Pushing Boundaries at the DC Capital Fringe: 1970s Networking in a Social Media World

It all comes down to filling 450 seats. 90 seats each for Ellouise Schoettler’s 5 performances of Pushing Boundaries at the Goethe Institut, part of the 2010 Capital Fringe Festival, being held in Washington, D.C., in July.

That takes a megaphone… or two. Okay – maybe more.

Marketing is about reach. Getting the right message to the right people in a way that, in this case, encourages people to circle a date, buy a ticket, and enjoy something unexpected — the untold stories of the 1970s women’s movement. Eyewitness to real history told by a nationally known professional storyteller.

There are more than 5 million people in the Metropolitan Washington Area. The Fringe typically attracts more than 20,000 of them. But there are lots of performances across many days and many performers and many venues. Everyone is working hard to attract attention for their shows.

Ellouise is already social media savvy. She’s a long time blogger who uses video, Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, as well as  her EllouiseStory website, to support her storytelling business. In the last few months, she’s been increasingly leveraging those vehicles to draw people to her Fringe-specific Pushing Boundaries Story website.

Schoettler isn’t the only one who’s done the performance attendance math. Many performers are already working similar marketing strategy, blending traditional marketing like postcards, posters, websites and e-newsletter blasts with social media.

But Schoettler is also working hard to fill a few special seats… with people who were also involved in the 1970s women’s movement.

“It was a grassroots movement — a shared history,” says Schoettler. “This program is meant to entertain everyone, but it also inspires others to share their stories… or at least for the people in the audience to leave wanting to know more, maybe enough to ask the women in their lives about those years.”

That’s why she’s including a Q&A and Audience Sharing at the end of each of her Pushing Boundaries performances.

That’s got her brainstorming the same way she brainstormed reach in the 1970s — friend to friend, group to group, issue by issue: Who needs to know, who knows how to reach them?

There are still a few old rosters to sift, a few more lists to create, maybe a few phone calls yet to make.

It’s a slow process reaching out the old-fashioned way.

In the 1970s, the stakes were higher. It wasn’t about filling 450 seats. It was about votes and ratification and meaningful change.

Says Schoettler: “Imagine what would have happened if we’d had the Internet and social media tools back then.”

Do you know someone who was involved in the 1970s women’s movement? A few months back, Ellouise Schoettler started the Second Wave Album on Facebook, an effort that goes further than the Fringe or the outreaches of the Beltway. A place for people to post their own 1970s women’s movement memories, others to ask questions… and share some of Schoettler’s basement archives. Please spread the word…

_{Full disclosure:  I am my own witnesss to this history; I watched Ellouise and the 1970s women’s movement as a teenager on the sidelines. Now, I’m Ellouise’s social media coach.)}

Read Related Capital Fringe Posts:

• Social Media @ 2010 DC Capital Fringe: Leveraging Free Tools
• Social Media @ 2010 DC Capital Fringe: Twitter Lessons
• Pushing Boundaries at the DC Capital Fringe - 1970s Networking in a Social Media World