Event Marketing Through Social Media

Sacramento Gold Rush Days

sacramentogoldrushdays.com

Situation

Gold Rush Days is an annual Labor Day weekend event in Old Sacramento that celebrates the nostalgic appeal of early American history. Hundreds of performers take on the role of townsfolk, bringing the 1850s to life. Visitors enjoy horse-drawn carriages, covered wagons, pony rides, candy shops, rallies, melodramas, musicians, train rides, crafts, tinsmiths, blacksmiths, lace makers, gold panning, and more.

Placemaking Group was hired to promote the event through social media.

Strategy: With a limited budget and only six weeks before the event, Placemaking Group set up Facebook and Twitter pages for Gold Rush Days using the same design as the event’s existing website. We re-created the ambience of the event as it was occurring in real time through the following social media strategies:

• Let Every Picture Tell the Story: Posting several times a day on Facebook and Twitter comical, melodramatic and rousing photography that captured the event’s street theater, dramas, gamblers, games, crafts, medicine men, suffragette rallies, Civil War marches and cannons firing.
• Videos Make Performances Come Alive: Short videos of 20 to 30-seconds that nabbed a glimpse of funny, intriguing or compelling activities resulted in a high number of likes and comments.
• Create an Event Not To Be Missed: By posting on an ongoing basis, the most enticing next day events … along with a photo that caught the feel of the event.
• Ask Visitors to Share: Asking visitors to the event to share their photos on Facebook or link to them from Twitter, and to tell us what they liked best about Gold Rush Days.
• Listen to Comments and Engage: Taking time to read, view and respond to comments quickly and frequently is polite in any relationship. It also makes visitors and followers feel heard, respected and, we found, causes them to respond. We think it makes them tell more friends about Gold Rush Days.

Results Tell the Story

In 6 weeks we had 24,595 views, 363 total likes. More than half of the views (12,700) and two thirds of the new Likes (217) happened during the last 5 days. In other words, there was a definite momentum.

The day after the event, the post, “We are so pleased to see everyone’s Gold Rush Days photos” had 981 impressions indicating that people still want to talk and share their experiences about stepping back in time to California’s Wild West in the 1850s.

Credit Where Credit is Due

Thanks to Howard Gold for volunteering his time and taking so many fabulous photos.

Read more about using social media >>