Martini Madness Conquers Social Media

October 13, 2011 | Posted by Noelle Cantarano

Since my start at FSC Interactive over a year ago, I have come a long way with my knowledge of online marketing and social media but I am no expert and still far from guru status. However, when a friend of mine asked me to be part of an event committee and help with the social media strategy, I was ecstatic. What was even more exciting than being asked to bring my “Big” ideas to the table, was being a part of such a great cause.

The event, which is in its 8th year, invites New Orleanians out for a night of martinis, local fare, dancing and more.

This year, the committee decided to test the growing power of social media by eliminating almost all print advertising and traditional PR and the success has been extremely impressive. More than 450 tickets were sold in the first few weeks as a result of The Friends of City Park and committee members posting to Facebook and Twitter. Last year, they didn’t see those ticket sales until the week before the event.

At the first meeting, I suggested creating a Facebook event, a customized Facebook landing page as well as targeted messaging starting a month before the event. Friends of City Park also leveraged Twitter and the hashtag #MartiniMadness to generate buzz and create a trending topic. Blog outreach was also implemented to spread the word to the New Orleans community, with a specific outreach to food and cocktail bloggers as well as tourist blogs such as GoNOLA.com.

Martini Madness sold over 900 tickets, saved hundreds of dollars using social media and rose over $30,000 to donate to City Park, their highest numbers since the fundraiser’s start eight years ago. I am proud to be part of this dedicated and hard working committee whose members went out of their comfort zones to embrace social media for the cause. I can only hope I converted some of them to the Twittersphere!