Power Up: HELP International

Fight Poverty, Empower People

Posted by Megan on Apr 24, 2012 in Featured, Power Ups, Uncategorized | 0 comments

If you’re looking for a great service and travel opportunity this summer, HELP International is still accepting applications for this year. Their goal is to “empower people to fight global poverty through sustainable, life-changing development programs,” and they focus on public health, education and business projects.  They’re currently focusing on Tanzania, Uganda, India, Thailand, Fiji, Peru, Belize and El Salvador. Not only is it an exciting opportunity to see far-off places and build your resume, it’s a great way to make a difference in your world.

We recently streamed and recorded HELP’s Volunteer Training session, which you can watch on YouTube if you’re interested in learning more about their program. To volunteer or get an internship, fill out an application on their website.

Venue Spotlight: Salt Lake City Public Library

Posted by Megan on Apr 24, 2012 in Featured, Venue Spotlight | 0 comments

Because some of you are out there planning events without the time to tour every venue that’s available to you, we thought it might be helpful if we occasionally highlighted venues that we thought were particularly fantastic. We are not paid for these spotlights, and the opinions in them are our own. We just feel like places that are wonderful deserve a shout out!

We recently streamed a conference from the Salt Lake City Public Library’s Auditorium. We were blown away. Here are a few of the reasons we thought it was an amazing venue.

• It’s beautiful. It looked great when the conference attendees came in, it had comfortable chairs, and it generally exuded class and professionalism.
• The equipment was excellent. We had access to fast internet for streaming, great sound feeds and a great sound system in the room, an excellent projector, and flexible, beautiful lighting.
• Their staff was knowledgeable, accommodating, incredibly nice, and there. One of the hardest things about the technical side of a conference is if something goes wrong on the venue side and their AV guys are nowhere to be found. We worked with Aleko Campos, and he was wonderful. He knew exactly what was going on, and he made sure the conference planners got everything they needed to make the room feel exactly the way they wanted it to feel, and he was just pleasant.
• It is ridiculously reasonable. (You can view the rental rates and fee schedule here.) If you’re a non-profit hosting an event that’s open to the public, you’ll probably get the room for free or under $100. However, even if you use the room for promotional or commercial events (the most expensive rental category), it’s still $500 or less (unless you want your event to happen after library hours, when they have to charge you more to pay the people who are working overtime for you).
• A pro/con: Parking. There is a very convenient parking lot directly under the library. However, it’s a little pricey, especially if your event is all day. You would probably want to tell your guests about it when you advertise your event.

We definitely think it’s a great venue to consider for your event or conference.

Caption Contest: Moostache

Posted by Megan on Apr 10, 2012 in Featured | 1 comment

My moostache brings all the cows to the yard.

We need help. We have this awesome picture, but we can’t think of a good caption for it. Our solution? Caption contest! Enter your caption in the comments section.  The winner will be entitled to one of our bouquets of chocolate mustaches or a mustache prize of equal proportions if we can’t send chocolate to you without it melting. We’ll post the winner here at the end of April.

I Mustache You a Question, OrangeSoda

How would you market a conference, Dan Garfield?

Posted by Megan on Apr 6, 2012 in Featured, I Mustache You a Question | 0 comments

OrangeSoda helps amp up the Mustache Power!

We recently sat down with Dan Garfield of the OrangeSoda to find out what advice these local marketing experts have about marketing a conference or event. The OrangeSoda offices have orange walls and bright green chairs, which are somehow still overshadowed by the numerous awards on display; they’ve been named entrepreneurial superstars and received awards from Google and Inc. Magazine, and with 1000% growth over the last three years, they certainly deserve them.

If you’ve spent much time looking into search marketing, you probably know that there are two kinds – paid and organic. Organic search marketing takes time and effort, and involves optimizing your website and building relevant links to your website with targeted keywords; paid search marketing is faster, but is of course more expensive. So how do you decide what’s right for your conference?

Well, the short answer is that you should be using both. However, the way you use them has a lot to do with the nature of your conference, and especially with the location. You’ll market your conference differently if you hold it in the same place every year than you will if you move around the country.  Dan explains, “If you’re a event that’s in the same area every year, for instance Ignite SLC, then doing organic work around the kind of event you’re throwing is a great idea, and you can even make it locally focused. As you approach the event and are trying to drum up some more guests paid search is a quick way to advertise.” Since it’s generally much easier to get to the top of the search engines organically in a specific area, local conferences can do a great deal with organic search marketing in just a few months, then continue to build on that work from year to year. Dan also pointed out that one of the great advantages to holding a conference in the same place each year is that you start to build a following. The local people you impress this year will want to come again next year – but they might not travel across the country for it. (However, they might watch a live stream of it, so consider that as you’re marketing as well!)

On the other hand, if you’re a more nationally-focused conference that moves each year, you have to rely on organic niche terms. “For instance,” Dan says, ” a Dentist education conference that moves every year will want to show up for something like ‘Dentist Education Conference’ and they’ll want to show up nationally, which is of course more expensive.” Your organic work will take more time, effort and money if you want national exposure in the search engines, and you’ll probably have to use more paid search marketing to get on the first page in the Google results. “They can also use paid search in the specific areas where the conference is located to drum up local support for the conference,” says Dan.

So as you prepare to host your conference, realize that you will have to think differently about how you market it depending on whether your focus is national or local, and prepare to spend some time and money on organic and paid marketing. And if you need help, check out our new friends at OrangeSoda!

New Series: I Mustache You a Question

Posted by Megan on Apr 5, 2012 in Featured, I Mustache You a Question | 0 comments

Hello, Mustachers and Mustachettes! We’re about to revitalize our blog, starting with a new series, I Mustache You a Question! We’ll be interviewing experts in all kinds of event planning- and video marketing-related fields and asking them burning questions about how YOU can tap into your most Mustache-Powerful self while you try to spread your ideas. Be sure to tune in, and Happy Easter Weekend!

original bunny image from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=2351, edited by us

Why you should be live streaming

(What the porn industry knows that you don't)

Posted by Clark on Jul 6, 2010 in Featured, Mustache Musings | 4 comments

Know what people search for online more than anything else? Well, if you’ve seen this infographic that’s been circulating the interwebs, you won’t be too surprised at the answer: porn. Yep, though some of the stats on the infographic are a little suspect and contradictory, there’s no denying that porn is still one of the top industries online (though, happily, it appears to be on the decline).

Perhaps just as tragic as the number of people looking for porn, is the number of smart people selling it. Believe it or not, the porn industry full of really intelligent marketers. Devious, sneaky and scummy marketers, yes, but still marketers you could probably learn something from–though I’m not recommending you go out and do a lot of “research.”

In fact, what few respectable online marketers realize is many of the tactics and best practices they employ everyday were pioneered or improved by marketers in the porn industry. Examples include:

• Affiliate programs
• The use of landing pages and landing page optimization
• Email marketing
• “Freemium” offers
• Auto-billing subscriptions
• And of course, online video

In fact, much of the streaming video technology being used today was pioneered by the porn industry long before YouTube was even around. While YouTube is now considered the leader in online video, porn companies were streaming their video filth years before the rest of us were laughing at the star wars kid and sneezing pandas.

Okay, so we’re using tactics pioneered by sleaze balls. What’s the point? Well, you can put some of that $4.9 billion spent on porn to good use. You can find out what’s working for them now, then turn their techniques into respectable methods to promote your great product or service. Only let me save you some time and tell you what’s currently working for the moral degenerates: live streaming videos.

Yep, live video is the fastest growing segment in the online porn industry. You probably already knew that–and not just because you’ve been waiting for me to get to it ever since you read the title of my post, but because if you’re online as much as I am, it’s obvious, though you may not have given it much thought. So think about it now. No, not that way, think about it like a marketer.

• How many Twitter spam follows have you gotten with an avatar of a scandalously clad female? She has one follower, is following 437 people and her single tweet says something like “check out my live cam show at www.somelinkyoushouldntfollow.com.”
• Or do you ever get any spam emails like that? Those are now more prevalent in my junk folder now than the ubiquitous “enlargement” emails I love to get.
• Ever gotten indecent “friend” requests on IM. For me, it got so bad that I’ve pretty much stopped using my hotmail and yahoo chat accounts as those seemed to be the most affected.

You get the point. It’s the hot new thing in the porn industry. But more important than knowing that is knowing why. Again, the answer is pretty obvious. Fundamentally, it’s the same reason Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and other social media platforms are so successful. It’s the reason companies hold live events.

People want to connect with other people.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

It’s one of Maslow’s needs and it comes right after our physical needs and the need for safety. We all want to connect in one way or another. We want love, friendship, and a sense of belonging. The porn industry delivers an artificial version of that with a host of exploited women broadcasting salacious streams from their bedrooms, but you can outdo them.

You can and should be delivering real, meaningful connections. And one of the best, cheapest, and most effective ways to do that is with live streaming video. Yes, you also need to be on Facebook and Twitter. You should probably have a blog, and you definitely need to join in the conversations happening about your company/product online. In fact, your should integrate those things into your live video and vice versa.

The tagline for Scott Stratten’s Unmarketing brand, get’s it right: Stop Marketing, Start Engaging. [Can't wait to read the whole book]

Engaging people connects you to them. And video (at least video done right) is one of the most engaging media there is. I’m guessing that’s why Scott has helped so many clients create viral videos and why his about us page features a video of him talking about UnMarketing.

Perhaps the most engaging of type of video is live video. Even when it’s not done well it can be draw people in. Remember the Stephon Marbury live streaming fiasco? Well, lots of people tuned in to see his meltdown. But now even bloggers who mocked him are looking to join him in the world of live streaming.  Why is live video so engaging? Because it’s real, and if it’s done right, it’s interactive. Because it helps people connect.

The difference between live video and recorded/edited video is like the difference between an magazine article and a blog post. Both serve a purpose and they both have a place, but a well written blog post is a lot more likely to engage the audience and elicit comments and interaction.

For example, last month at LaunchUp, Josh Coates gave an amazing presentation for the “amp session.” Before he started, he looked at the camera and said, “This is being recorded right? So you will get the censored version…because I don’t want to hurt people’s feelings forever…” But in the heat of his presentation, the filter came off and Josh made some comments about Guy Kawasaki that never would have made it through an officially released, recorded and edited video. The comments were in good fun and I doubt Guy ever heard them much less got offended by them, but everyone at the event, and those watching the live stream got to know Josh a little better when the filter came off. We felt more connected with him, and incidentally, it was one of the most tweeted subjects from that event.

Second to face-to-face conversation, personality comes through more via live video than through any other medium. Interaction happens via live video. People are engaged and feel connected watching live video. It’s no longer limited to dirty video chats and closed-door encounters. Already, many companies are catching on and streaming conference, workshops, seminars, and events. If you’re company isn’t taking advantage of live video, you’re not connecting and engaging as well as you could should be.