Wrestling.net.au

20 Ways Local Promotions Can Use Social Media
By Rohan Herbstreit

When promoting your wrestling event on a budget, every piece of marketing needs to be costed and justified. Yet there are many effective methods of using social media applications that are virtually free.

For many companies, the last thing that is thought about whilst trying to run a successful wrestling promotion is a social media strategy, but having a website and nothing else simply doesn’t cut it anymore.

Whilst some promotional methods from 10-20 years ago might still be effective today, the days of walking the streets with flyers and putting posters on poles might become obsolete sooner than you think.

By having a social media strategy that actually works, the future won’t be battled out by how many bums a company can put on seats, it will be how many people are willing to download your show or application.

Here are 20 ways you can use some of the social networking tools currently available to enhance and promote your show.

#20 Twitter Hashtag
Setup a HashTag for your event, either with the event name or name of the promotion. Leading up to the event always use your HashTag when posting Twitter updates and encourage your followers and fans to do the same.

#19 QR Code
On your event poster include a QR code that links to a special members website or 'virtual' offer such as ticket offer, merchandise or give away. QR codes can be read by iPhone and smart phones that use a camera with a small free app.

#18 MySpace
MySpace still exists, and is still free. It’s the perfect way to connect with bands and source music for your show. By networking with a band you can also promote your show via fans of the band and reach out to a new audience with video clips and highlights featuring the bands own music.

#17 YouTube
YouTube is already very popular within the wrestling industry for virtually every piece of video footage you can think of. Promos, Matches, Highlights it is the perfect tool for any wrestling company. Use keywords in every clip to make sure your clip can be easily searched and encourage people to subscribe to your channel otherwise you will be preaching to the converted. YouTube becomes another revenue source when you run ads over your clips. Viral campaigns are fun and work when done right.

#16 Flickr
The photo sharing site is perfect for event photos and promotional photos. All photos can be shared throughout your social media network, and you can encourage fans to post their own photos from the event. The event poster can be shared with a single link.

#15 Facebook Events
Already extremely popular to create and invite people to shows, encourage everyone involved in the show to also invite their friends and join the main Facebook page of the promotion. The key is to have regular updates featured and share information that makes the person not only click the “attending” button but also get off their seat and physically attend when the show comes around.  If you have 1,000 people saying they are attending and 100 people show up then you are not using it correctly.

#14 Paypal
This should be a promoters dream yet so many people are not using it. Paypal can accept payment for merchandise, tickets, and memberships, anything you can think of. Mobile Paypal is not far away and it can also be integrated throughout your network and websites as a payment method. Easy to setup, easy to use. Everyone should be using it.

#13 Google Adwords
Whilst not free you can offset the cost of an Adwords account with an Adsense account. Not making sense? Adwords are those ads that appear at the top of search results after you do a Google Search. Adsense are ads that appear within a website in a banner or text ad. Use both and you will be ahead of the pack.

#12 Foursquare
Foursquare is a perfect tool for events as it uses your location to run ads and features, meaning you can promote directly to those who are physically at the event or near the area. Nobody has quite worked out how powerful this tool is yet, but location based applications are going to be the next big thing. Setup a Foursquare location for your event to offer anyone within 1km of the area a special discount on tickets and promote your show to them. Encourage everyone to “Check In” to your show as soon as they arrive to the venue.

#11 Facebook Places
Like Foursquare but you can tag other friends when checking in. This means you can provide a special group discount for those who tag friends, or a special ticket offer for the fan that brings the most friends to the show. Eg. “Tag 5 friends with you to receive a free drink” - "Tag 10 friends for free entry on the next show".

#10 Facebook Groups
A brand new feature of Facebook is the groups section which is a perfect way of communicating with a select group of fans, members, or even your own promotional team to keep them up to date on activities. By linking to Foursquare you have both a virtual place and physical place to meet and communicate. Perfect for street teams!

#9 Blogs
By having talent post regular blogs leading up to a match or by having a storyline that is played out both online and offline is a powerful tool which people can subscribe to and can also be shared via your website. Popular blogs can feature advertising which then becomes another revenue source.

#8 Giga Alerts
Want to know when your event is mentioned by someone else in a website or article? Setup a Giga alert via Google that emails you as soon as your name is mentioned.

#7 Google Maps
How many times have you tried to explain to someone where your event actually is taking place or where your wrestling school is located. Get yourself onto Google maps to share the link and send directions out via mobile or email. Google Places is your friend.

#6 Email
It may not be a social tool but if you haven’t got a database together by now then you’re living in the past. Use an EDM platform that connects to your website so fans can subscribe to your monthly e-Newsletter or send out special email alerts about your show. There are plenty of free email platforms available. No longer do you need to BCC your entire database!

#5 Google Apps
Another dream for promoters, a free integrated “in the cloud” solution that can run your company, and with no cost! You can virtually run your entire event with Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and Google Sites - just get it!

#4 AddThis
When you start to build up your network you really need to link everything together, at the same time you want your fans to talk about you and spread the word. The best way is using a sharing widget, so fans can post your news and event information to their own blogs and Facebook. Check out AddThis - addthis.com

#3 Hoot Suite
The easiest way to integrate your social networking is by running it all from the one application, saving valuable time in the process. A great piece of software is Hoot Suite (hootsuite.com) a dashboard for all of your new social networking tools. Download now!

#2 Twitter
Twitter can be a promoters dream yet a nightmare to monitor at the same time with both talent posting updates alongside fans. Using a hash tag, post live updates during your event with results, and photos or small video clips. Encourage fans in attendance to tweet live opinions and thoughts, plug your twitter page via the ring announcer and in printed material including posters and programs.

#1 Facebook
25% of all US Internet Traffic goes to Facebook. With more than 500 million active users it’s the place to be. Facebook Ad’s anyone?


Every company should be thinking of using social media to accompany their current promotional strategy using some, or all of the above tools.

How you use some of the social tools available is up to you, but it easily becomes an additional revenue source if it is done properly.

Having a special offer using Foursquare or Twitter at your merchandise stand for example is a great way of driving merchandise sales. Running your street team or crew via Facebook groups and Google Applications saves time and is much more effective.

Nothing replaces a good “old school” printed campaign with flyers, but the battle of promoters is soon going to be virtual so jump on board now before your company is left behind.

Did I mention 98% of the above tools are completely free ?

http://www.google.com/apps

http://www.foursquare.com

http://www.phplist.com

http://www.google.com/ads

http://www.facebook.com/advertising

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code

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