Attract a crowd to your event or brand by giving them bragging rights. Vicki Smith creates a post-event storyboarding experience where enthusiasts see almost moment-by-moment coverage of motorcycle events featuring the elegant Ducatis –  in a captioned sequence of photos. In short, what she dubs a “photo web story” is designed to tell the story of the event or weekend. More importantly it lets people that didn’t attend feel like they were there and potentially plan to attend the next one.” 

Last month her Ducati photo stories’ site had close to a half million page views

 of previous events. Got your attention? With Vicki’s permission, here’s her lightly-edited description of this crowd-attracting Me2We method.

The Rewards

• It’s photo journalism but without the cost restraints of traditional media so you can be much more in depth.

• These stories are quite popular, getting many web visits month after month. A yearly event I did last year in March was still getting hits in November (close to 18,000).

• Because I have been doing this for specific types of events (motorcycle events and travel related photography), and posting them all to a central area, this website now enjoys a steady traffic of people interested in motorcycles or travel. (She created popular portals for participatory photo stories around two hot interests.)

That makes Vicki a valuable spokesperson for Ducati.  What product, service, annual conference or other event, cause or issue do you want to tout  – and perhaps also be rewarded for doing so?  

Dog shows. Before and after stories like home or office renovations. What ‘s your passionate interest? How can you cover events related to it, invite others to add their color commentary, then seek online and in-person sponsorships – for you would-be spokesperson and for online community?

The Methods

• People are able to comment on the galleries. Some commenters, like the Italian trip ones are largely from people that participated.

• But some event galleries were a surprise to the participants. Many people did not get to attend but heard about it from people who were there and wanted to participate. They did so by adding their comments. It helped them feel like they were there.

• It’s cost effective if you happen to be handy with a camera (I am) but even with the price of a photographer included it’s hard not to see the benefit of the ongoing promotion.

See other ways to harness technology (even if you are not a geek) to make an event more involving – and attract a larger crowd next time.