Publicity Outlets

From Bloominglabs

1 Publicity Outlets

Publicity Outlets

dosman gave me (Steve) a list of publicity outlets he’d compiled while hyping packetsniffers and FOOLS, so I ran with it and have been posting info about workshops and events on various sites and social media and TV and radio and so on. There’s no reason others can’t join in the fun, and in the interest of sharing the info, I created this document.

If you are running down the list to advertise something, weight the type of event you are submitting for the audience. The free forums and stuff is fine for smaller events. I'd use the radio spots and newpapers for workshops and fundraiser events too. However I wouldn't chase periodicals like Bloom Magazine for something like a workshop advertisement, but something larger like Makevention is fine. Just some food for thought for anyone other than sdc or dosman reading this page. Thanks!

Bloominglabs Resources

Front page of our wiki:
http://bloominglabs.org (send mail to contact at bloominglabs dot org if you need an account created)

Our email announcement list:
http://www.bloominglabs.org/mailman/listinfo/bloominglabs-announce

Our Google Calendar

Social Media:

Facebook
@Bloominglabs on Twitter
Send mail to contact at bloominglabs dot org to coordinate access to our social media accounts, and/or Steve for Twitter

Word of mouth (you can’t beat it)

Flyers (both in the space and in public) - we can always use people with mad design skills to help with this

Online Outlets

VisitBloomington Calendar
This one is pretty nice looking, good for posting links to Twitter and such.
http://www.visitbloomington.com/events/submit-event/

The Scene is now this site, still ran by the HT:
https://www.hoosiertimes.com/calendar/
Link is valid, forwards to https://new.evvnt.com, unclear if HT does free calendar events still...

Herald Times Calendar - Unsure if this is still a valid calendar, it is "tricky" to get the page to load correctly but will accept submissions.
https://heraldtimesonline-dot-com.bloxcms-ny1.com/users/admin/calendar/event/?referer_url=/calendar/search/&_ijcid=1439262240292%7C4.79890770.1429636001134.a8696ff

Bloomingtononline's calendar (seems to be used quite a bit) - They retooled their calendar in April 2017, but apparently it won't accept new events. There is a set of empty forums though that can be posted to, ha.
http://www.bloomingtononline.net/calendar/ As of 8-2022 no longer has a calendar, might come back some day though.

Bloomington Craigslist - The old standby
http://bloomington.craigslist.org/cal/

~~Eventful~~
Eventful now forwards to audacy.com and no longer accepts event submissions as of 8-2021
~~http://eventful.com/bloomington/events/~~
FYI, seems like other sites do pull events from Eventful automatically like this one.

BTown-Banter
http://viewpoints.iu.edu/btown-banter/
This is an IU affiliated blog. It covers tech events like TEDx etc. so may be good to reach out to as appropriate.

Meetup.com
http://www.meetup.com/cities/us/in/bloomington/groups/
Costs $19 for 1 month in "organizer dues", we already have everything they try to provide for you (people who know where we are).

Let’s go bloomington - Includes monthly printed calendar...get your stuff in early:
http://letsgo.terrorware.com/
This is an on-again off-again community Google calendar of events and public venues in Bloomington, as of 2020 it looks like it was re-activated after a few years of inactivity.

WhoFish
https://www.whofish.org/Default.aspx?tabid=47&modid=382&itemid=4881480&rCode=39&action=detail&iv=ext

Radio and TV

This is the real bull-horn for advertising events. A little known secret is that most Radio and TV stations do free on-air spots for non-profit event announcements, this helps them too by showing community involvement. If your workshop or event can handle more than a handful of attendees you should consider advertising through these methods too. In addition to on-air announcements, most Radio and TV stations also host online community event calendars which should be utilized as well.

WFIU event submission (web calendar with some/most events read on the air)
https://indianapublicmedia.org/events/submit-event.php
This appears to be an especially good outlet as it’s been mentioned more than anything else on this list when we ask how people heard about us.

WFHB on-air event calendar
Available free to non-profits
Email calendar@wfhb.org with the event, approximately 1 week before the event, event is read on air the day it is to happen

CATS Community Calendar
Submissions may be made by any non-profit (rolls on local cable channels 3, 12, and 14 when there's no programming):
http://catstv.net
Now submissions are by email to: commcal (at) mcpl.info

WRTV 6 (Indianapolis ABC affiliate)
http://events.theindychannel.com/ DOES NOT WORK ON CHROME AT ALL

WCLS event submission
submissions made by non-profits will be put on air for free.
Must submit at least 2 weeks in advance
Send email to events at wclsfm dot com

WKKG 101.5 event submission
Based out of Columbus but covers Bloomington too. I heard a spot from then advertising non-profit spots, send them email to get details on how to make submissions:
https://community.1010wcsi.com/calendar/

Many other radio stations in town
There are definitely more stations that do this than what we have listed. Go find them!

Magazines and Print

IDS events submissions
http://guides.idsnews.com/happenings/new
~~(man that form is not friendly - if title > 30 characters, throws yr whole submission away.)~~Seems they have fixed their form, works better now

Herald Times classifieds
Free submission of events to their online calendar (non-profits only). Otherwise it would be a paid classified add or other advertisement:
https://heraldtimesonline.com/htoclass/

The Ryder
editor (at) theryder.com
They accept paid advertisements, we used them for Makevention 2013. No one reported seeing the ad in the survey. Unsure if they do smaller free spots for smaller events.

H&L Magazine
jfinch (at) kiva.net

BLOOM Magazine
editor (at) magbloom.com
We had an article in there in 2011, also they ran a Makevention article in 2016 (using pictures they apparently took in 2015).

Misc

Twitter accounts that are nice to us
@iusoic
@kmakice
@bloomingtweeps
@theheraldtimes
@rickdietz
@make
@gobead
@BloomingtonGrapevine
@bloom_tech (BTP, Bloomington Tech Partnership, they're big supporters.)

Check These Twitter feeds
http://twitter.com/#!/meetup
http://twitter.com/#!/Plancast
http://twitter.com/#!/eventbrite
MCCSC has a bulletin board for non-profit events. This would be good for family-friendly activities.
Community Bulletin Board: Are you looking for something to do? Visit the MCCSC Community Bulletin Board at http://www.mccsc.edu/cbb to find out about activities and events in the Bloomington area.
The CBB is the home for approved notices from not-for-profit community organizations. If you would like to post in the bulletin board, please send requests for posting along with a PDF copy of your flyer to events@mccsc.edu. Please include your contact information and web site address on flyer information. Upon approval, your flyer will be placed on our Community Bulletin Board. Allow (7) seven days for the processing of your request.