How to Launching a Nightclub On Facebook (alone) http://hellotxt.com/l/oKI5 to you by SimonUFord via Google Reader: Launching a Nightclub OnFacebook via Event Launch Strategies by admin on 11/10/08This post is an event launch marketing campaign published in my newbook as one case study. My book is called “Social Traffic” - EventMarketing In a New Media Scape and launches on October 21st. Enjoy!This case study is based around the execution of a successful nightclub launch for a client. We used nothing but social media.Step 1:So, the first step is to create a virtual group on Facebook of a cooluser group who has great parties every now and then. You don’t have tomention the venues or details of the parties these people attend; infact you can build a culture within the group where doing so isconsidered a taboo. Focus on group member’s party experiences & storiesafter a weekend, build excitement, promote their pictures — and the funthey all have each weekend! You want new viewers of the group to thinktwo things:1- these people are cool.2- The parties they go to rock.Step 2:You want to keep updating this group page with new activities, partyideas, themes,photos and all of the things that would attract your targeted audienceas much as possible.Remember its taboo to mention a party venue, date or time. Promote thestory pertaining to the event:1- Get people to start following the group in anticipation.2- Get them to share it with their friends.3- Get them to add stories and photos of their own nights out, in thelead up to yourevent.Remember the emphasis is always on non-disclosure of your venue or thedate of yourlaunch, though you would want to indicate a month. You may also want topromote personalities within the group as being the kind of people youwant at your event. (Always create that feeling of scarcity whereverpossible).Step 3:Suggest an “anything goes” policy (within the law), release parcels ofinformation overweeks not days. Remember you are getting the crowd excited, by tellingthem the story where they can become the stars (if lucky). The storymust reflect the perfect night out for these people.The key is to engage them into a conversation by having themparticipate in it. Get them toanswer survey questions online (use http://hellotxt.com/l/6Nk5 aboutthe entertainment or dress regulations, even crowd selection, make thegroups feel like they are organizing the biggest night out since theBeatles. The thought leaders, people who can move other people willrise to the top of this group through natural selection.Step 4:You can set up Flickr, Youtube, Friendfeed accounts on the side. Youcan then feed thephoto gallery, the Youtube channel and your Twitter account into theFriendfeed room andFacebook profile. Each day, you can favorite fantastic photos andvideos of amazing club nights so that people in the group can see them.You can also bring in content from blogs in the form of ‘notes’ and tagpeople to the notes. If you don’t have a blog, you can setup GoogleReader to pull in great articles and stories from all over the web ofgood club promotions and launches and bring them in as ‘notes’. Taggingpeople to notes entices them to read the note and add comments. You canalso associate yourself and your campaign to the best club launches onthe internet by twittering about it a few times a day. You can contactand interview some of the promoters of the events and record thepodcasts of these interviews to share with the group.Without having to create any content on your own, you can use the abovemethods to buildtraction and buzz on your group.Step 5:As each thought leader puts their hand up you can leak a little moreinformation to thesepeople only, give them more detail regarding plans than you do for therest of the group.Remember don’t let them or the group know when the event will be heldor where it will be, but you can leak details like the capacity,ticketing & how the selection process will play out. Give these peoplesome ownership, give them something that sets them apart from the pack,it’s what they live for and you are going to need their support. Getyour target audience excited about the concept of your launch party andbegin syndicating this story through micro blogging, use link baiting,photo tagging and other strategies to drive traffic to the group whilethe buzz builds momentum. Keep building the suspense until you have thegroup publicly asking how they can get tickets.Step 6:When you have the numbers you want buzzing around the launch, outlineyour plans.Give the group a location but not the venue (address) and give them thedate. Send out electronic invitations along with the party ticketcapacity ensuring the number is well below the number of active membersyou have attracted to your Face book group (say 600 people). Beprepared to partition walls if you have to, ensure the venue sizematches whatever crowd capacity you end up with. You are telling thestory that everyone has bought into for this big night out, at the endof the night what you said will and must go down at all costs. You needto put your reputation on it and come out the other side.Inform the hungry crowd that only people who RSVP as interested areeligible to attend. Make it clear that people are not to RSVP asconfirmed, you don’t want to build walls around your story that youcan’t tear down if you need to. You want the group knowing thateveryone wants to come without them knowing who will be there. Anyonewho RSVP’s as confirmed is instantly deemed not-eligible for entry.Step 7:If you have done everything well to this point you will have at leasttwice as many peoplethat have indicated an interest in attending the launch than the numberof people you havedeclared to be your capacity. Communicate the situation of scarcity tothe group with concern for those who look like missing out. Do notallow yourself to become the door bitch whatever happens. Ask the groupto decide on a door policy, have them fill out a quick survey about howto deal with the problem.Now this is a multiple choice survey, so whoever writes it will want tomake sure the group gets an option to vote for the lead personalitiesin the group to hand-pick a certain number of guests each from the listof people marked as interested. Most people in the group will know oneof these leaders directly or indirectly which gives everyone a betterchance of getting a ticket than your promotions team implementing adoor-policy, it’s the choice I would pick.Let everyone know that the leadership group will decide who receivestickets and these lucky people will receive text messages on the nightof the launch event. Messages will go out between 9.00pm and 10.00pmand it will include the venue, directions & instructions for themidnight launch. Included within the text message will be a pin numberthat can be used to open a locked doorway.For the best effect the venue could have a back alley (preferably)entrance that leads them into a chamber where security will greet them.Timing is everything in this game. Pick your launch night when thegroups interest peaks - if you delay the hype may begin to wane and theresult may even be a flop. It’s a fine line between getting this rightand getting it wrong. Time your launch well, hit the right emotionaltriggers at the right time and you will see the results.Your event launch will not only be full, patrons will have paid topdollar to get in. The marketing will have cost less than the securitypin pad at the front door and all the people who couldn’t get in willspend the following week telling everyone about your club. Moreimportantly you have already established a second tier of earlyadopters who all feel like they own the club, ensuring long termsuccess. You can do it without cost and you don’t even need to visitthe club. You can use this technique and drive the final surge to buytickets on your http://hellotxt.com/l/I6S8 page on behalf of a clubowner and take your cut of the door.Of course all of this is virtual instigated hype - some may consider itmanipulative even. Butagain, nobody is forcing anyone to do anything against their will. Ifyou want high impactlaunches without investing in promotions or losing out on ticket valuesor sales revenue because of freebies or discounts - this is the way togo. I’ve been involved in massively huge club launches based on thistactic alone.If you already have a market presence, creating online traction won’trequire any virtual or artificial hype. A good example of that is howTechcrunch.com markets its conferences.Tags: nightclub promotion, facebook, social networking, eventmarketing, launching a nightclubThings you can do from here:- Subscribe to Event Launch Strategies using Google Reader- Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all yourfavorite sites