I had the fun of being at the California Downtown Association conference in Ventura this last week. Naturally, the part I got to talk about was marketing. I did a “Make your Downtown Famous” talk; and with Laura Cole-Rowe and Larry Cope I got to do a seminar in using Social Media for Downtowns.
Laura talked about Twitter, and Larry, who is a very talented techno-geek (and also the Director Of Economic Development for Tuolumne County), discussed many ways of very inexpensively setting up your Downtown’s website and Social Media offerings.
I got to talk about Downtown Facebook sites. Really, Downtowns have the best assets going for them with a Facebook fan page. The asset is hundreds or even thousands of people who are very interested in the subject. Marketing companies wish they had the kind of fans that a Downtown has. So the question is how to pick up the fans.
Scott Corey of Suisun City has been really successful at this, while having almost no budget at all. He started out by contacting his own Facebook friends. Then he sent out an email to people in town. This worked for a number of months. Then, as all marketing arcs go, his new member acquisition slowed down to a crawl. He has a minuscule budget. So he took a plunge and spent a total of $70 on advertising on Facebook. He targeted women who live in Suisun City. He reasoned, correctly, that women tend to make the decision about visiting a Downtown for recreation. A marvelous thing started to happen–his new fan sign-ups took off again. He added 150 new fans in three weeks.
Here are some Cities and Downtowns with Facebook pages. Tell me what you think of them! Suisun City, Oakland, San Francisco, Castro Valley, Seattle, Kansas City, DownTown Pleasanton, Denver, Modesto.
