If you’re in Southern California April 27, you’ll want to enjoy the 11th Annual Eclectic Music Festival and Arts Crawl presented by the South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce. Some 50 performers will appear on 12 stages between 3 p.m. and 10 p.m. on the city streets – free of charge.

And if you find yourself faced with the challenge of promoting an event on a shoestring budget – like the Eclectic Music Festival – you’ll want to take advantage of social media opportunities.

The goal: Create some buzz!

Presenting a variety of family-friendly music and arts and crafts, the festival lends itself to promotion via several low-cost social media strategies.

Several weeks prior to the festival, fans attending a “Preview Party” fundraiser posed for photos with a poster carrying three key messages: “See you at the Eclectic!” with the festival date and website url.

The photos were taken with the fans’ own cell phone cameras, and they were asked to share the photos to their own social media platforms — using the hashtag #SoPasEclectic – to promote the festival among their friends and followers.

Those fans not on social media were included in the photo booth, with requests to email their photos to a few friends, encouraging them to attend the festival.

Media representatives covering the party took photos of fans with the poster, too. Those photos have appeared in print and online coverage, continuing to promote the key messages in advance of the festival.

For another social media strategy, a videographer captured quick interviews with party-goers reacting to the question, “What are you most looking forward to at this year’s festival?”

From those brief on-camera comments came a series of four 40-second promotional videos titled, “What’s the Buzz?” Designed to generate excitement for the festival, the videos are being posted on the festival’s social media platforms and pushed out to email lists, one video per week leading up to the festival, each with lively music underneath. Once again, fans are being asked to “Like” and “Share,” thus spreading the word.

The social media strategies now under way are complemented by a modest advertising budget. That strategy is to maximize the spend with each media property through negotiated packages of print advertising, digital ads, editorial content and additional digital “push” strategies for reaching thousands of individuals via email.

Do you need to promote an event or a program on a shoestring budget? The Activ Consulting Group has several tricks up our sleeves to help you maximize your impact with whatever dollars you have to spend. Let’s discuss how we can create some buzz for you!