A new face in advertising: Social sites like Facebook, MySpace give free ads to bars, performing arts centers

Oct 10, 2008 (The Paducah Sun - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- NWS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace should add one more bullet to their reasons to join.

Connect and share with the people in your life.

Network with professionals in your area.

Advertise the dickens out of your employer for free.

It's the latter that several area performing arts venues, from bars to multi-million dollar performing arts centers, are catching onto.

On Facebook users can create profiles displaying a person's picture and personal information. A user can also create an event, a page on its own that displays the event's basic details such as time, date and place. It also allows Facebook users to show they'll either attend or not and lets others post comments about the event.

Where in the past it has mostly been young people creating profiles of themselves, posting their own pictures and creating groups to let people know about the party they are throwing, organizations are now stepping in.

Such as the Luther F. Carson Four Rivers Center. The Carson Center has a profile where Facebook users can become a friend and read all about the facility by the Ohio River.

When a show comes to the center, such as "Stomp" this weekend, the Carson Center posts an event notifying Facebook friends of the show's details and how to buy tickets.

"It's free advertising," said Lisa Lauck, Carson Center marketing director.

"I would say the response is better than I thought it would be."

Lauck posted the profile last June and as of Wednesday had 98 friends. Lauck said that's 98 people in a certain demographic who get all the information a print, radio or television advertisement would give, possibly more since it's interactive.

"People respond to events and type things like, 'Oh, sorry I can't make it this weekend, looks like a great show,'" Lauck said.

"I didn't expect that at all."

Lauck said she also sends bulletins to Myspace friends (150 members as of Wednesday) that are strictly one-way text notices.

Bars featuring local music every weekend are in on the act, too. Grace Clemency, former owner of The Stranded Cow Cafe in Lower Town, runs Jeremiah's Restaurant & Pub's pages. Within the past week over 100 Facebook users became friends with the Broadway bar's profile.

"It's a great wide open space where you can get creative and do all kinds of marketing right there online," Clemency said.

Videos of bands playing soon, notices of drink specials are all at users' fingertips, 24/7, she said.

The local list of organizations using networking sites is getting long and tends to include places with performing arts and music.

The Paducah Symphony Orchestra is on Facebook. Fat Moe's Bar & Grill on Broadway updates its weekend music on Myspace.

The National Quilt Museum has a Facebook profile.

Wagner's Wine and Spirits in Paducah is one of the few, but growing, number of businesses advertising wine tastings and weekly specials on Facebook.

For users it's convenient and fun.

Jessica Byassee of Paducah said she enjoys getting updates about concerts and shows at the same time she sends messages to friends. As she checks her Facebook throughout the day it becomes her news source, she said.

"I think it's great because you try to read the paper and watch the news everyday but it never fails that you miss something," Byassee said.

Byassee, director of public affairs for the National Quilt Museum, liked the idea so much she created a page for the museum.

Like with every new development, new problems arise.

"It's free but it's labor," Clemency said about Jeremiah's page.

"It takes a lot of time to manage and update. I probably put 2-3 hours a day just responding to friend posts and requests," she said.

There is also the issue of who you let be your friend.

Since any user can see profiles of friends of Jeremiah's, Clemency has to protect the restaurant's image and not let people with inappropriate content or remarks on their profile somehow reflect on Jeremiah's.

Lauck said she once had a Myspace user befriend the Carson Center's site and then post inappropriate comments on the page. She had to de-friend the user, thus cutting off the person's ability to post comments.

"People can write whatever they want on their own pages," Lauck said. "But they don't have to write it on the Carson Center's page. There has to be some couth you know?"

Lauck said it's also obvious that this new online form of free advertising only reaches a specific demographic.

"I think there's still a generation of people who are not very Internet savvy," she said.

Clemency agreed. "Some people still don't have a computer," she said. "And Jeremiah's is doing other advertising, it won't replace that."

"But (the Facebook page) is creating quite a buzz. I think that other places are foolish not to take advantage of this opportunity."

Adam Shull can be contacted at 575-8653.

Go online

www.myspace.com/carsoncenter

www.myspace.com/fatmoes

www.facebook.com

To see more of The Paducah Sun, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.paducahsun.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Paducah Sun, Ky. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

More News:   Market Updates | Stock Alerts | All Trading News | Stock Index