What advice would you have for someone who was going to an industry conference to promote their new magazine (that is, a music magazine at a music festival). Let’s assume that this person is shy and therefore not used to dealing with people.
Let’s further assume that 99% of the people they’ll be talking to are going to be drunk and, as the conference continues, tired and probably sick.
Any tips aside from leaving hundreds of thousands of business cards around where they’ll probably be ignored with the millions of others being handed out?
Unfortunately, there’s not going to be the opportunity to put a booth together or anything, so that’s out.
Definitely don’t leave business cards laying around on tables hoping someone will pick one up or something. Might as well dump them in the trashcan.
Force yourself to be friendly, and shake every hand you can get in your hand. Even if it’s painful. It’s what you’re there for; if you don’t do that, it’s like going to work and not working. Smile a lot.
What are you there for? To get potential contacts for interviews? To get potential advertisers? To get potential sales? Figure out exactly what you want. For each goal, have an elevator pitch lined up. I.e. a pitch that you could give to someone you meet in an elevator, a pitch that’s boiled down to the important points you want to get across. Customize each pitch to your goal. I.e. if you’re talking to a potential advertiser, talk about what type of people will see their ads and how many there will be.
You don’t say how big your magazine is, but if it’s small (like you and your computer), talk like you’re big.
Hand out lots of cards.
Collect lots of cards. Write on the back what was relevant.
I don’t know exactly what kind of atmosphere this will be…but if it is a music festival and outdoors might I suggest finding a really good musician local to you and bringing him along. Somebody who sings and plays a guitar really, really well would be ideal (especially if he represents the type of music your mag. focuses on.). Hire him or encourage him to go for the exposure and chance at meeting some record company types, he might even go for fun if you pick up the tab. Then do a reverse busking kind of thing, have him stand out and perform and hand out the promotionals for your magazine or copies of your magazine. As the crowds form, mill about and try to network.
I don’t know if this is practical for your situation or even feasible, but it’s an idea.
I have a music related website, and I am a geek by nature (read as introverted & socially awkward).
When myself, and my partners need to go to a gig to “network” - and you know everyone will be drinking it is okay to have a couple just to loosen up.
My rule is to have only one beer & then drink water until one hour before the end of the show then have another beer to relax.
It really depends on the type of contacts & what type of people you are wishing to meet, but people who man other boothes at events usually have lots of contacts, and in the music industry there is more of a sense of community than competitiveness at such events.
Either bring a friend to keep an eye on your booth and talk to people there, or bring a friend to network and you man the booth & talk to people who come up to the booth, and start out talking to the other people who are “huckstering” - and both talk & listen to them. There are many opportunities for cross promotion, and working together to help each other. Most of the other booths will be doing the same thing and meandering to see what is at the other booths, and what type of industry contacts they can make through those booths. Usually by the end of the night you will get more contacts (and more worthwhile contacts such as industry contacts) through the other people doing the same thing as you, than you will by meandering through the crowds.
And have fun! Listen to the music, and act like you normally would at such an event, except you need to talk to more people.
As for just promoting the magazine to the regular joes out there, the busker idea sounds great.
Chairman Pow - I missed the point that you wouldn’t have a booth - but you can always cruise the other booths - infact that is where most of the industry people will be in between sets/bands.
I also sent you an email with some of the information of what I’ve learned in the past 3 years regarding promotion.
Feel free to ask me some more questions via email.
Find something fun that you wouldn’t mind handing out to everybody. Get a bunch of them printed up with your magazine’s name (or the name of whatever you’re promoting). Walk around the conference and give one to everybody you see.
There is a place called 4imprint that has an online catalog of just this kind of thing. Many, many things. Frisbees. Syringe pens. Pencils shaped like pink flamingos or cactus. Letter openers shaped like boomerangs. Little yo-yos.
Seriously, having something cooler to hand out than a business card will make it easier for you to hand it out, since it actually has some kind of value. Actually, printing many copies of the magazine might be a good idea–hand out the most recent issue of the product itself.
(One of the neatest hand-out things I ever saw was a clear plastic ball with lights that flashed when you bounced it. Unfortunately the name printed on it didn’t really show up. So keep that in mind–you want the name to show up.)
Know what you’re going to say and make it concise. People stop paying attention to you if it takes ten minutes to explain what your magazine is. Make it snappy, make it informative, make it memorable. You can expand from there if questions seem to lead you one way or another, but the main thing is to make sure they have a firm idea of your magazine and you in their memory (rather than “that obnoxious twit who was going on about something or other”).
And speaking as one introvert to another: do it anyway. Scared of talking to someone? Do it anyway. Tired of dealing with people? Do it anyway. Just keep moving with the crowd and don’t let yourself retreat back into your shell.