I don’t have to preach about how social media has changed the marketing mix.  Is your venue in the current social media cycle, or are you “casually” involved in it from the outside?

If you’re taking social media “casually”, then you seriously need to think about changing that.

Social Media is NOT a fad.  It’s not something only the kids are doing.  It’s not leaving us.  Instead of being afraid of it, embrace it and learn to mix it into your current marketing.

It’s more than blogging and beyond simply posting photos and videos.  People are embracing new devices and experiences in the social media world.

 Read the full post (527 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

At The Creative Complex, we’re always looking for ways to help our clients build their event brands.  That’s why we’re always thinking of ways that we can add value to the services we already offer.

One of the services we offer is helping our clients create API or RSS communication with Instagram to hold contests using Instagram.

If you’re a coding guru and know your stuff, you can do this on your own without employing a firm like ours.

Here are the steps on how to do that:

 Read the full post (301 words, estimated 1:12 mins reading time)

What’s the most important part of Facebook?  The pictures…DUH!  Why do you think they purchased Instagram for $1,000,000,000?  Of course Instagram was a threat.

People upload over 250,000 pictures a day to Facebook.  And almost 75% of all activity on facebook revolves around photos.  That’s the insight to Instagram’s success.

Instagram now has 27 million users and growing rapidly.

So what is your nightclub doing about this rapid growth?  Well, it’s time to meet with your staff about Instagram and how it can help your venue or promotions group.

 Read the full post (1210 words, 5 images, estimated 4:50 mins reading time)

We’ve all heard the famous quote:  “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

This is pretty much what Instagram is all about.  It’s pretty much a social media site based around visuals.  If you haven’t played with it yet, then ask someone who has and how addicting it is.

The app that allows you to take, edit and share photos with your friends.  Why is it so popular? Everyone wants to be an artist and looking at pretty pictures inspires people!

 Read the full post (738 words, 3 images, estimated 2:57 mins reading time)

Sometime we need some advice for the things we’re doing RIGHT NOW in our life.  We want a quick-fix that can make life easier or better.  So, here are some quick and dirty tips for nightclub marketers and promoters to keep in mind on Twitter.

 Read the full post (570 words, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)

You’ve probably already updated your Facebook by now and seen the new layout.  Cool huh?  Aside from the obvious change in the cover photo at the top, I’m still worried that all the nightlife professionals haven’t taken the time to fully understand ALL of the changes (yes, it’s more than just changing your cover photo).

And if you haven’t updated your Facebook at all, on March 30th, your venue’s Facebook page will look very different than it does right now and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. That means that after you read this article, you need to get to work. To help get you prepared, we’ve outlined some things you need to know specifically as nightlife marketers to get your Facebook game on track.

 Read the full post (783 words, estimated 3:08 mins reading time)

You’re not a social media moron.  You know that quality matters, not quantity.  So many nightclubs and promoters are out there trying to follow and friend a million people, and then you follow it up with un-interesting self-promotion.  How many followers you have isn’t the big question.  What’s more important is how many followers and friends you can KEEP.  After all, success in social media is rooted in your ability to develop a relationship with your customers and fans online and keeping them hungry for more.

If you’ve found it hard to attract and maintain a good social media fan base, maybe one of these reasons is why the numbers don’t match up.

 Read the full post (706 words, estimated 2:49 mins reading time)

You can buy Ads on Facebook, but what creates ENGAGEMENT?  That’s the key.  It’s not about promoting your events, it’s about engaging your audience.

What is true engagement on Facebook?  How can your venue do a better job than the guys next door?  How can I take my promoting business and make it an engaging business?

Most of us think we know the answer, but recent studies have come out evaluating tons of businesses across different industries and they shown a glimpse of what true engagement really is.

 Read the full post (285 words, estimated 1:08 mins reading time)

Event Branding is all the rage these days.  The Creative Complex, a nightlife graphic design shop out of Miami says that event branding is the ability to give “a sense of visual representation to the party experience and community buy-in and trust in the event.”

A great examples of event branding is the F*** Me I’m Famous Thursday Night at Pacha (Ibiza) and the traveling version WMC 2012 at LIV in Miami.  They have the market, message and media down pat and are able to produce a memorable event that people keep wanting to come back to.

 Read the full post (715 words, estimated 2:52 mins reading time)

Earlier this week I wrote an article called 10 Social Media To-Do’s for Nightclubs & Promoters in 2012.  But this is assuming you have all of your ducks in order before even beginning on social media.  Some small businesses should NOT engage in social media.  There’s no point.  But that’s NOT the case with nightclubs, promoters, bars and lounges.  You NEED to be on social media, you don’t have a choice.

Now that we’ve gotten that clear, let met present a short quick-and-dirty list of questions to determine weather your nightclub is ready to send out that first tweet.  Lets dive in.

 Read the full post (767 words, estimated 3:04 mins reading time)

2012 is officially on the way and you’ve probably already broken all of your business resolutions.  With all the events the beginning of the year brings, it’s easy to get off-track.  In this post I’m going to attempt to bring you BACK-TO-BASICS and help you get your social media game on track.

COLONIZE:  Stake Your Claim in Everything

Have you secured your Google+, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Foursquare page name?  Once another nightclub called “Bamboo Lounge” opens across the other side of the world, that name is gone and you’re going to have to get creative when coming up with a new one (BambooCityName will also work).  Even if you don’t use the social media, you’re just trying to get it before someone else hijacks your brand’s identity and begins speaking to your customers. This is step 1 to social media success.

 Read the full post (792 words, estimated 3:10 mins reading time)

Promoters and nightclub owners are always looking for way to engage their audience OUTSIDE of the brick-and-mortar structure of your venues and parties.  Integrating Facebook into your nightlife website is an easy and free way to include a social dimension with the rest of your website business activity.  Whether you’re a event marketing group like Empire Events or a nightclub like Pacha NYC, Facebook provides a selection of plugins….FOR FREE!

My goal is that by the time you’re finished reading this article, you’ll understand your options for turning your nightlife website into a social hub.

Let’s get started.

 Read the full post (953 words, 10 images, estimated 3:49 mins reading time)

Via: Mashable.com

The physical and virtual worlds collided in the Amazon jungle this week — where a nightclub opened sporting the Facebook name and logo.

“The Facebook concept is about sharing ideas, adventures, friendships, parties and photos with your friends,” the club’s 30-year-old founder Humbert Camacho told the UK Guardian. “So what we wanted to do was to build a nightclub with this concept, where people could come and share things with their friends, spend a cool night, sharing pictures, experiences and have fun.”

Facebook recently overtook Google‘s Orkut as the most popular social networking site in Brazil, so Camacho’s timing seems ripe.

 Read the full post (103 words, estimated 25 secs reading time)

When it comes to Twitter, I believe all personal accounts should be public accounts.  When it comes to brands, or specifically nightclubs, private accounts may be the way to go.  The openness of social media is almost completely opposite of how club doors are run. It’s time for club offline personalities to match their online personalities.  Here is how to do it.

DELETE ACCOUNT:  Unless a club’s Twitter is wildly successful (most aren’t), delete it, start a new one from scratch and tell all your followers they can potentially follow the new handle.

 Read the full post (359 words, 1 image, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

Promoters, we’re always looking for ways to increase our bottle sales and attendance to events.  The best way to do this is by relationship building.  Now that our entire lives are on social media, there are some rules that you need to follow to help you be persuasive about your events and promotions.

I share those tactics below and analyze how they can best be applied to a social media audience.

1. Reciprocation – You Give and You Get

It’s the oldest trick in the book.  Reciprocation is built upon the assumption that if you give something as a gift and then ask the recipient for a favor, they’ll respond with what you’re asking for.

 Read the full post (745 words, estimated 2:59 mins reading time)

Klout, the San Francisco based company, compares data with other social media sites to determine a user’s influence across their social network. Klout analyses data from various social media sites including Facebook, Twitter and most recently Youtube.

Klout users are given a score between 1 and 100. The higher the score the more influential the user is considered. A high ranking number means the user has a strong influence in their social media community and will likely have many comments, retweets and general participation towards their online activities. Below you can see my Klout score. I’m a feeder of over 3,000 people and am utilizing multiple platforms to their fullest extent, making me somewhat influential.

 Read the full post (547 words, 2 images, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)

Are you seeking a bigger Facebook presence, but have a small budget?

You may see your venue’s efforts on Facebook like David compared to the Goliath mega nightclub businesses enjoy.

There’s a lot that small venues can learn from the way big nightclub management groups approach Facebook, but the separation between your little company and multi-venue groups isn’t as vast as it may sometimes appear.

In this article, we’ll show you six ways you can model your efforts after the successful campaigns run by big nightclubs, and some ways you can even get a leg up on the big guys.

 Read the full post (908 words, 3 images, estimated 3:38 mins reading time)

Looking for fresh ideas to improve your nightlife Twitter marketing?

We scoured the internet and sought out cool and innovative twitter habits from nightclubs, bars, lounges and promoters.  Here is what we found.

Now’s not the time to let your Twitter marketing go stale.

Twitter has already grown more in the last 9 months than in the last 5 years and this trend is expected to continue.

How does Twitter fit into your social media marketing?’

 Read the full post (625 words, 1 image, estimated 2:30 mins reading time)

Is Flickr good for driving traffic? Can Tumblr help my SEO?  These are questions that some of my clients ask me all the time.  And for once I have finally found a graphic that lay’s it all out perfectly for you to understand.

If you’re doing any social media marketing, here’s something for your to print out and hang up near your desk as a handy point of reference. CMO.com, has created this amazing chart showcasing which social networks are best for various organizational, CRM and marketing goals.

 Read the full post (255 words, 2 images, estimated 1:01 mins reading time)