Last month I volunteered at the Machynlleth Comedy Festival. It was the first year it had been held, it was in the middle of nowhere, but it was a cracking idea. Put a load of great comedians in a small Welsh town and let the madness unfold – plus a fair amount of laughter.

I volunteered to help with press & marketing for the event. With it being voluntary, we had people, passion and a bit of time. But zero cash. What could we do? Enter stage right – social media.

Twitter has been invaluable as we were able to build a following relatively quickly, make lists of people involved in the festival and performing at it. Plus use the location based functionality of Twitter to find nearby people who were on the service and might be interested.

The real benefit of Twitter was felt during the event itself. We had the official Mach Comedy Fest account under the stewardship of the brilliant Beth Charlesworth (of A Little Bird Told Me), tweeting updates, changes to event times, photos from events. I was tweeting in with updates from my personal account and we had the hashtag #machfest buzzing with tweets from comedians and fans alike.

So, why bother tweeting during the festival? Surely we were too busy running around like mad people trying to make sure everything was done. Yes, we were running around but also we wanted to show people who hadn’t come, or who on the Friday night were thinking of coming that they were missing out. Twitter allows people to follow and stake out the action – and it might just sway them to dive in and get involved.

Machynlleth Comedy Festival was great, and I’ve no doubt that Twitter helped make it that little bit more social and great.

How have you used Twitter for festivals/events? How did you find it? Did people take to using the hashtag? I’d be interested to know your thoughts in the comments below.

Image credit to Ed Moore

Hyperlocal blogs vary enormously in terms of audience numbers. Some such as the Ventnor Blog on the Isle of Wight are long established and attract a huge audience while others are fledgling outfits that may only have readerships in their tens every day.

But getting beyond the Google Analytics is important, especially if anyone who runs a hyperlocal blog is thinking about making some money for it. With Blog Preston, the hyperlocal venture I setup in January 2009 to cover the Lancashire city of Preston, I wanted to find out a bit more about my audience.

We ran a survey and asked people what they thought about the blog, the content and got a big of demographic information from them. Here are the findings:

The age group – they aren’t young

The largest age of people reading Blog Preston was 36-50, with 37.% putting themselves in this category. No one over 51 was in our readership.

Where they lived – they are richer than most

We attract readers from opposite ends of Preston. The two wealthies suburbs, Fulwood and Penwortham featured as the most popular places for our readers to be from. These places are mainly affluent, middle class and have strong broadband penetration. They are also home to lots of ‘community minded’ people who are likely to look beyond the newspaper headlines. We do not attract readers from areas such as Ribbleton and Larches, the more socially deprived areas of the city.

What they liked reading about – events and the arts

It seems there is a big gap in events coverage in Preston, as that’s what people were coming to our site for. To find out what events were on, read reviews and get ideas for what to do in the city. Our coverage of the arts was also popular, covering music, comedy and other arts events that were happening. There was lots of love for our opinion articles, our readers liked to read informed articles from members of the community.

What they wanted more of – more of the same

As above, the things they liked reading about they wanted to see more of. So we know our core audience is happy and wants to see even more done on these areas.

Do we reflect the city in our content? Why yes, we do

This is what I’m most proud of. From starting up Blog Preston on the kitchen table all those months ago, we got 93% of our readers saying our content reflects the city of Preston. If you’re a hyperlocal blog and you’re not doing that you might as well pack up and go home!

Lessons learned

We need to hammer home our advantage on arts, events and opinion coverage and perhaps highlight this content so it’s easier to find for readers. Our success in the more affluent areas of Preston gives hope for attracting advertising but is also a double-edged sword as we should be attracting visitors from all over. To do this we need to cover local events in these areas, get contributors sending in articles and building relationships with people in those communities.

I’d encouraged other hyperlocal blogs to do a readership survey, it’s a great way of finding out whether you’re hitting the right notes with your content and also gets you underneath the website stats.

Have you done readership research for your hyperlocal blog? What did you find? How do you think we can expand our readership with Blog Preston? Any tips in the comments below would be appreciated.

Image credit to BillFromSpokane

Howard from Halifax advert

There’s been a lot of buzz and discussion about Johnston Press’ decision to make users pay £5 for three months access to a group of titles. If it works, everyone will do it. So, ignoring the ’should they, shouldn’t they’ debate I’ve taken a look at what I’d be beavering away doing if I was charging people to access a news website and inspired by Howard from those old Halifax adverts, I’d be giving extra:

Give me a log-in

Basic stuff, give me a username and password and then when I log-in, track what I like. Start to personalise my experience, let me pick what I want to see when I log straight in. I want the sports feed, I don’t like politics. I want to see the photo of the day. If you’re sticking stuff behind a paywall, make use of the opportunity that brings for giving me the news that I want to see when I log-in. Don’t make me click around like a mad man trying to find it.

Send me a weekly digest

I might forget I’ve paid for your service, I did it, it didn’t cost a lot and I’ve forgotten. Send me a weekly, or if it’s a big title a daily digest, of the best content and then I’ll be clicking through, using my log-in and feeling sorry for the poor bastard who hasn’t bought his subscription. Then he’ll buy one so he’s not a step behind me anymore.

Give me premium content

Let me press an exclusive red button and get ‘extra’. Let me supersize my news coverage, let me get stuck right into the detail of a general election, let me see the extra blog, the extra map, the extra content. Don’t let the freeloader see it.

Auto renewal

Once I’m signed up, make it a direct debit. Remember my card details and I won’t even remember it’s coming out of my account every month, week, quarter or whatever. It’s just another one in the list of ‘essential services’ alongside my broadband, mobile, car insurance etc.

Upsell me

I’m paying already, but what else might I want? Learn what I like and then work with the advertisers/PRs/marketing gurus to give me stuff I want. I’m always reading about travel, maybe I like travelling? Offer me a holiday, a competition, travel stuff. I might just bite. Upsell the service itself, add bolt-ons and upgrades. There’s my bog standard access fee and then there’s archive access, there’s live streaming access, take the McDonalds approach – ‘Sir, would you like fries with that?’ instead it should be ‘Sir, would you like archive access with that? For just 50p extra a month it’s all yours’. Remember many 50ps make a bigger amount.

Ask my opinion

I might be commenting on posts, I might not, but if I’m paying for it then there’s a good chance I will care about it. Send me surveys, if you’re making changes ask me in advance. Get me involved, ask for my ideas – and you’ll be surprised what I will come up with.

Show me where the money goes

Charities do this well, they show me that if I pay money, they will build a well in Africa and stop people dying. So, what does my £5 do? Am I helping to shore up local democracy? Am I making sure that the council bigwigs aren’t screwing me out of council tax? Tell me stories of what you’ve done and keep reminding me why this £5 is the best £5 I’ve ever spent. I didn’t buy a foot long Subway, I bought a foot long of local news, information and always being in the know.

There’s loads more that could be done, but in true paywall fashion – you’ll have to pay me to find out more. The days of ‘giving it away for free’ are numbered online.

He gave an insight into how the BBC is beginning to use CRM and how it is changing the way the organisation works in the digital age.

Kelleher started by saying that using CRM in a non-commercial organisation is more difficult than for commercial ones, as CRM systems are traditionally based around converting leads into sales and building a relationship with the customer.

The BBC in the analogue age had a policy of not using direct marketing, after all they didn’t need to as there were only up to five channels and limited radio stations, 30 odd million used to watch the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special.

However, recognising that the corporation has moved into the digital age they set up about working out how CRM could be used to target and deliver to an audience that was fragmenting, changing its behaviours, becoming less loyal and changing their methods of consumption.

He then showed a rather wacky diagram with all the ‘social media’ and other tools that could be put into the direct marketing mix and asked ‘how much of this stuff is going to add value?’. That is the question that all organisations need to be asking themselves.

To respond to the changes in audience then the BBC is adopting some principles for how to engage with the audience:

- Personalise. Make content relevant to the person.
- Customer insight. Use data to understand what the audience likes
- Self-help. Provide resources for the audience to get help there and then, not wait to speak to a person
- Accountability. New media tools can be used to show transparency and explain why decisions are made
- Online channels. Explore new ways of delivering content to the audience.
- Brand experience. Ensuring that through a distributed strategy the brand is not diluted and the BBC is still respected as an institution
- Data drive decision making. Data will be available at all levels of the organisation to inform decision makers, rather than relying on assumptions about the audience.

Kelleher then made an interesting point about CRM. The systems will produce endless amounts of data and reports but it’s knowing how to interpret these reports – you can produce reports until you’re blue in the face but if your non-data geek decision makers can’t understand them or are overwhelmed then this defeats the whole purpose of having the system.

In the new digital world it’s all about relevancy. The content needs to be tailored to fit the audience member, not the audience, the audience member. Mr Smith likes very different things to Mrs Jones, even though they might be the same age, live next door to each other and work in the same industry. The digital world should offer personalised interactions wherever possible for the audience and give users the chance to set preferences, more of what they want more of the time.

We were shown an example of an SMS pilot that the BBC had run using Radio 1. They had been unsure of how to use SMS as a marketing tool and they decided to pilot it with the Scott Mills show on Radio 1. This was because a lot of the listenership are under-25 and SMS is embedded in their lifestyle. They tried various different styles and tones for the texts and found that the more informal texts that matched the celebrity (Scott Mills) were most popular and prompted the best response rate.

However, it’s easy to get carried away with SMS marketing and bombard your audience – instead organisations should focus on adding value for the audience wherever possible.

Kelleher then briefly touched on the iPlayer – a huge success for the corporation – and how direct marketing was being used there. There was a subtle recruitment button in the bottom corner of the iPlayer frontpage (can’t say I’d ever noticed) that pushed users to a simple sign-up form. From this customised updates were produced to inform them of new content that they would be interested in.

The BBC is in the process of refining it’s data collection touchpoints as they have hundreds, if not thousands, of them. They send out 110 different email newsletters and 30 million are sent every month. The most popular is the BBC Food email newsletter.

Kelleher briefly touched on a new project that the BBC is running around its Darwin campaign. This is TV, radio, online and offline events all related to the theme of Charles Darwin. The website features a very simple ‘Sign up’ plug and all the user has to do is enter their email address – nothing else. This is then cross-referenced with the main CRM database and added to a list of ‘They like Darwin’. A personalised email with call to actions are then sent out related to Darwin content on different media. The open rate for the emails is a phenomenal 80% and the click through rate was 20-25%. Not bad for a campaign I’d never heard of.

Ultimately thought content is king, and I agree completely with Kelleher on this. He used the analogy of a first date. You meet a girl and you find out she likes guinea pigs, France and red wine. After two years worth of dates you’re still discussing guinea pigs, France and red wine. You never learn more. You are eventually going to get bored of discussing the same things and go off and find something new. This works with direct marketing and CRM, you need to be constantly offering up something new, something different and something that makes people say ‘Yes! I’d like to know more about that!’. You can’t afford to be static, because it’s easier now than ever before for someone to disappear off and find new and fresh content with the touch of a button.

Finally, Kelleher finished with the new rules for CRM and direct marketing in the digital age:

1. Research the audience’s propensity. Ensure you’re using the right approach and technology for the audience you’re targeting
2. Go where the audience are. If the audience all use Facebook, you need to use Facebook to get to them.
3. Make the user’s recruitment journey easy. Simple sign up forms.
4. Make interaction relevant. Don’t ask for data about whether they have a pet, and then never use it. The user will be expecting something related to guinea pigs they’ve put in that they have guinea pigs.
5. Make the interaction timely. If an event has just happened, hit the user with some content about what happened. If an event is upcoming, allow enough time for them to register and attend.
6. Provide value. This is key, you need to make your content stand out from everyone else.
7. Be clear about what you want the audience to do. Is it a call to action? Are you asking them for money? Do you want them to watch a video?

Overall it was a great keynote from Kelleher and gave a real insight into what the BBC are up to and his new rules for CRM and direct marketing in the digital age will no doubt be banded around the industry for a few months to come until someone events the newer new rules.

What do you think, are the BBC using CRM well? Could they be using it better? What do you think of the new rules for CRM and direct marketing in the digital age?

The overwhelming mood in the room was ‘No, you missed the boat about 5 years ago’. But, there is a huge area where NUSSL could provide something very useful to Students’ Union’s. Business solutions and in particular web based ones.

If I was in NUSSL and looking for ways to diversify I’d be considering:

- Taking an open source CRM solution and modifying it for Students’ Union’s

- Providing membership solutions in terms of clubs and societies

- Working on data solutions for Union’s to offer loyalty products such as swipe cards etc

- Offering training to Union’s on how to use social media, web technologies and how to generate income from the web

- Working on ideas for how to generate new revenue streams from mature, international, part-time and postgraduate students, because the student movement is not getting any younger

Unfortunately the event didn’t allow for much exploration of these ideas because it was dominated by lots of ‘no, no, no’ rather than ‘what about, maybe, could we’. NUSSL needs a culture change and to figure out what Students’ Union’s need in the 21st century to connect with their memberships and remains as the gatekeepers of getting messages to the student body.

Seth Godin kicks off with a great take on what the elections meant for marketing professionals. He definitely believes that online is the place to be for campaigning.

Kivi was quick off the mark with what nonprofit organisations can learn marketing wise from the election. She focuses on the ability of the Obama to fundraise from a whole spectrum of people, small amounts building to one huge total. She also links through to the Getting Attention blog which has a good piece about what the election taught us about email marketing.

The Charity Place has a piece about what nonprofits can learn from the Obama campaign, and it’s more of the same. Engagement, make friends first and then ask for money – not the other way round. I think that’s an important one, build a connection and then ask for the money.

• How to stand out in a world of infite choice

Some inspirational words from Adam Singer. He makes sense, there is a LOT out there on the web but knowing your niche is important.

• Facebook marketing strategies

Not as expensive as I thought, but are they effective? Interesting post.

• pluto-online

UCLan’s student newspaper gets a re-launch, two years after we first launched it. Good stuff, it’s going to be a great little site once it gets filled out with content.

• You can’t just have peanut butter

How do you measure social media success?

• Obama – the revolution will be televised

Short piece about how if Obama does win next week, it could cause a lot of people to start re-write the politics marketing books. He’s shown how online can connect with the grassroots but that you can’t just be online, you have to be everywhere.

• The nostalgia of the hyperlocal

Nigel Barlow points me in the direction of Andrew Grant-Adamson who makes some interesting points about whether online could be the future of hyperlocal. With local newspapers across the country in huge decline, could online present a return to the local, local, news agenda? I think it’s all a question of resources.

• Compared with what?

Post about the modern marketing mix, where does social media fit into it and how or indeed can you measure the return on investment?

• In defense of raising money: a manifesto for nonprofit CEOs

I sent this to my CEO, if you work for a nonprofit then you should to. Some good points made by Sasha and thanks to Seth Godin for the heads up.