Local Event Planner Updates Marketing Focus

Add caterers and event planners to the ever-growing list of those trying to take advantage of new social media forms for marketing purposes.

More specifically, add Shellie Morrison of The Event Group. Morrison recently attended the Catersource conference and trade show in Las Vegas and The Special Event, a similar gathering, in New Orleans. She came back more convinced than ever that redoubling her social media efforts is a worthwhile endeavor.

While Morrison has produced a long-running electronic newsletter that’s sent to about 2,000 people, she has rededicated herself to posting informative blog entries on TEG’s Web site in 2010. She’s also added Facebook and Twitter accounts designed to foster networking, establish TEG as an authoritative voice within the local market, and, of course, add clients.

Morrison said she paid about $200 to get the blog going and spends between $75 and $125 – plus four hours of her time – on the newsletter each month. And while Morrison said her traditional marketing budget remains about $15,000 per year, there’s no reason not to “embrace some of this new stuff that is practically free, or comes at very little cost.”

Morrison said she believes maintaining a healthy – if somewhat redirected – marketing budget is especially important during a down economic time, when competition is more fierce than usual.

“That’s a prime time to get your name out there,” Morrison said, “when everybody else is cutting (advertising).”