This post originally appeared on MarchPR.com.
I recently tried to go to a concert here in Boston. I won’t name the venue or the bands, even the most popular of which is pretty much unknown. The show was on a Monday night. My mission was to see one band in particular, but I didn’t know when they, or any band, were going to start playing.
I embarked on a treasure hunt to put together whatever clues I could find. Now, if you’re in PR or know anything about PR, you’ve probably heard the term “messaging” before. Messaging is the cornerstone of any PR campaign. Companies do a lot of research and work very hard to make sure that a message is on-target before sending it out into the world. A good message is consistent on all platforms and channels.
None of these bands had good messaging. The club didn’t have good messaging, either. And, as I tried to piece things together, I couldn’t help but think about all the different ways a solid social media strategy could have helped.
Here’s what I noticed:
1. A Lack of Coordination
Early on, I knew there was going to be trouble. When I went to Ticketmaster to look up the show, the band I wanted to see wasn’t listed. There was no sign of them on the club’s website, either. The only way I found out the band was actually playing at this show was through its own Facebook Page.
So, when I tried to find more details about the concert, Facebook was the first place I went. No band posted any details about the show, just that they were playing. Two posted links to an event app. The links went to two different events that displayed two different times.
One band’s app said the show was at 7 p.m. and the other claimed it was at 6 p.m. The club’s Facebook Page proudly proclaimed that doors opened at 5:30 p.m., not at 7 p.m. like its main website said. Again, there was no mention of the band I wanted to see – except for one Facebook fan who added the band’s name in a comment.
Read the rest on March Communication’s s blog, PR Nonsense.
Blaise Lucey 
Thanks for sharing this. it is so true. Recently, I have found that when self-published authors pull together as a team and promote each other’s work over social media we all have so much more success. It is great to have the camaraderie rather than competition…after all…most of us only have one or two books and people usually read more than one or two in a year regardless of genre.
Great point! I really do think one of the secrets to promotion in the future is going to be artists banding together & forming those kinds of online communities.
The brainchild of Chris macMullen is READ TUESDAY, which can be found here:
http://readtuesday.com/
Check it out. A group of us are really seriously promoting the Black Friday/Cyber Monday type of event through social media and email. I think it is awesome. It is a shopping bonanza for books: Indie or self-published. All you have to do is sign up (no fees to participate), and agree to discount your book on that date. It is going to be HUGE! I feel honored to be able to participate with a group of author, readers, and gift givers in an event like this.
Oh, I see Chris has “Liked” your page already…so you probably know about this 🙂