Promo Team Master Toolkit

Welcome Promo Team!

Anyone can be a Rising Sun Performance Company promo team member! You will find stuff on this site that needs to be done all the time. We are trying to create a database/site to have all the information we can put together on promoting our great company. Make sure and check back to this blog often to see new ways you can donate your time to RSP! There are lots of things to do - and it's great for people who can't get away from their computer easily, and who like to gossip online. WHO'S WITH ME? For ANYONE including these new team members and ANYONE with some extra time on their hands - you can help me out NOW. I will be inviting EVERYONE to be a member of this blog page where we can promote RSP all the time. If you are new to the page, I recommend starting from the bottom blog, and go to the top - and HAVE FUN WITH IT! BOOKMARK THIS SITE UNDER "BORED ONLINE!"

Tools/Links
Site Links
Twitter http://twitter.com/RisingSunNYC

Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rising-Sun-Performance-Company/72782700369

Myspace
www.myspace.com/risingsunperformanceco

Blog
http://risingsunnyc.blogspot.com

Café Press
http://shop.cafepress.com/rising-sun-performance-company

The Field
https://www.thefield.org/ContributionToSA.aspx?

Smarttix
www.smarttix.com

Horse TRADE
www.horsetrade.info

New York IT Awards
www.nyitawards.com

Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/rspnyc

Member Log in for Google Docs, Gmail & Blog
DO NOT CHANGE PASSWORD OR SHARE PASSWORD
Rising Sun Members
risingsunmember@gmail.com
rspmember2008


The 5 Basic elements of promoting your show!

1) IN PERSON/WORD OF MOUTH/POSTCARD TO HAND
ALWAYS have show postcards on your person. Talk about it, enthusiasm is contagious. Don’t “sell” talk about your rehearsals, what excites you about the show, and WHY YOU are doing it. Then whip out a postcard and ask them to check it out. Give them your discount code.

2) POSTCARDING & POSTERING
This is a big one and everyone needs to pitch in!
Team up with one to 3 people, have a bag of posters/flyers, rolls of packing tape, and postcards.
Be friendly, polite and smile, always ask a business where you can hang a flyer and drop off postcards. People are much more willing to help if you ask nicely. Team up and give yourself 2 to 4 hours to really sweep your selected neighborhood. I like to work in a grid pattern. For example: Select a 10 block radius based around two avenues, work your way across the “Cross streets” hitting each store front and surface that you think you wont get arrested for plastering with posters for the show. DO NOT Post on MTA or City Property!! Drop off small stacks of postcards. The point is if a person sees the show online, then a poster, and then gets handed a postcard, its name will stay with them. We want people to say “oh yeah” I’ve heard of that show. We want people talking about it! Word of mouth is key!

3) PERSONAL EMAIL
• An Email Template will be emailed to everyone along with a link to our Eblast HTML
• We encourage you to send a personal note to your friends, family, associates
• You should send a total of 4 emails out
• At Three Weeks to show- Send out first Email
• At One Week Send out a reminder “Our show opens this week”
• After the show opens: Share any reviews, let your friends know how opening week went, encourage them to get tickets in advance
• After a month of the show running, send a reminder! Its not too late you didn’t miss it!
Send a thank you email to anyone who attended the show. This includes friends and family. It makes them want to come out and support you again.

4) SOCIAL MEDIA- YUP YOU KNOW IT WELL- TWITTER, FACEBOOK, BLOGS
See the tasks below for the many tips and ways to utilize this
Read the online articles that we’ve posted on our promo blog

5) SNAIL MAIL- YEAH I SAID IT
Write a personal letter or note and include it with the postcard. In this day and age of email and texting, a handwritten note or letter or even typed letter goes a LONG way! Don’t overlook this.


LET’S HAVE A QUICKIE SHALL WE?

Step by Step Easy Mini tasks for Promotions
Try to accomplish one of these per week!
These tasks take anywhere from 15 minutes to 1 hour!
Just think if we are all doing these projects the buzz and word of mouth that we will generate!

1st Task - Find NYC Theater Blogs
This is going to be like a treasure hunt. I want you to find 5 NYC theater blogs - on each blog, find something to comment on, and comment away! As proof, you must copy the blog link and paste all of them as a comment on the Promo Blog!

2nd Task - Chat Rooms!
Find 5 chatrooms with New York theater people in them. No empty rooms and no making new rooms! Find a way to put our website link into the discussion, then copy and paste part of your discussion as a comment here. This is a lot of fun, and you never know who is there!
Try Chat Roulette!

3rd Task - How Many Times Can You Find RSP?
Do a search and see how many places RSP is talked about, reviewed, and listed.
Post a comment on the Promo Blog with links to 10 sites or more. Try not to repeat anyone else's links and see how well you do. Find articles, mentions, etc- post your own comments!
Copy and paste those links to your facebook profile!

4th Task - List The Show!
Find 10 places our shows haven't been listed in yet on the web and create the listings. Copy and paste the listing link to a comment here so we know how to do it for the next time. And make sure to tell us if it's just an email submission, or if we can submit our show listing manually online - it will help speed us up in the future!

Fifth Task- PROMO Ideas
Do you have any great *CHEAP* promotional/fund raising idea? Can you find sites online that can help out non-profit marketing? Do you know people who will give you a discount on printing because you wore a pink tank-top yesterday? Well then - POST IT on BLOG SPOT

6th Task - Do You & Yours Know How To SHOP?
You & everyone you know should be shopping thru our donation site. Have you emailed all of your friends about it? It's something they can do where we both win!
Find a funny way to send out the message to them - and share with us your secret!
Send it out now and don't forget to post some of the funny comments you get back.

7th Task- Promoting the Blogs- Part 1 a 3 step process
1) Subscribe to the blog (Go the the blog and hit subscribe on the left side bar)

2) Send out an email to your friends and associates asking them to check out the blog and subscribe if it interests them. (If you'd like sample text to send)

3) Post the Blog Links on your Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Website
http://risingsunnyc.blogspot.com --- Company Blog
http://thelastsupperliveonstage.blogspot.com --- Last Supper Show
http://lastsupperroommates.blogspot.com --- Last Supper Roommate Blog

4) Facebook Saavy? Link our RSS Feed to your Facebook account!
8TH TASK- TWEET TWEET
Rising Sun & Last Supper the Show both have Twitter Accounts
You can get account access info from Akia

1) Sign up for a twitter account
2) Follow RisingSunNYC & Last Supper
3) Tweet from RisingSun’s account (Get access from Akia)
4) Take the online Twitter how to tutorial
5) Follow theatre lists
6) Start creating topics

9TH TASK- CAN WE HAVE A PIECE OF YOUR JOHN HANCOCK?
All of us use email right? Include in your auto signature a blurb about the show, link to our ticketing page, blog or website or all 3!

10TH TASK- LEMME SEE YOUR FACE!
There a tons of simple easy things to do on Facebook to help promote

1) Make sure you are a FAN of Rising Sun & Last Supper Pages
2) Once you are a FAN can ask all of your FRIENDS to be fans
a. Go to the top Left of Fan Page, Under photo there is a link that says “Suggest page to friends”. Click on it. All of your friends, at bottom there is a section that says add a personal message. Do add one. Just keep it short “Hi, This is the Show/Theatre Company that I am involved with, I would love your support. Please fan us! Thanks NAME”
3) INVITE to the events
b. Invite ALL of your friends to the Events “ One Acts Reading Series” & “The Last Supper” they are listed in boxes on the left side of Fan Pages. When you go to the event page, on the middle right there is a link that says invite friends. It works the same way as suggesting a page to become a fan. Also include a personal note.
4) SHARE
c. “Share” the page- On the left page- same area of the suggest button. There is a button/link that says Share- this allows you to post it to your page AND direct message your facebook friends! Do it! 

11TH TASK- RECRUIT AN ARMY
Do you have really cool friends? Sure you do? Any that really love you?
Ask for help! Help us create a street team of people who are excited about the work you do and what rising sun does. Share these tasks with them. Ask them to help! Pay it forward!

Blogging & Twitter Topics to get you started
A few simple topics to get you started on your first blog & Twitter Post

Rising Sun Performance Company's Blog:
1. Introduce yourself to our followers, keep it honest & simple.
2. Why Are you excited to be a part of the company?
3. Your audition experience for the company
4. Call back Experience
5. The One Acts vetting process
6. The One Acts Readings (are you directing? Wanting to be cast?)
Roommates Blog:
1. What’s in the Garden? What seeds did you plant? Vegetables you're excited about?
2. Why did you become a vegan?
3. Are you cooking a group dinner this week? What’s the menu?
4. Did you discover a new website, show or blog you want to share?
Last Supper Live on Stage Blog/Twitter:
1. Introduce yourself to our followers, keep it honest & simple.
2. Why Are you excited to be a part of the show?
3. Your audition experience for the company?
4. Call back Experience?
5. Designers you can talk about inspiration or the creative process
6. Share a rehearsal story

DO YOU HAVE MORE TIME? WE HAVE 4 BIG PROJECTS
Contact Akia if you can take one of these on!

PRESS AND MEDIA
We need to update our NYC Press & Media database.
This will consist of gathering contact info, listing, address, website, etc and creating a database

Artistic Audits, Government, and Foundation contacts and info
We want to send invitations to our local and state government, as well as invite foundations and government agencies/funding to conduct artistic audits. We need to create a database for invitations

Membership Contacts
We want to gather a mailing list from every member and guest artist in the company
Complete name
Postal mailing address – be sure they include correct postal codes
Email lists
Everyone should try to contribute at least 15 names each.

FLYERING AND POSTERING Coordination

About three weeks before each show opens visit the cast and drop off flyers and postcards to the stage manager. Arrange a “postering/flyering” night once a week among the company for the next three weeks. Assign areas/neighborhoods to each person, and encourage everyone to carry postcards and flyers with them at all time. POST EVERYWHERE.

Postcard mailing:
• You will need to coordinate a location and time, and get the cast together to get this done
• You will need to print out labels. (If printing is a problem- get all of the labels prepared online/in word and email to Akia, she can get them printed up)
• You will need to purchase the stamps- Get $$ from staff.

Postcard/Poster Distribution:
• Postering/Postcard distro should start 2 weeks prior to the show, and continue every week during the run. Everyone in RSP should be involved. Get HELP!
• You will need to create routes to distribute postcards & posters and assign teams of 2-3 to do the routes. It is best to organize a couple of days where everyone can meet at a central location, get the cards and their routes/buddies and make an afternoon of it.
• It is best to do it by neighborhood/Street. (I.e Crystal & Julie has 1 & 2nd Avenue Houston to St Marks, Adam & Ollie has 9th Street to 14th Street, etc)
• You will need to prepare bags with postcards, Posters, Printed Route, and 2-4 Rolls of packing Tape for Each Team.
• Each Team should be able to get rid of 100 posters and 200-500 Postcards in about 2-4 Hours.
• You should also look into any gatherings or events that might draw a crowd interested in our show. Outdoor events in the park, parades, ,music events, etc. get a team together to hand out postcards.