Today, with all the avenues we have to communicate, I’ve been pondering how poorly we reach our audience.

This first full weekend in May is a big one in our city. Events from our Decoy Festival, War of 1812 Re-enactment, Concord Point Lighthouse and Maritime Museum visits, to First Fridays, shop and restaurant specials, art gallery receptions and so many more including community theater and a concert.

Next I look at how we communicate. Everyone posting and re-posting on social media sites but only a few are listed as actual events.Tourism handles some items, our Main Street organization a few others. Oh certainly they cross over. Any individual Facebook person connected to our downtown folks will see dozens of posts.

Plus posters everywhere.

So why do I fret?

• Websites that seem to make it difficult for a person to find the schedule. Oh, it’s usually easy to locate the date and the event. But all the details (for instance a schedule of the hourly activities) tend to be several clicks away.Now I don’t know about you, but many folks never notice your phone number at the bottom of an email. Or maybe you’ve had the joyful experience of trying to nail down a date and time for a meeting via email. How many emails did THAT take?! So are those same folks going to take the time to go several clicks to find their information. Some yes – many no. Many of the sites I’m thinking of have possibly a half dozen major events. All are important to their mission and their fundraising. Why aren’t the big events on the front page with photos and every detail? No extra clicks… right there.. easy peasy!
• Of course, even if you post those details, you have to be careful. If you post a particular ceremony/activity during the event that will only happen once, do NOT under any circumstances decide that the crowd is thinning so you’ll move it up. What about those folks who want to arrive exactly in time for the particular activity and it’s already finished?
• If you’re into the social media scene (and since I’m 67 and participate with caution, I presume lots of others do, too), how many posts do you want to see in a stream before you get blind to them just like you flip the channel on your tv?
• I know our Tourism tries to capture everything and it’s difficult because they don’t do it on the spur of the moment. So many things get left out of the ‘central’ location. Yes, they do send you to the local sites. Read above bullets.
• I also wonder why we don’t use great ‘action/experience’ headlines? People today need to know ‘how’ to enjoy an activity. Watch a movie trailer or the press release for a book. They don’t just say ‘Go see this movie or read this book.’ Where’s the creativity? How do you stand out from all the others? Why should they spend time at YOUR event?
• Right in line with the above bullet is the fact that we tend to be ‘too familiar’ with our own events. We often don’t remember to tell folks what to expect or how to enjoy the event. Remember, for everyone person who comes because they love the event, they generally bring one or more persons with them who obligingly tag along. If you figure out how to make it work for the that secondary audience, you’ll increase the value of your event as well.

Why is this so frustrating to me?

Because I know the time it takes to post all this info in one place and I feel no one considers that person valuable enough to pay. Instead it’s only one item in a long list for any organization.

Having published a tourism magazine for 10 years with a website for about 5 of those years (ending in 2008), without social media at that time, I had 100,000 unique visitors yearly to the website looking for details and info. I can only imagine what it might be today if I’d continued. It was a ‘freebie’ I did for the readers of the magazine and our residents/tourists searching the web for information.It took many hours thinking ‘like a tourist’ and trying to get the details from the various organizations. Doing that in a ‘timely fashion’ is fodder for another article.

Not just my city, but many small and large communities everywhere, struggle to get the information to their audience. With our audience in constant motion, how can we make it work? Sadly, we have a tendency to ‘do our own thing’ and lose the potential of really reaching out to residents and visitors alike trying to know ‘what we know’ about things to enjoy in our community.

I’d love to hear how other communities have figured it out. Or maybe no one really gets it all together.It’s a time consuming task. But I do believe the communities that ‘get it together’ will see return on their effort that will far exceed time and money to get it done.

My one caveat is that all entries to any central location would require links that either go directly to the page with the detailed information or to a home page that has all the details of the event on it.

One other thought. I do know there are sites where you can enter the data voluntarily. This works to a degree. But it is often not well done. Or the sites are difficult to browse. Anyway, just rambling. I had some other bullet points that have just slid off my gray hairs and I no longer remember them. But you get the idea. What do you think?