Set up a website and a Facebook event to make everything look all official. Ideally, run this by some friends with design experience for a once-over. You can set up a Google Talk number for people to call and inquire without handing out a cell phone and it makes you see like a local business or something. Alternately if you want more private VoIP, I like mySudo.
Call local radio stations, especially on AM and talk radio, to see if they have a community calendar segment. They’ll tell you when it airs and on what frequency, so you can tune in and see what kind of other things are listed and what info they provide. Mock that format and give them a flyer to read off of. You can also ask if they do any pro bono ads for local charity (a lot of them do because it’s a tax write off)
Seek out newspapers and zines. The big ones will usually blow you off or give you a standard quote for ad space. Still worth calling in case they have a journalist interested in what you’re doing. Alternately, read some articles and befriend a journalist whose shit you like. And then move onto smaller papers, zines, blogs, etc. Their ad space will be cheaper and they’ll be more willing to write a piece on you. This will have to scale appropriately for how populous your area is. The more people live in your area, the more obscure your connections will end up being. Still worth a try.
Design flyers, print/cut them at a local print shop, and then walk into storefronts downtown and ask if you can hang one in their window. A lot of places will ask what it’s about and you can just act like it’s normal charity. Calling something a “benefit” is sufficiently broad for whatever you’re doing.
Phone trees, group chats, and mass DMs are also effective. Organizing is fundamentally about building relationships, so the most reliable connections are the ones where you are legitimately close to the person and reach out personally as a friend.
A lot of this informal local advertising stuff is in place for small business owners and venue bookers to support each other and look community-oriented. I’ve been piggybacking off of it for decades and as long as you’re prepared for a lot of rejection, you can make some solid headway. If you’re trying to compete with a local event booker who’s got $1.5m in the bank, it’s not gonna get you far, but for DIY stuff like this it works great.
Yeah those concerns are understandable. I have a Facebook under a false name that I use for stuff like that but I live in such a small area that if the police wanna fuck me up they could show up at my mom’s house just as easy as they could show up at mine
What are you even saying? What do you want from me next? To walk on the surface of the sun? Maybe I should start exploding things with my mind?
Find friends. I mean, honestly. I’m not like a Greek god or something that can just go out into the world and find friends. How would one even attempt such a ridiculous challenge?
“Oh, hello, stranger in the street. I was wondering if we had any common values and shared interests such that we might become friends. Perhaps I can interest you in some violent pornography and communism?”
Goddamn, that's nuts. Should be doing this everywhere.
I know right? I don't know how to start something like this, but it sure would be nice to have locally.
That is roughly 50 meals a day! Amazing.
I think 3 could probably be explained by one of the numerous marketing nerds #onhere
:gold-ancom: Excellent POST
Thank you!
A lot of this informal local advertising stuff is in place for small business owners and venue bookers to support each other and look community-oriented. I’ve been piggybacking off of it for decades and as long as you’re prepared for a lot of rejection, you can make some solid headway. If you’re trying to compete with a local event booker who’s got $1.5m in the bank, it’s not gonna get you far, but for DIY stuff like this it works great.
I think a lot of paralysis comes from thinking too big about this kind of stuff. When you break it down this way it sounds really manageable.
:bugs-no:
Glad you have such faith in your ground game, comrade
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yeah facebook is a security risk, bad for everyone's mental health, and complicit in genocide so I'd rather not use it ever.
Yeah those concerns are understandable. I have a Facebook under a false name that I use for stuff like that but I live in such a small area that if the police wanna fuck me up they could show up at my mom’s house just as easy as they could show up at mine
What are you even saying? What do you want from me next? To walk on the surface of the sun? Maybe I should start exploding things with my mind?
Find friends. I mean, honestly. I’m not like a Greek god or something that can just go out into the world and find friends. How would one even attempt such a ridiculous challenge?
“Oh, hello, stranger in the street. I was wondering if we had any common values and shared interests such that we might become friends. Perhaps I can interest you in some violent pornography and communism?”
I think you mixed up "friends" with "4channers", rookie mistake. You fish for commies with weed and [anti-volcel acts].