The Power of a Crowd

This past weekend, the fam and I went to the local Renaissance festival. The event uses the same site every year, so you can walk among buildings, such as cottages, churches, towers, and mills, inspired by an earlier generation. The jousting arena overlooks a small pond lined by trees, and the amphitheater's grapevine roof offers shade to those waiting to watch the next act from groups like Fakespearean.

Several of the vendors hand out raffle tickets as a way to bring business back toward the end of the day. As luck would have it, we snagged free tickets for a company selling Dragon puppets. The kids fell in love with the puppets, so we headed back to the shop several minutes early. We were just in time for the pre-show. The workers (all dress in Ren gear, of course) were encouraging the crowd to cheer on participants in an egg roll, a game of chance where you might turn $10 into a $30 dragon (or even a $150 one).

The workers had the crowd whooping huzzah before the raffle even started. As the excitement built, so did the crowd. The vendor used that enthusiasm to gain more attention and to increase business through exposure. To keep up momentum, the shop offered to give away additional dragons as long as the crowd "wowed" the workers with chants for "dragons" and, of course, screaming as loud as possible.

If you're wondering where your social networking is going, consider rousing the crowd with a huzzah. You don't always have to give away something expensive. Here are a few ideas you can use:

~ Give away a book. (If you can link to the author's blog, even better.)

~ Offer a critique. (You might just find a new crit partner.)

~ Host a raffle for a gift card. (Even a $5 gift card to Starbucks can get some people's attention.)

Of course, don't forget to start with a pre-show. You want your blogging buddies to promote your contest starting a few days before the event. You can do this by using a point system that rewards bloggers for posting a link to your contest on forums or blogs.

And, if you get enough chanting, why not throw in a little extra?

(As an added bonus, one of the kiddos won a free dragon, and it was worth every scream!)

So, in the spirit of RenFest, I'm thrilled to be a part of a blog tour for the release of Perilous by Tamara Hart Heiner. Look for the post on November 24th, when you'll have a chance to win something not yet determined.