Liberty Farm Festival
Liberty Farm Festival came to me in July 2016 after citing a need for a PR professional to handle media relations and social media for their event. The coalition of grassroots activists, business leaders, and policy experts had an infrastructure in place, but needed a media person to help brand the event to wider audiences.
The strategy: Employ rigorous media outreach and targeted social media campaigns to leverage press coverage and event promotion
My responsibilities included:
- Drafting press releases
- Routinely updating press over email with festival updates
- Pitching and placing host Martha Boneta to news outlets
- Tracking all festival mentions online and in print (over 30 mentions in local, state, national publications)
- Handling LFF’s Facebook and Twitter accounts – organically and with sponsored posts
- Managing press lists
- Issuing press credentials to members of the press
- Accommodating press pool of now VP-elect Mike Pence
I. Press Relations
From August 19th to September 12th, 2016, we achieved our goal by securing over 34 media hits about Liberty Farm Festival and had well over 1,200 people in attendance. Here are a few press hits that stood out:
- Daily Press
- Fox News
- WMAL Radio
- Richmond Times-Dispatch (Article #1 and Article #2)
- Roanoke Times
- NBC 29
- Washington Examiner
- Fauquier Now
- Fauquier Times (Article #1 and Article #2)
- POLITICO (Article #1 and Article #2)
- ABC News
- The Hill
II. Social Media
To supplement media hits, I helped Liberty Farm Festival execute a social media campaign to promote the event and reach wider audiences.
From August 19th-September 12th, Liberty Farm Festival’s Facebook page reached, 40,616 people, through native (unpaid) posts and boosted post ads. LFF spent $81.49 on boosted posts. During that time frame, 2,662 people clicked on posts and 2,691 people reacted to posts, shared posts, or commented on posts.
From August 19th-September 19th, Liberty Farm Festival’s Twitter account went from 0 followers to 110 followers. LFF spent $0.00 on boosted ads or posts. During this time frame, the account garnered 73,000 impressions
Here are notable tweets from or about the event:
As a result of Liberty Farm Festival’s extensive public relations and social media outreach, 1,200 people came to our event and LFF was dubbed the new pre-eminent political event in Virginia.