1. Buy domain names. You can do this cheaply through godaddy.com or Network Solutions. If you can, buy as many variations of the domain name as possible. Do this before the show is announced to avoid squatters. Remember to get the domain name of the show and also reserve ‘nameofshowTICKETS.com’ – Domize is a great site to help you get started.

2. Reserve your Twitter name. The popularity of the tweet has caused a lot of the Twitter user names to be taken. Read my earlier post about this.

3. Create a splash page and add some content, be sure to add the title of the show to this page for search engine optimization.

4. Add a mailing list. There are a lot of free services that allow you to host the collection of names and it’s easy to set up. Try Vertical Response, iContact, PatronMail, Campaign Monitor or even Feedburner.

5. Add Google Analytics to the site and track how many people have come to the site.

Who could blame them? The number is prominently displayed, it’s understandably a bit of an ego boost when a new person signs on to receive your updates (let’s call it the “You Like Me, You Really Like Me” syndrome) and bigger numbers just look cooler (case in point: infinity+1). But if you’ve got something to market, it’s a big mistake to focus on this.

It’s about goals, really

If your goal is to get a ton of followers, well, that’s easy. There are dozens of services that create fake Twitter accounts to follow yours, and you can reach 10,000 followers in a couple of days without breaking a sweat. They’re reprehensible, and not worth linking to, but you can find them if that is truly your goal (and if it is, you can stop reading here).

But why the heck would that be your goal? Don’t you, uh, have something you want people to buy? Isn’t that the point? If it is, and your follower list looks remotely like this, you’re doing it wrong:

If you’ve got a show to market, a product to sell or a site to promote, millions of fake followers will be just as effective as never joining Twitter in the first place, and every minute you spend getting fake followers is a minute lost from focusing on the bigger picture. In Machiavellian terms, Twitter is not the end, it is the means. What you want is to cultivate a highly-interested, dedicated and engaged group of followers—real people who will interact with your brand, spread positive word of mouth, participate in contests, respond to requests to rate your stuff and vote for you in polls, and, more than anything, actually buy whatever it is you’re selling.

Lead, Don’t Follow

Rock of Ages (a Broadway client of ours) has seen incredible success from the Twitter account we created for the show. When we pose a question to our followers, we get dozens of responses. When we post a discount, we sell dozens of tickets. When we hold a contest, we get hundreds of entries. And yesterday, when we expressed (faux) outrage over being tied with Shrek The Musical on this NYTimes poll of Tony Award Nominees, the vote total in all five categories shot up dramatically (and ROA now actually leads several of the categories!). No hacking involved, simply motivating the most dedicated fans to spread the love on behalf of the show.

It’s a lot harder to build a community like that, which is why so few are doing it—especially in the marketing world where it’s relatively easy to impress clients with big numbers that mean nothing. But the payoff is real. Focus on leading, sharing, communicating, teaching and learning, and actual live people will find you and start to make your job easy.

What makes this post relevant to Art Meets Commerce is that The Blair Witch Project was really the first movie to use full advantage of what the internet had to offer (and this was well before web 2.0!). I remember sitting at my computer (Windows ‘95! AOL 7.2!) and watching whatever new video would be posted on the website and follow the story of the three missing film students. Not only was the preview terrifying but people thought that it was in fact a real documentary and three students did actually go missing.

By creating a very comprehensive website with maps, footage, and stories about the witch that haunted the woods outside Burkittsville, Maryland,  The Blair Witch Project marketing team managed to capture the attention of an audience. They were able to keep them coming back for more and blur the lines between fiction and reality. Brilliant.

Barack Obama was lauded with having an amazingly seamless and beautiful website, far superior to any of his rivals. Obama is so web 2.0 that he instantly connected with the youth of our nation reaching out for support in very nontraditional ways. Obama has also started a new site, Change.gov allowing ordinary people to feel included into the happenings of the government.

This brings me to the new whitehouse.gov website. Obama and his team certainly understand the importance of branding because the new White House website matches the look and feel of change.gov, his youtube page, facebook page and campaign website. CNN.com posted an article about the website this morning. The website is very interactive including a blog and allowing people to contact the president via email (500 characters max. meaning you can only say “I love you” so many times). The website is so clean and sophisticated to puts past websites to shame. Here are a few screen shots from past Whitehouse.gov home pages.

December 1998 (Remember the internet was still new)

July 2002

June 2007

The New Website – January 2009

Mr. Obama has said he’d like to appoint a chief technology officer, perhaps at the cabinet level, and he’s made it clear he will embrace new technologies in office — technologies such as Skype, a video tool Sieberg used to get this quote from John Tedesco, a Virginia Tech political communications professor: “(Mr.) Obama recognized that young voters are using social networking sites and social networking software, and he brought his campaign to the young voters online.”

Ultimately, according to tech experts, the most important part of Mr. Obama’s future strategy is to ensure his digital followers continue to feel empowered.

Click here to read the full article.

1. He created all of his music/video free on One True Media, then, created a free website on wix.com.

2. He uploaded his videos to YouTube and added keywords like Broadway, Musicals, etc. This made it easy to find Brandon when people searched for those terms. They loved him, and subscribed, saw other videos and then commented and responded wiht their videos.

3. Brandon used his original style and sang show tunes to the pictures of the show he was singing to. The whole thing is bizarre and really…oh, what’s the word…REAL. Something Broadway could use more of.

It’s going to be interesting to see where the industry and Brandon go next. For Brandon, if it’s not a career on Broadway, it’s definitely a career in internet marketing.

I was compelled to open up the email, read it, forward it to several friends and invite them on the tour (given by the Museum at Eldridge Street).

The point?  Most people’s inboxes are full to the brim, and a subject heading is akin to standing in a crowded mob and jumping up with your arms waving: it helps to dress it up with something glittery.