Your Website is the Centerpiece of Your Marketing Program
When you are setting a table for a formal dinner party, you place something beautiful in the center of the table like candles, flowers or a bowl of colorful fruit. This centerpiece ties everything on the table together.
This infographic comes from our good friends at the Caliber Group in Arizona. Both our agencies are members of the Alliance of Marketing Communications Agencies. Thanks to the Caliber Group for sharing! www.calibergroup.com
Your website is the centerpiece of your marketing program. It helps you connect with your targeted audiences and ties all of your marketing efforts together. It contains all the information about your product, service, place, organization or brand that people need in order to connect with you or do business with you. Visitors come to your site to get more information, to evaluate your products and services and to assess your brand. By looking at your site, they decide whether they want to connect with your brand….or not.
Your website is the focal point of your brand, and the foundation of your marketing program. Every aspect of your marketing should point back to your website, including press releases, ads, business cards, brochures, flyers, rack cards, banners, direct mail and social media.
Nancy Marshall, principal of Nancy Marshall Communications
When people go to your website, they will immediately get a sense of your brand. If your website looks amateurish, people will think your business is amateurish. If it is beautiful and full of useful information that draws people in and keeps them there for a while, then your website will build your brand and convey an image of professionalism.
It’s important to be sure that the centerpiece on your table and the centerpiece of your marketing program are consistent with the image you want to convey to your guests, whether they are coming for dinner at your home or coming to learn more about your organization online.
Should You Trade Google Alerts For Newsle?
NMC Account Executive Anna McDermott
Newsle is yet another of the latest social media platforms that is trending right now and the intrepid folks at NMC are here to tell you whether or not you should pay any attention to it. You should. It’s pretty cool and you really don’t have to do anything with it other than sign in. Newsle will then track your friends and email you as soon as they’re in the news (Newsle = news + people).
It’s an easy way to monitor your own brand and the brands of your friends and clients, and its algorithm for finding your contacts in the news is pretty brilliant – people think it’s far more accurate than having a Google alert.
When I signed in, I linked my Gmail, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts to my Newsle profile and instantly anyone I’m connected to who has been in the news in the last few years showed up on my Home screen with links to the articles. You can also follow anyone on Newsle – like the President or Justin Bieber.
You can choose how often Newsle emails you with updates (1-7 days per week) and whenever your friends are in the news, you’ll know. The more someone is in the news, the higher their Newsle rank is – Barack Obama has a 94, our own Nancy Marshall has a 28. Because your rank is dependent on the prominence of the news source you are in and how often you are in the news, your number could be seen as a positive or negative, so I wouldn’t necessarily place too much importance on it.
Go ahead, sign up for Newsle – you may find it replaces many of your Google alerts and its interface is really pleasant to use.
Contributed by: Anna McDermott
Using Google AdWords to Attract Customers to Your Business
Hi, Erika here!
You’re bored on a Friday night and looking for something to do when a friend suggests that you guys grab a bite to eat and go see a movie. You say, “Sure, but I want try something new.” You both agree on pizza, so you Google search local pizza place Augusta Maine and you get this:
Local businesses Whipper’s, College Carryout and Pizza Stone make up the top results of the search. Where would your business be?
Chances are, you’re going to pick one of the places on this page—and there is an even better chance that it will be one of the first three or four listings.
So, how do you make sure that your business is near the top?
A search engine marketing system, such as Google AdWords, certainly helps!
NMC Interactive Marketing Manager Matt Rideout has recently received his AdWords Certification through Google’s AdWords Certification Program. The certification required training in complex marketing systems along with multiple tests, and Rideout says, “The certification lets our customers know that we are fully taking advantage of everything the AdWords marketing channel has to offer. Ultimately, it shows our dedication to ensuring our clients receive the best online advertising possible from NMC.”
NMC Principal Nancy Marshall adds, “Matt’s Google AdWords Certification adds one more area of expertise we can offer to our clients that will help them connect their marketing messages with their target audiences.”
So how does Google AdWords work?
- Keywords are the key to a successful campaign. Think like a potential customer—if they had never been to your business how might they find you?
- Pizza place: thin crust pizza Augusta Maine, pizza delivery Augusta Maine, pizza places in Augusta Maine open late, etc.
- Gym: gym open late in Augusta Maine, Augusta Maine gym with tanning, Augusta Maine trial gym membership, etc.
- You decide how much you spend by setting a daily budget that is comfortable for you, and you can change it at any time—you are never locked into a contract.
- You only pay for results (cost-per-click), which means that you never pay for your ad to be displayed, but only when someone actually clicks on your ad and is redirected to your site and/or landing page.
- Relevance means more business—the more relevant your ads and keywords are to the demographic, the higher your Quality Score. The higher your Quality Score, the higher up your position will be on a Google search.
NMC Interactive Marketing Manager Matt Rideout, who recently received his Google AdWords Certification.
As mentioned earlier in this article, the higher your position on the search results page, the more likely you are to be chosen. The more people click on your ads, the lower your cost-per-click will be!
The team here at NMC sets up cost-per-click systems that allow us to measure return on investment (ROI) so that our customers know they are generating a profit with their campaigns.
Contact us today to see how the NMC team can help your business reach the coveted #1 search result spot with $100 in free AdWords advertising.
A Nightfly With A Rock ‘N Roll Soul
Frank FM Assistant Program Director and On-Air Personality, Leif Erickson
If you’re a fan of classic hits and live practically anywhere in the state of Maine, then you are probably familiar with 107.5 Frank FM. As a member of Frank Nation, then you are also familiar with Assistant Program Director/Music Director/Afternoon Drive Host Leif Erickson.
Yes, he really does wear that many hats on a weekly basis—and that doesn’t even include the additional work he does for Snocountry Mountain Reports, and his recent official announcement of Leif Erickson Voiceover Services.
As a native of Massachusetts and Boston University graduate, Erickson was hired as a radio ski reporter for Snocountry Mountain Reports in Lebanon, New Hampshire after graduating with a degree in broadcast journalism. He soon made his way onto the air with Classic Rock station Q106 in Claremont, and after a few years he was recruited by a start-up station called Frank FM.
After eight years, Erickson says he can’t imagine living anywhere else. He credits the broad audience as the best and most challenging part of his job saying, “We’re a local station to not only Portland, but to Lewiston, Augusta, Bridgton, Sanford, South Paris, Farmington and well into New Hampshire! I enjoy bringing people together under that umbrella—Frank Nation—one big community, even if they do know I’m physically in the ‘big city’ of Portland.”
Social media has made Leif’s job a little easier, and he frequently uses it to test new material with listeners. He adds, “If I have some wise-crack on a relevant topic, I may test it out on my own Facebook page to see what kind of reaction I get. If the feedback is positive then I’ll repurpose it for my show later.”
Leif Erickson hits the slopes at Sunday River last winter.
Facebook is an incredible tool when it comes to connecting with listeners for Erickson. Even though he has a radio-specific fan page, listeners frequently find his personal Facebook page as well, and he always accepts their friend requests. He jokes, “I do have a brief disclaimer on my personal page that says: Hey, this is me off the clock, don’t complain to my boss! I’m not above sharing a slice of life behind the scenes if I think my listeners might find it interesting.”
For Erickson, Facebook is also a way to learn more about his listeners, and he often uses it as a way to learn what they like, where they hang out, and what they want to hear—“This is a business that is all about connecting with the listener, is it not,” he asks.
That question is answered by the way he delivers content. Leif says, “Our listeners would rather I paint a picture of an odd individual’s antics on Monument Square that I’m witnessing from the studio window than whatever Lindsay Lohan’s in court for this week.”
When Leif isn’t juggling his work, he can frequently be found on the Portland Peninsula. He says, “I enjoy a bite and a brew at the Thirsty Pig, or Shay’s for dinner and drinks, but my favorite haunt is Slainte. It’s always full of interesting people, good brews on tap and kick- (enter expletive here)-bartending staff, and a diverse slate of music and culture just about every night of the week.”
To listen to Leif Erickson’s show, be sure to tune in to 107.5 Frank FM Monday through Friday 2pm to 7pm, or on Sundays 6am to noon. You can also check out his Facebook Fan Page at www.facebook.com/leifericksonontheradio.
We asked Leif to share five songs that describe him—click on the links below to find out what he picked! Did any of your favorite songs make the list?
Grand Funk Railroad “Rock and Roll Soul”
28 Ways to Use PR to Drive Traffic to your Website
Nancy Marshall, principal of Nancy Marshall Communications
I started doing public relations in the 1980s when we used a mimeograph machine to copy our press releases then mailed them out in envelopes with postage stamps on them. Today we distribute them by email and share them on social networks. Have we come a long way since then or what?
The power of the Internet to massively increase our public relations footprint has grown exponentially since then and is still growing every day. The challenge is to leverage the power of the Internet with a well thought-out strategic plan that includes defining our messages, defining our audiences and figuring out the best methods to connect our messages with our audiences. Just because we have the ability to email a press release to thousands of journalists doesn’t mean that we should do so. That’s why it’s important to have a PR plan before you start spinning your wheels generating content and randomly disseminating it everywhere.
Today, I am going to share my 28 ideas about how to use PR to drive traffic to your website. Each and every day, the most important thing is to keep your website at the top of your own mind so you can explore new ways to share your Web address. At the same time, be sure to keep your website content up to date, because the search engines do not want to send people to a site that is outdated or irrelevant.
Always be thinking about how to improve your site by adding new content that is remarkable, and be watching your Google Analytics metrics to see how people are using your site. The bounce rate is a key indicator as to whether your site is appealing to visitors or not. If you are spending time and money to send people to your site and they are immediately clicking away, you have a serious problem that needs to be corrected before you send more visitors to the site.
There are two main ways to generate traffic to your site: attracting them by having optimized key words, and sending them there by having links from other sites or listing the URL on printed pieces. In this article, I’m going to address both: attracting visitors and driving visitors to your website.
Here are my 28 ideas, and I’m sure you’ll have plenty of your own ideas once you get the creative juices flowing! Press releases sent to business publications and shows on TV and radio, including a link to your website. Make sure you are announcing something newsworthy such as hiring a new employee, winning an award, or making a speech at a significant trade show or conference. Also, make sure you are targeting the kind of media that will be interested in your press release. Business publications will be interested in business announcements, for example.
- Press releases are great, but it’s even better if you can use a press release to get a journalist to do a feature story on you or your business. A feature story is an article in a newspaper or a magazine, or a story on radio or TV that will ideally include a link to your site—if not, people will still become more interested in you and Google search you. Either way, feature stories are a great way to tell your story in the media and raise your profile. In order to get a feature, you need to send a very good press release to the right reporter, editor or producer, pique their interest in the story you have to tell, and typically, you need to place a follow-up phone call to pitch your idea. In the tourism industry, getting a story in the Sunday Travel Section of a major newspaper is a major coup. Typically these stories include what we call a “service bar” which is a sidebar that includes all the contact info including phone number, postal address, physical address and Web address.
Our NMC services brochure and Things To Do Pads are all equipped with our web address, www.marshallpr.com.
- Your business cards, letterhead and other printed materials should always include your Web address. You might even consider having a QR code with a direct link to your site. That’s what we do on our business cards at Nancy Marshall Communications.
- Make sure your email signature includes a link to your website. You’d be amazed how many people will click through after they read your email message!
- Branded giveaways are a great way to literally put your Web address on peoples’ walls (calendars), in their hands (pens and pencils), on their desks (calculators, thumb drives and coffee mugs) or in their cars (travel mugs, ice scrapers). I have a wall calendar from my chiropractor that I look at every day, and it reminds me to contact him if my neck or back start feeling out of whack.
- Trade shows are an ideal place to promote your website. The Web address should be prominently displayed on your trade show booth and in all your promotional materials. If you are exhibiting at a trade show, there will be members of the media in attendance. Frequently there will be a media room at the show where you can leave press kits or giveaways such as pens, water bottles and coffee mugs. Make sure your Web address is on every single item that you give away at trade shows.
- Speaking engagements at Rotary, Kiwanis and Chamber meetings as well as college classes are ideal places to talk about your website and give out the Web address. If you are using a PowerPoint presentation, include the Web address on every slide. Every time I do a speaking engagement, I write a press release about my appearance and send it to the local media, which is yet another opportunity to include a link to my website.
- Guest posts on other peoples’ blogs are a great place to provide a link to your site.
- Submit your blog posts to social bookmarking sites such as reddit, StumbleUpon and Digg.
- Take advantage of local search. Google+ Local is a great way to make your site more findable by local audiences.
- Produce videos to be posted on YouTube including keyword-rich text descriptions. YouTube is a great place to include a link to your site. Did you know that YouTube is the second most popular search engine next to Google? That’s because people love to watch videos when they want to learn how to do something or they want to know about something. As a society, we are reading less than ever, unfortunately. Your third grade teacher would be disappointed that you would prefer to watch a video to learn something new rather than going to the library to get a book about it.
- Guest opinion columns in the newspaper about relevant timely topics can include a biographical backgrounder on you as the author, including a link to your website.
- Facebook posts on your own page and on other peoples’ pages can include a link to your site, but be careful. You need to interact with others in a very human way, and not always be promoting your own site, or people will see right through what you’re doing. A mix of posts that are social and human, along with one post a week with a link to your own site will work. My strategic partner Stephen Woessner’s book, ‘Increase Online Sales through Viral Social Marketing,’ (available at www.amazon.com) lays out an exact formula for the balance between social posts and promotional posts.
- Pinterest is a fast-growing social network, particularly among women. If you pin an interesting photo on one of your Pinterest boards that links back to your site, people will click through to see where that photo came from. For example, I saw this wonderful photo on Pinterest of a breakfast at a Maine B&B, The Pomegranate Inn in Portland, Maine. I was curious about it, so I clicked through to their website, which is equally wonderful to look at, and I thought to myself that I would like to go there someday soon (especially since my PR agency handles PR for the Maine Office of Tourism!)
- Twitter is a great place to include links to your site, although you might want to use them as ow.ly links so you can reduce the number of characters. (Google the term “ow.ly links” for an explanation if you are unfamiliar.)
- Use Instagram to drive traffic from photos to your site. Be sure to completely fill out the online profile to close the loop from your photos back to your website.
Nancy Marshall Communications Twitter page. Follow us @NMCMaine!
- LinkedIn is a great place to establish yourself as an expert, and to make important professional connections. You can list your Web address right in your LinkedIn profile.
- Event sponsorship allows you to create banners and give branded giveaways promoting your business name and Web address to a targeted audience. Consider a business-to-business trade show, an arts performance, a sporting event, or even the walls at your local Major League—or even Little League—baseball stadium. Align the sponsorship with your targeted audience.
- Charitable donations position you as a responsible and philanthropic neighbor. When you make a donation, the charity will help you promote your business in their event programs, their annual giving guides or in thank-you speeches at their annual meetings. We work with the Maine Children’s Home for Little Wanderers in Waterville, Maine as a client, and I donate to them throughout the year. They are sure to promote my URL, www.marshallpr.com, whenever possible.
- If you are in the business of building websites for others, be sure to include a link back to your own website at the bottom of the home page. We build websites for businesses and nonprofits of all kinds, and we always embed a link on the home page of every one.
- Put your Web address on your clothing. Logoed clothing is a great way to build your wardrobe, whether it’s on the front of a golf shirt, a hoodie sweatshirt, a baseball cap or a ski hat. Give a fleece vest emblazoned with your logo and URL to all your employees. They will wear it with pride and promote your Web address everywhere they go.
- Ask the CEO of your company to write an article (or offer to ghostwrite for him or her) to post on a blog, or submit to the local newspaper or business journal. If you’re the CEO, try to make this a regular practice. Be sure to include a bio at the end of the article with a link to your website. Post the article on your own company’s blog too, because it will be rich in keywords.
- Create infographics and post them on social media sites. Infographics are all the rage right now as an easy, graphical way to explain a concept. You will need a professional graphic designer to create them, and you can either hire a designer to serve on your staff or outsource to a freelancer. There are freelancers available online through sites like 99designs.com that can create infographics cost effectively. People are more likely to share infographics than other types of content through social networks. Be sure to include your website address and company name in the infographic and post it on your website, as well as sharing it on Facebook, Pinterest and other social networks.
- Network with influencers the old-fashioned way at trade shows, chamber of commerce meetings and conferences. Meet people in person, exchange business cards, then connect with them on social media in order to maintain the relationship until you see them again. The more influential people you link with on LinkedIn, friend on Facebook, or follow on Twitter, the better. They call this practice “pressing the flesh,” and it is, in my opinion, the best possible way to create meaningful and long-lasting relationships.
- Generate links back to your site from websites that have ‘authority,’ such as college and university sites, and governmental sites by figuring out ways to post content or get articles written with links to your site. Google and other search engines consider the ‘authority’ of websites when viewing the links to your site. If a site with a great deal of authority links to your site, that’s like an endorsement of your site, so it’s a good thing.
- Create an e-newsletter and constantly build your list. We publish “The NMC Report” once a month, no matter how busy we are with other commitments. We include tips and techniques that are easily implemented by our readers who are typically small business owners or marketing officers for companies and nonprofits. We make it easy to sign up for the e-newsletter on our website and we are constantly gathering names at trade shows and conferences. This list is valuable to our business because these are people who don’t mind having us market ourselves to them. Every single time we send out an e-newsletter, we see a spike in our Web traffic because we include links throughout the e-news back to our website. We use MailChimp but we also recommend Constant Contact.
- Share your PowerPoint presentations and other slide decks to sites like Slideshare and Scribd. This is a fantastic way to position yourself or someone from your organization as an expert and to generate a quality link back to your website.
- Build a rock-solid reputation to generate word of mouth. The #1 absolute best way to drive traffic to your website is to do great work so people will refer you to others. This is, by far, the most powerful form of marketing and public relations.
Let The Good Times Roll
Wrap N’ Roll Creator and Owner, Avery Richter
The best things happen when you least expect it—that’s the motto that best describes the success of this week’s Monday Maine Maven, Avery Richter. Little did she know that when she transformed a business idea into reality as a requirement for graduation, it would grow into what Wrap N’ Roll is now. Richter says, “I honestly didn’t think that far in advance; I thought of it as a way to be able to get a hands-on experience of owning and managing my own small business. I never expected it to grow this quickly!”
Across the country there is a growing trend in buying local, and Wrap n’ Roll fits the mold perfectly. Avery provides homemade sweets that are sold every Sunday throughout the summer at the Belgrade Lakes Market; not to mention the scrumptious menu of items available from her food truck Tuesday through Sunday in the summer featuring locally-grown products, and year-round catering services.
Richter takes pride in owning a local business and is always looking for ways to give back to her community. It’s no surprise that when she was asked to join the board for the Belgrade Community Center she immediately took on the role. Richter says, “The employees of the community center have always been very loyal and supportive of my food truck. I have donated food to their October Fest and Father, Daughter Dance. I also thought joining the board would be a great way to serve the community I grew up in.”
A program that means a lot to Avery is the teen cooking class she is teaching. The class takes place over the course of six weeks and is designed to teach the students how to create healthy recipes that are easy to make at home. The recipes range from cupcakes and smoothies to sushi and burritos. Wrap N’ Roll has truly become a fixture in the community.
A rockin’ day in the Wrap N’ Roll food truck!
All of the exposure of Richter’s business would not have been possible without the integration of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Avery says, “They are essential to a business like mine! You can’t beat free marketing! Everyone uses social media as a part of their daily routine, and it makes communicating with more people and businesses so much easier.” She loves that she can easily share what she is doing with her customers through a post, but more importantly, she loves the networking that occurs on social media between small businesses in the area. She adds, “I’ve found that social media is a great way to support each other by sharing what they’re doing, and what we’re doing together.”
Facebook has been a major push for Wrap n’ Roll. Richter receives messages from customers about their positive experiences with the business, and the photos she posts from catering events are frequently shared by hundreds of people. The posts featuring the “S.O.T.D” (special of the day) or new arrivals are popular and lunch is frequently requested as ‘that sandwich you posted on Facebook this morning’. Avery says that she enjoys using social media and knows that it will continue to help her business grow.
So what’s next for Wrap N’ Roll? This summer you can enjoy the food truck in Belgrade, Tuesday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. They will be featuring Boar’s Head meats, and eggs from Emery Farm in Wayne, Maine. Richter says, “I have such a passion for food and am glad that Wrap N’ Roll is allowing me to share that passion with others.”
The official Wrap N’ Roll food truck in Belgrade last fall.
To find out more about Avery and her team, or to request Wrap N’ Roll to cater your next event, check out their Facebook page HERE.
2010 Called – They Want Their Website Back
NMC Interactive Marketing Manager, Matt Rideout
Does it seem too soon to say something like that? It’s not. The truth is, mobile devices have completely changed the Web landscape over the last couple of years. Mobile searches have grown 4x since 2010. More people are ditching their laptops and are using smaller tablets or large smart phones for a lot of their Web browsing now.
Are you trying to drive traffic to your website using social media platforms like Facebook? Did you know that Facebook’s mobile users grew by 50% to over 500 million in 2012? It’s likely that any links you post to Facebook will be viewed on a mobile device.
So far in 2013, NMC’s clients have regularly received 25% – 30% of their traffic from mobile devices. In 2012 we were saying 15% – 20%. In 2011 it was less than 10%.
Full desktop for Summit Natural Gas of Maine.
The problem is, desktop websites just do not display properly on phones. People need to “pinch and zoom” just to read small areas of text. They have to pan when lines of text don’t break within the limits of the screen. Buttons are hard to click, drop down menus do not work, and visitors become frustrated.
If your website is not mobile friendly, your business is literally leaking money. Customers are hitting their phone’s back button and trying elsewhere because they can’t make it through your website without unnecessary effort (it’s like making the entrance to your store into an obstacle course).
This is why NMC is now making all new websites completely responsive. Responsive websites automatically resize and rearrange content and menus according to the size of the screen that the user is viewing the site on. This makes it so that on small touch screens, everything becomes navigable with just a thumb and content is organized much like a mobile app. On larger tablet screens, everything works perfectly through touch with more content filling the entire screen area, and on desktop screens, users get a view that is optimized for a keyboard, mouse, and large viewing area.
Tablet display for Summit Natural Gas of Maine.
To see a responsive website in action, head over to one of NMC’s latest creations at http://SummitNaturalGasMaine.com. Check it out on your smart phone, tablet, and desktop. All of the same information is accessible to everyone, but rearranged and presented differently depending on the screen size. Using Google Chrome, you can watch this transformation live by dragging your screen width from full screen to narrow to see how elements of the page reposition and resize themselves. Watch as it immediately responds to changes in screen size. This website was building using responsive (mobile friendly) technology on the Drupal platform. Our client can easily upload and add new content themselves once, and the system will automatically adapt it to any screen size without any extra work.
To learn more about what responsive Web technology can do for your business, feel free to come see NMC, the mobile marketing experts.
Article by NMC Interactive Marketing Manager, Matt Rideout
Eventbrite Changing the Way You Buy Tickets
NMC Account Assistant, Erika Bush
Hi, Erika here! It seems that every event I’ve been invited to in the past year has been linked to Eventbrite, and for good reason—it’s free! That’s right, completely free to create an online event.
Planning an event is stressful enough, without having to worry about ticketing, too. Another great feature of Eventbrite is that if your event is free than so is their service—they provide the perfect platform to promote it within your area without paying a thing.
The fees only begin when you start selling tickets, and what you pay for them to take all the stress out of online ticketing is minimal:
|
Eventbrite Fee 2.5% plus $0.99 per ticket *Cap fees at $9.95 per ticket for organizations |
Processing Options
Standard Credit Card Processing Fee: 3% of ticket value
Paypal: 2.9% of ticket value + $0.30 per transaction
Google Checkout: 2.9% of ticket value + $0.30 per transaction
Authorize.net: rates vary |
Kevin and Julia Hartz, husband and wife co-founders of Eventbrite
Since Eventbrite’s inception in 2006, the company has slowly been taking over the ticketing industry. They recently received a $50 million investment that makes some believe they could begin competing with larger sites such as TicketMaster and StubHub.
The first sign of them being ready to step it up comes from their recent partnership with Facebook’s “Buy Tickets” feature—a partnership that occurred within 48 hours of the new feature’s launch. This seamless connection comes from the relationship that was already in place between Eventbrite and Facebook from their work together on Open Graph, which helps people tell stories about their lives through the apps they use.
The way the new “Buy Tickets” feature works is that when someone creates an event using Eventbrite, they will be given the option to “Publish to Facebook.” After this is done, the event will be on Facebook and they simply invite people to their event, or make the event public for the “Buy Tickets” button to appear.
The new feature will allow Eventbrite users to seamlessly link their events to Facebook.
Sharing events on Facebook happens every day; it’s coordinating where to send the money for these events that gets messy. You have to either be directed to another site to pay or you show up to the event and hope there are tickets left. Taking out the middle man makes sense. Kevin Stone of the New York Times quotes Eventbrite CEO Kevin Hartz saying, “Events are naturally social. You are certainly likely to share with others what conference you are attending, what club event you are going out to or what class you are going to take.”
Eventbrite has been growing steadily since its founding in a small one-room office in San Francisco back in 2006. It took off in 2010 and by 2012 it had more than tripled in size. Much like Pinterest, Eventbrite doesn’t show any signs of slowing down anytime soon, and is the one to watch when it come to online ticket sales.
Bases Loaded and Going for the Grand Slam
Maine Maven, Jessica Chahanovich
The Love Gun is just one of the many aliases of this week’s Monday Maine Maven, Jessica Chahanovich. Categorizing just what she does is hard to do because…well, she does just about everything. Chahanovich is the social media guru behind the upcoming dating app, FriendFlirt; works for Fenway Park (possible new public address announcer); writes for the Yawkey Way Report; works as a nanny; co-hosts a radio show; and writes for multiple blogs on dating advice and baseball.
How does she juggle it all? Jessica credits her grandmother saying, “She has Alzheimer’s, and she told me to make sure that I do everything I want to do while I still have the ability to enjoy it all. I took her advice literally and it inspires me each day to keep trying as many fun and new things as possible.”
Chahanovich has many interests, but her major passion is the major leagues. Her love of the Red Sox is prominent on her Twitter page, where she often receives and shares exclusive news and sneak peeks with her followers. Jessica broke every teenage girl’s heart when Justin Bieber recently started following her posts. Her response, “I think it’s pretty hilarious—the kid must really like baseball. I have no idea how he would have stumbled upon me otherwise, unless he’s looking for a new online dating site!”
Jessica’s alter ego, The Love Gun.
One of Jessica’s latest venture has been working as The Love Gun for the upcoming online dating app, FriendFlirt. Chahanovich says, “It’s going to take the creepiness and anonymous feeling out of online dating. It makes it real by using your current social media accounts to find people you might know, or should know, to go on dates with—no outside sites and memberships.” She adds that the first 10,000 people that sign up will receive a free membership.
As the designated Love Gun, she is responsible for their social media posts and blog. Man Candy Monday, Foxy Lady Friday and a weekly post with relationship advice and dating tips are the weekly features. Jessica is also hosting a podcast show with the Big Sauce Radio Show team. The show will include online dating horror stories from fans and weekly competitions for Best 6 Pack, Best Pedicure and more.
Jessica at her home away from home, Fenway Park.
When she’s not blogging for FriendFlirt, Chahanovich is blogging about her love of baseball. Her latest topic has been about the audition process she is going through to become a public address announcer for Fenway Park, where she already works as a quality control team member. She is currently a finalist, and waiting to see if she makes it to the next round of auditions in Fort Meyers, Florida to announce a spring training game.
Chahanovich’s love for baseball has also landed her a gig writing for the Yawkey Way Report. On their blog, she contributes her thoughts on baseball news related to the Red Sox and their players. Her wit and sense of humor shine through and you almost feel like you’re sitting at a bar, discussing the latest over a burger and beer.
While Jessica isn’t quite sure what she loves the most, she hopes that her sentiment will inspire others to pursue their own happiness. She says, “I love to share my passion with people who don’t have it, or better yet, simply haven’t discovered it yet.”
To keep up with Jessica you may follow her on Twitter @RedSoxChach, like FriendFlirt’s Facebook page, read the FriendFlirt blog, read her Red Sox blog, or check her out on the Yawkey Way Report.
WinterKids: Inspiring Active and Healthy Lifestyles Through Outdoor Activities
WinterKids Executive Director, Julie Mulkern
I’ve seen these ads on Pinterest and Facebook that start something like, “when I was a kid…,” and lately I’ve started to relate with these posts, and it makes me think, “wait, when did I become a grown up?” While I accept the reality of my fate, this week’s Monday Maine Maven, Julie Mulkern of WinterKids, believes that all children should still enjoy these experiences—experiences that develop active and healthy lifestyles.
Mulkern says, “Our message is simple, but so important: get outside, get active, be healthy and have fun!” WinterKids is a nonprofit that offers programs to Maine families, schools and communities to encourage outdoor winter activity. Their programs include snowshoeing, dog sledding, downhill skiing, snowboarding and more.
WinterKids outreach efforts have been more than successful says Mulkern stating, “Our school programs are serving a record 4,300 children pre-K through seventh grade this year alone.” This growth is a result of a multi-faceted, ongoing media campaign. Combine that effort with 15,000 e-newsletter recipients, PSAs on major television networks, and a growing presence on Facebook, and you have an unstoppable force in WinterKids.
Seth Wescott (center) and WinterKids staff at their annual License to Chill fundraiser last year.
Don’t let the name fool you; while they focus on winter outdoor exercise, they are becoming increasingly active in the warmer months of the year. Mulkern declares, “Our staff works year-round to ensure that we are developing the very best programs for Maine. We are partnering with like-minded organizations in spring and summer to keep up the momentum.”
Their Facebook page has created a new way to connect WinterKids’ variety of programs to Maine families. They host contests, giveaways, and promotions to engage their fans. Another draw for their fans is their official spokesperson, Olympian and Maine native Seth Wescott.
Julie describes Seth as the ultimate winter kid saying, “Seth is from Maine and he really values what we do.” A part of Seth’s role is promoting the organization through PSAs and by representing them at school visits throughout the state. Last winter he met more than 2,000 kids. The lucky students had the honor of trying on his Olympic gold medals. Mulkern says it’s an unforgettable experience adding, “They get to hear firsthand just how important, fun and life changing outdoor winter activity can be, and we are incredibly lucky to have Seth on our team.”
To learn more about the WinterKids programs, please visit their website www.winterkids.org or like them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/winterkids. They will also be hosting a Downhill Derby this weekend and you are all encouraged to stop on by and be a WinterKid!
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