LGBT Week NYC

by Rachael Brister, GSBA VP of Marketing & Tourism

Last week, I had the privilege of traveling to New York City to represent GSBA and present at the first ever LGBT Week NYC, a week-long conference bringing together the worlds of advertising, marketing, technology and business in the LGBT marketplace.

The conference was produced by two long-term GSBA members and partners, Community Marketing & Insights, Inc. and Pink Banana Media. I attended the conference the last two days that were focused on marketing. Some of the presentations included Reaching the Lesbian Market, Advanced LGBT Online Marketing Strategies, The Intersection of Cause and Commerce, Shaping the Future for LGBT People in China with Mobile and Millenials….WTF? I really enjoyed learning about so many different facets of marketing to the LGBT community and in such rapid fire succession. Most presentations were just 20-30 minutes. These two days of the conference took place at the New York Times office building and conference center, a beautiful building just a few blocks from Times Square.

My presentation was titled Stretching Your Marketing Dollars with Community Partnerships: Pride events, film festivals, professional organizations, employee resource groups, sports events, social groups, women's and family events...the LGBT community's events and organizations are as diverse as its members. These events and groups also offer powerful partnership opportunities that lend authenticity to a company’s outreach and marketing to the LGBT community. Whether you have a big budget, small budget or virtually no-budget, this session will provide your company with ideas and methods to multiply your message via known and trusted channels of visibility and communication.

Before the NASDAQ building's windows anonymized Rachael...

I really enjoyed calling on my experience at GSBA both as a staff member and former Board member as well as the 15 years I spent directing lesbian & gay film festivals to emphasize how important and powerful community partnerships can be in reaching the LGBT consumer market. Throughout the two marketing-focused days of the conference, many of us presenters discussed how writing a check to an organization is not enough. A company needs to go beyond the donation or sponsorship and engage with the organization, its constituents and treat the relationship as just that….a relationship and not just a one-way street. GSBA has excelled in this arena, not just because of who we are as an organization, but also because of the commitments, passion and engagement of our corporate and small business members and partners.

...and after.

One highlight of the trip was LGBT Week NYC was chosen to ring the closing NASDAQ bell on Wednesday, April 22. Nasdaq is the second-largest stock exchange in the world. Its opening and closing bells signal the beginning and end of trading each day, and outside parties are often allowed to ring the bells to help promote certain causes, brands or initiatives.

I was asked to be one of the representatives along with about 25-30 other presenters and conference attendees. The NASDAQ staff we worked with has this whole process down to a science, which I assume they must since it happens day after day. There was a myriad of photo ops and all of the pictures were then transmitted to the side of the NASDAQ building that faces Times Square. So for about 60 minutes, many of us were able to experience what it is like to be a large digital billboard in Times Square. The actual “closing bell” is on a screen on a podium. It still gets pressed, but it’s like pressing the screen of an iPad.

Seattle will get a chance to experience a condensed version of this conference this Fall when LGBT Week comes to Seattle for a day-long conference co-presented by GSBA. It will take place at the Renaissance Hotel on Friday, September 18 and will feature the presentations on technology, marketing and advertising from an LGBT business perspective.  I hope you can join us!

Other highlights and recaps of the conference:
Pink Banana Media
Ad Week

Don't Just Take My Advice....

by Rachael Brister, GSBA Deputy Director

I love helping people navigate the wonderful world of social media. And for me it truly is wonderful. I enjoy using Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram, LinkedIN, Youtube, and at times Pinterest, for personal use. I use many of these tools professionally as well and enjoy learning the different ways each can be applied to market and promote one’s business. And there is a lot to learn and a lot to keep up with. So, I thought I would share some of the blogs and sites I follow and check frequently. I can easily give you a tip or some advice about the best times to post on Facebook, the optimal hours to send tweets or retweet content, or if your business should be utilizing the new Pinterest for Business platform, but I would encourage you to not only take my advice, but start reading up on these services yourself. Just take the Chinese proverb: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime" and apply it to social media. I understand that the world of social media can be overwhelming, so perhaps pick one or two platforms that you can dig deeper into and keep track of their trends and changes. For many of you this might be Facebook and Twitter. But for others it may be Pinterest, especially if you have a business that relies on visuals or merchandising.  And Pinterest happens to be one of the fastest growing social media sites out there, so it is worth considering.

So, how do I know any or all of this? My interest in and love of all things social media has driven me to try and teach myself these tools, but I also follow an assortment of diverse blogs and tech news outlets to learn best practices, keep up on changes, and get ideas from experts in the field. Here are a few of the sites I recommend you peruse. If you like how the information is presented (and in some cases, the voice of the blogger/s) and find some useful tips, consider subscribing to their email list or following them on Facebook or Twitter (they will post or tweet when a new story is up on their site).

If you have a Facebook page for your business then you should be following (or “like”) these two pages from the social media giant itself: FacebookPages and Facebook Marketing

Also if Facebook is your primary platform for social media marketing, keep track of developments and updates with the comprehensive site Inside Facebook.

Social Media Examiner - Their tagline is “Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle” and they mean it. The site contains comprehensive articles to help businesses discover and how to use the best social media tools, along with original case studies, reviews of the latest industry research and expert advice.

Constant Contact Blogs - You do not have to be a subscriber to this email marketing service to take advantage of the wealth of information on their blogs. Many of their posts to focus on the tools they sell, however their social media blog is a great resource. Their email blog has contains effective tips on curating content, subject lines

Flyteblog - This blog is aimed at small businesses and some of its language focuses on generating leads and sales, but there is some great information about marketing your small business on the Internet, so this site makes the list.

Simply Zesty is a Dublin-based social media and marketing agency whose blog is chock full of great information segmented by topic.

SocialmediaB2B - If you’re specialize in B2B marketing, then this is the social media and marketing resource for you. I have recently learned of this site, but from what I have seen so far it is going to stay on my reading list.

Social Media Explorer - This is a great site for newbies and experts alike. Their “New Here” button is a great place to start. It will help navigate you to the right posts based on the information or topic you seek. It is often populated by guest authors who help keep the content fresh and diverse.

Beth Kanter - Businesses large and small can learn a few things about social media marketing from the non-profit world. And the go-to resource for non-profits who wish to harness the digital world is Beth’s Blog. Beth Kanter is the leading expert in her field. In 2009, she was named by Fast Company Magazine as one of the most influential women in technology and one of Business Week’s “Voices of Innovation for Social Media.”

Jeff Bullas - Jeff is a consultant and speaker whose blog focuses on helping business "get found online." His posts are usually in-depth and a longer than your average post, but if you take the time to follow his tips, you will definitely gain valuable knowledge about a particular social media platform or strategy.

And I can’t resist adding a list of the sites I follow for general news in the areas of social media, technology, gadgetry, and also how all of these topics intersect with media, entertainment, business, and pop culture. These sites help indulge my inner geek. Perhaps they can help bring out yours.

Mashable – their site is divided into channels so it is easy to just read about certain topics – social media for example.

Bits: New York Times Technology News - The New York Times + Technology = geek heaven.

Engaget

Buzzfeed

Techcrunch

And for some great locally based tech content try geekwire or Techflash, the technology news stream from the Puget Sound Business Journal.

I realize this is a lot of information to follow on a daily or even weekly basis. So I have a recommendation for keeping track of the articles you find helpful, but also might not have the time to read right when they come across your desk(top). 

Instapaper –  A no-frills, simple tool to save web pages for reading later. You can create a free account, install the read it later bookmarklet into your browser and then with just one-click an article or web page is saved to your Instapaper account. Plus if you have an iPad, iPhone, Android, Kindle Fire or Nook, you can use Instapaper on any of these devices and they all sync up to one account. For example:  save a link on your iPad and then read it the next day on your desktop. You can also sort all of your saved links/pages by organizing them into folders. It’s one of the handiest online tools I currently use. You can also use any number of RSS feed readers or news aggregators like GoogleReader or FeedDemon. Instapaper's read later style is just what I prefer.

The above list is certainly not exhaustive. I recently read through a post of the top 70 social media blogs/sites of 2012. Even I was a bit overwhelmed. I offer this list up as my recommendations to start with and also so you don't have to cull through a list of 70. I have happily done it for you.

Do you have any favorite sites for social media news or tips? Post them in the comments section below.