Construction”. I hope that the articles will help festival and event organizers create better and more productive websites! Now I would like to share some thoughts on “Event Development”. In the weeks that follow I plan on writing about the different stages of developing a successful festival or event. I believe that there are five key development areas, “Initial Development”, Research and Preliminary Planning”, “Leadership”, “Action Planning” and “Event Day Management”. It is my hope that festival organizers and planners will enjoy the articles and will give me feedback about their ideas and concerns! So, here is the first article:

Initial Development

As William Shakespeare’s Hamlet asked so many years ago, “To be or not to be, that is the question.”

When you start thinking about developing a festival or event, after all the questions have been asked and answered, “to be or not to be…” really is the final question.

It may seem like an unnecessary start, but if you don’t ask and answer the questions, your event is likely doomed to fail right from the start.

(to be continued in Part Two ~ Commitment)

Building Your Website (Part Ten)

 Social Media Optimization (SMO)

Although I haven’t mentioned Social Media Optimization previously, it is an area that seems to be gaining more and more importance. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media) explains Social Media as follows: “Social media are primarily Internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings. The term most often refers to activities that integrate technology, telecommunications and social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and "building" of shared meaning among communities, as people share their stories and experiences.” Social Media with regards to the Internet includes Blogs (this article is a blog), Microblogs (Twitter, Pownce and Jailu), Social Networking (Bebo, Facebook, LinkedIn and My Space), Photo Sharing (Flickr, Zooomr and Photobucket), Social News Sites (Digg, Mixx and Reddit), Video Sharing (YouTube, Vimeo and Viddler) and Livecasting (Ustream, Justin,tv and Mogulus). All of these and more can be used to increase your website’s popularity and ranking. These have to be used carefully and I would suggest that you study its use before embarking on Social Media Optimization. Check it out on the Internet, there are many articles on the subject. Remember, knowledge is power!

Building Your Website (Part Nine)

 Traffic, Search Engine Marketing and Social Media Optimization (Part 2)

11. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search Engine Marketing is used to help websites increase their visibility. There are several methods of doing this. The best and least expensive is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This is also the slowest method of SEM. I have discussed SEO in previous articles, but, to explain is simply, it is a method that builds your website in such a way that Search Engines will find the website, investigate it (crawl) and rank it. The better you optimize, the higher your ranking will become (given time). Other SEM tactics include “paid placement” and “paid inclusion”. The following is a brief explanation of each.
Paid Placement – This is a definition provided by Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_per_click) “Pay per click (PPC) is an Internet advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks, and content websites, such as blogs, where advertisers only pay when a user actually clicks on an advertisement to visit the advertisers' website. With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market. When a user types a keyword query matching an advertiser's keyword list, or views a webpage with relevant content, the advertisements may be displayed. Such advertisements are called sponsored links or sponsored ads, and appear adjacent to or above the "natural" or organic results on search engine results pages, or anywhere a webmaster or blogger chooses on a content page. Content websites commonly charge a fixed price for a click rather than use a bidding mechanism.”
Paid Inclusion - This is a definition provided by Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paid_inclusion) “Paid inclusion is a search engine marketing product where the search engine company charges fees related to inclusion of websites in their search index. Paid inclusion products are provided by most search engine companies, the most notable exception being Google.

The fee structure is both a filter against superfluous submissions and a revenue generator. Typically, the fee covers an annual subscription for one webpage, which will automatically be catalogued on a regular basis. A per-click fee may also apply. Each search engine is different. Some sites allow only paid inclusion, although these have had little success. More frequently, many search engines, like Yahoo!, mix paid inclusion (per-page and per-click fee) with results from web crawling. Others, like Google (and as of 2006, Ask.com, do not let webmasters pay to be in their search engine listing (advertisements are shown separately and labeled as such).”

Remember, these methods will cost you money, but with them, you are able to control or limit your costs. It is a quicker way to have your website seen by targeted visitors, but not a way to guarantee search engine rankings. If you use the paid SEM method prudently, with an eye to Search Engine Optimization, it can be win win situation for you and your website!

(To be continued in Part Ten ~ Social Media Optimization (SMO))

Building Your Website (Part Nine)

 

Traffic, Search Engine Marketing and Social Media Optimization (Part 1)

Traffic

The goal of every website has to be getting people to visit their website (Traffic). Why have a website that no one visits? So, the main object is to have traffic, good traffic, visit your site! But, how do you do this? Good question! Frankly, it starts right from the beginning! Actually, the process begins before you start your web construction. You have to decide why you want a website and what you want it to offer visitors. Once you have a very clear picture in your mind of that, you have to figure the best way of getting there. The first questions to ask yourself is who do you want to come to your website and how are you going to get them there. This, in essence, is the whole process of constructing a website! “Determining who you want to come and how to get them there.” From there it’s just a matter of following tried and true web building steps. I have outlined most of these steps in previous Blog articles, plus there are tons of article that can be found on the Internet. Building a great website, right from the start, will make all your “Web” dreams come true!

(Continued in Part 2)