After I spoke at the TFEA (Texas Festivals and Events Association) annual conference this summer about using social media for special events, I wandered through their marketing award competition display area to get a sense of how members publicize their events.
I paid particular note of the category for using social media to promote a festival or special event with a budget of $75,000 or less.
Since tools and services like Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, etc. are free, they are often used quite imaginatively by those on a small, strict budget.
Here’s a shout-out to the submissions in this category at the 2010 TFEA conference:
*** Pearland Parks and Recreation Facebook Page – lots of events info.
*** TPWD (Texas Parks and Wildlife Department) “Life’s Better Outside” Experience video on YouTube – Really nice one-minute video evoking the outdoors in Texas and the fun you can have experiencing it.
*** Nacogdoches Facebook Page – (I think I got the right Page; my notes are goofy on this one.)
*** Buzzard Bar Cooking Team Facebook Page – This is a fun gang of enthusiastic cooks who participate in chili and gumbo cookoffs and other culinary events all over the state. Nice use of photos on their Page.
Congratulations to the winner in the under $75,000 budget category: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department “Life’s Better Outside.”
The winners for social media marketing by events with mid-sized and large budgets?
Mid-sized event/festival ($75,000 – $250,000) social media winner was the Texas Arts and Crafts Fair, and the large-sized event/festival social media winner (over $750,000) was the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
If you’d like to see some of the things I covered in my all-day technology session at TFEA, we have them at Tourism Currents….Social Media for Festivals and Special Events: A Resource List.
In addition, Lesson Five from our Tourism Currents online course is all about special events promotion.
In another 2010 TFEA workshop session, I profiled three events that I think really nail social media, and here they are….
- the Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion every Labor Day weekend in Rollag, Minnesota,
- the Kansas State Fair and
- the Brady, Texas Goat BBQ Cook-Off.
Finally, here’s the TPWD video mentioned above that won in its category – I really liked it.