08/22/2026
Just some early morning thoughts. Technology has given us so many advantages, but it has also complicated so many more things. During the last couple years of my job and in many roles I have in quite a few organizations (at the local, state, and national levels), I have been noticing a huge shift in how we need to do marketing and promotion. Here are some thoughts - albeit long - and examples.
It has become increasingly challenging to promote and advertise events. I have always had a huge success rate with event planning and one reason is I understood and knew how to do effective marketing and promotion. I always used a three pronged approach. People receive their info in different ways.
So, I would do newspaper advertising, direct mail, and posters. We could even do local radio ads and get a mention on local news or talk shows. And go speak to key groups. Then, that changed to adding email. Then that changed to adding social media, and websites. Then, the Internet put many newspapers out of business and cable TV put many local television stations out of business or at least made it hard for them to survive, same with local radio stations.
Today, what we are really left with is social media, our websites, and email blasts. The problem with this is device consumers are psychologically shutting down from too much device overstimulation. The problem is complex - many issues.
EMAIL BLASTS: If you publicize too much and send too many, you are annoying. Even I feel this way about some folks who email followers numerous times a week. And, if you don’t publicize and email enough, too many people forget and then become frustrated and may feel like they did not get enough info. And, important emails can look like junk email and are never opened. Besides, you have to filter through all the spam email to even see the important ones. And, some are too short and don’t have all the important info and others are seen as too long.
WEBSITES: As long as you are able to have one and can either spend countless hours yourself updating it or paying someone to do so, they are a fantastic tool for the people with self-efficacy who WILL go look at it and spend time reading various pages.
SOCIAL MEDIA: As helpful as social media is, it is also so complex it is crazy and ridiculous. First of all, you are totally dependent on whatever the current algorithm settings of Meta, FB, IG, etc. are. Today. They will change tomorrow. Groups have so many rules that make it hard to use them effectively. Some of my own examples of struggles: I was kicked out of a couple of town FB groups permanently for posting about an event one month in advance so people could get it on their calendars (since most of us plan our weekends well in advance) and then not quite two weeks later I posted again as I was trying to build attendance. Some town groups have rules you cannot post about an event more than once, or more than once in two weeks. BUT, mind you, they let ridiculous people write all the venom they want. This is actually not ok to me. Social media and the Internet took most of our small town newspapers but don’t seem to fully get their role in replacing them. Another example, I posted a very heartfelt post in a floral painters FB group I am a member of about people participating in an upcoming event that is directly related to what the group is exactly about, but the post was removed for solicitation violation. Some social media town groups will not let you post anything in their group that is happening in another town. Really? Of course, we ALL know that no one EVER goes to an event in another town!!! AND, of course, you are totally dependent on the device consumer sitting down and scrolling for any social media advertising to even be seen. The list goes on and on and on. And on and on and on.
So, career-long event planners like me, all over the world these days, are all frustrated with advertising.
As a 30-year educator, I am fortunate to be highly tech savvy as I have had both uncountable hours of training in all spectrums and extensive use, but not everyone who does event planning has this in their tool belt.
Interestingly, yesterday I decided to tell ChatGPT about my frustrations and ask for ideas, and Chat told me that this is a huge problem the world is experiencing right now. No surprise there! Chat gave me some ideas, but they were things I was already trying to do. And Chat even stated these ideas were not full proof. Yes. I have learned that.
Here is the REAL problem. Chat did not tell me this. Life is telling me this. Some people are becoming mindless and time consuming scrollers, while some are refusing to become mindless scrollers and screen-zombies. Many of us are tired of staring at our devices. Some of us are good at hunting through thousands of miles of digital highway to find what we want to know or possibly do, but most get lost on the metaphorical journey and find ourselves reading about things we never intended to read about or there is no gas in their vehicle to even get started - maybe device accessibility is an issue, maybe money is tight and electricity is not available, maybe they lost their charger!!! Some folks have a metaphorical flat tire along the way and give up. The real problems are we are Internet-obsessed and Internet-hungry, but we also have Internet total and complete fatigue.
We used to live in a world where as we walked around town tending to our shopping and entertainment and saying hi to folks. We looked at interesting posters on bulletin boards or store windows, or elevator walls, for cool things to do. We used to live in a world where we could watch the local news on TV while we had family dinner and see a spot about an upcoming event. We used to live in a world where we only really could listen to local and regional radio stations in our cars and homes and we could hear spots about things to do. We used to treasure and look forward to getting the mail and reading attractive postcards or letters sent to us about something coming up. We used to hear weekly announcements read from the pulpit at church about everything going on. We used to have telephone calling trees where a real person and friend would tell a real person about something. The list goes on and on. We used to use more of our sense of sight and touch and hearing to absorb information in unique and different ways and it was also much more personal. It did not involve eye fatigue and light sensitivity.
Today, about the only way to know anything is to stare at your device - your cell phone, tablet, laptop, desktop, tiny Apple Watch, and maybe, if you are lucky some lingering local newspapers or TV stations but this is rare these days, all….day….long. And then you have to have enough time or organizational skills to save it to your digital calendar, or write it down for those who still use paper calendars. And read the right info and click on the right links to sign up or plan to go.
And let’s all remember there is a whole generation still living with us on this planet who did not even have a cell phone or device of any kind until they were 60 years old. And some of them need other kinds of help, some are very device savvy.
WHAT ARE SOME SOLUTIONS AND NEW APPROACHES? What are some ideas, some paradigm shifts in how we market, promote, advertise, and publicize? If anyone is inclined to join this conversation, please do. You can reach me at [email protected] or comment here.
One final thought, like so many other genres of industry these days, we are making it hard for the little guy to survive. IF you have thousands and thousands of budget dollars for advertising, you’ll be able to get the word out….but if you don’t, about the only way you have to experience success is to be annoying on free social media and email, which is surprisingly still free (and trying hard to out the trusty Post Office out of business).
I have had 100% success with major and minor event planning for 40+ years. I’m seeking new ways of doing this because failure is not an option. And, for the most part, social media is where the answer lies, but we have to find a way around tight group rules and platforms algorithms in order to do so. I really think it is time for true Facebook local and regional newspapers - and for them to be run like businesses, much like myself and 7 or so educators did from 2020-2022 as we tried to literally save our profession of K-12 art education across the United States during a very challenging time.
I’m going to keep thinking. If you have any ideas, I am all ears (er I mean all eyes). And, by the way, I wrote 100% of this. No ChatGPT.
(I may add to or edit this editorial, as the thoughts are complex. And I may send it to a large newspaper’s editorial dept, if they still exist.)
