Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Robert Arrowsmith 2
CMI Publisher
First, let me preface this by stating this is not an attempt to try to sell any of you advertising. While I would love to have all of your business, this is not what this is meant to be about.
Word-of-mouth on early returns about some of the events to date have indicated that numbers are down this year compared to last year.
The only event I have heard about that has really done well in everyone’s eyes so far has been the Portales Oktoberfest. Other than that, word is that other events have ranged from “losing our shirts,” to “just OK,” to “not what we expected.”
Digital Marketing Ramblings (DMR) posted on their website some statistics about Facebook. As of Oct. 30 of this year:
Six percent of digital time each day is spent on Facebook by those that have Facebook accounts.
DMR reports 56.45 percent of the people in the United States are Facebook users.
And 30 percent of all Americans get their news on Facebook. While this number is growing, it is still less than half compared to the other mediums such as television, radio, and yes, newspapers.
By the way, I am not a Facebook user. I deactivated my account over a week ago due to lack of interest. I had someone stalking my page I ended up blocking, and that was pretty much the last straw. Those that I want to talk to and want to stay in contact with know how to contact me.
My point is this: While I understand that social media is a cheaper, and in many cases, free way to get your message across, if you are using it as your sole means to get your event promoted — well … you are getting what you are paying for.
You are not getting to the largest percentage of people that you could, you are hitting a demographic that tends to not make spending habit decisions based on what they see on a Facebook page, and in the case of the highest spending demographic, you are now mixed in a bombardment of messages.
On top of that, how many likes, or friends do you have to your page? Odds are you are going to have to pay for additional messages to get out.
How far are you expanding your radius? Odds are that if you are having a higher spending event that the distance traveled is not going to be what you might expect, and therefore, you might not be hitting who you hope you are with your message.
As a result, perception is that the event is not as successful this year.
I have been of the belief that if the event is a repeat event from previous years that people are looking for something fresher, newer and different. I am also becoming of the belief that if your event requires you to pay to attend and have auction items to bid on that people’s budgets are not quite what you would expect.
Combine that with your sole method of advertising being social media, and you have the ingredients for a less than successful event.
Just a few thoughts for you for the upcoming holiday season. I am sure this is not all the reasons for turnouts being what they are, but you can bet that these are some of them.
Robert Arrowsmith is publisher of Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at: