These are my line entertainment for ‘Pandoras Psykotic Circus’ it helps to keep the queue under control when it gets a bit long.

Queue entrainment is very important to a haunted attraction because if people get bored in line, they will have a bigger chance of going into your attraction with a negative attitude. This will translate into a negative review and no one wants that.
Taking the extra time to make all of your patrons happy, even while they wait, should be a very important aspect of your haunted attraction

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Facebook is a great tool, but only if it’s used correctly. In the previous article, we talked about choosing the right type of page for your Haunted attraction. This included some of the advantages and disadvantages of each. But that was then and this is now.

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When building a facebook page, there are certain thing you need to do and be prepared to do. Make it stand out, have content, be interactive, and most importantly be interesting. If you can’t do this, you need to figure it out FAST.

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Important note: Fan pages have to be owned by a personal page. If you don’t have a personal facebook page, you will need to set one up, or find someone on your staff (that you trust) who does. they can set up the initial page in a few minutes.

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Your Avatar: An Avatar is your profile picture. Facebook allows a maximum size of 200×600 pixels. Take advantage of this. it will be the first thing people see and it will be on every page, from your wall, to your photos.

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Install Static HTML-  iframe tabs: I have worked with a bunch of them and for beginner’s and I like this one for beginners as well as advanced users. Static-HTML application allows users to set up a custom tab on their facebook page. This is a neat application which can store the code to display custom images, text, form fields and anything basic HTML can do. The only limitation is the size, which is recommended to be 520 pixels wide, by 650 pixels tall. This is not enforced but your iframe may have unexpected results and I’ll leave it at that. We will use this app to build a ‘Like-Gate’

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This is the HTML generated code for the non-fan

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Like Gate: It’s not enough to have that little ‘like’ button on the top of your page. A viewer needs to feel compelled to click on it. A Like-Gate allows fan pages greater control over how to define their presence within Facebook than a personal page ever could. This is broken down into two entities based on the status of a viewer. Fans receive one type of content and non-Fans see something else completely.  Using the Static-HTML application I mentioned earlier, A gate can be created  for both the fan, and the non-fan. The non-fan gate should receive a compelling reason to like the page, while fans can be rewarded with extra content, coupons, discounts, sneak peeks, and other offers.

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This fan-only content is richer and has more content

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Note: You will need to know some HTML to use this app.

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Setting the default Tab in Facebook: It’s not enough to have a gate. Facebook sets its default landing page to ‘Wall’. No one will see your amazing new page and that is simply not acceptable. Click ‘Edit Page’ on your fan page and look for ‘Default Landing Tab’ and select your new tab in the drop down. Save the changes and you are finished!

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Short URL:  Once a page has 25 fans, facebook allows for a short URL. Mine is Facebook.com/CadaverCafe. Keep it short and clean. Use no special characters other than numbers and only when necessary. example: facebook.com/The13thHour. make it as easy as possible for fans to find you and they will come.

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Content: Now that you have the basics set up. Content needs to be added, preferably content owned by the attraction. scan in all those old pictures. post video, share ideas. This is now ongoing relationship with your fans. The worst thing you can do at this point is ignore them. It will turn your facebook page into a ghost town and that is not a good thing, even for a Haunter.

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Look for specific code to make a fan-gate HERE

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Facebook is the juggernaut of social media in 2011. Facebook boasts on its own page that there are more than 750 million users and 50% of them get on facebook every day spending more than 700 billion minutes a month on the site. The average friend list size is 130 people. Most importantly, the basic services are all free and there are a lot of them.

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This is both a blessing and a curse. The good news is everyone and their mother is on facebook, the bad news is that everyone and their mother is on facebook. With all that traffic on this social super-highway, how does one person get noticed?

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Let’s get something clear right off the bat. Your haunt should NOT be a personal page. Although facebook doesn’t tightly monitor this, you can have your personal page scrapped after putting a lot of work into it. Besides, it’s a free service. Get into the habit of playing by the rules. then you never have t o worry. Personal pages also have limitations. Facebook limit on how many people you can friend and how many business pages you can fan. The magic number is 5,000 combined. Yes…you should worry about that maxed out number because you will hit it and be screwed. Don’t say i didn’t warn you…

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The other two choices are Fan pages and a facebook groups. Fan pages are visible to non fans and even people who do not even have a facebook account. Groups are private entities and are only available through invitation, however, group pages allow the sending of bulk invites. This means facebook user can easily invite their friends to join the group. In turn, any group member can also send bulk invites their friends. The epitome of viral marketing.

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Each have their advantages and disadvantages. I tend to like fan pages better because of the nature of how i advertise. Although my events are short in duration and seem to fit the criteria of a group page, I look to retain my fan base from year to year and recycle them because repeat-business is good. Plus I can reward fans off season for spreading the word because every day is Halloween in the Haunted Attraction business.

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While fan pages annoyingly lack the ability to send out private bulk messages, they make up for this with public updates, just like a personal page. There are a many of other features that make fan pages the better choice for long-term relationships with your fan base.

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Things fan pages can do that group pages cannot:

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The ability to clean up ugly URLs: if your fan page has more than 25 fans, then you can register a custom URL short-name. Mine is facebook.com/CadaverCafe. It reads well and prints better. Easy is goof for advertising. No one wants to see the link as facebook.com/the-Cadaver-Cafe+12827898723480524/

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Add extra applications: Keep this in mind because we are going to cover this in part two of this discussion.

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Visitor statistics: Page insights has a wealth of information about your fan page, including your fans age, gender, ‘Likes’, clicks, what town they live in, and many more bits of data. All useful for future marketing.

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‘Related’ create event invitation: Set your dates for your haunted attraction in an event and invite all your fans. Make it a public event and other people will click on it and be linked back to your page, potentially creating more long-term fans.

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Overall, I’m a fan of fan pages. It works better for my business and i believe it will work better for you too. In my next segment of this topic i will cover how to format your fan page to boost traffic and encourage ‘Likes.’

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Have you ever been going through a haunted house and bumped into the crowd in front of you? Is it because they have stopped short because of a group in front of them? Haunted houses are dark and, well.. scary. The scared walk slowly and with trepidation and the brave tend to linger a bit longer to take in the scene. Both have the potential of jamming up the flow. This can mess up the timing of the actors, the resetting of scenes, and take people out of the moment when they run into the group in front of them. Although this cannot always be avoided, there are certain measures that can be employed to decrease the chances of such a problem happening.

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1) limit the number of people going in at one time: People like to go in groups because they came with their friends. They will try to convince you that a group of 6 or 8 will be just fine. This is simply not the case. Large groups are too big to observe any scene in a simple ‘startle scare’ haunted house. No matter what happens, someone is missing a key element of the scene and the gag will be lost to them. If this happens enough times, then they will come out of the haunt being bored. They will then tell all their friends what a waste of time it was. You do not want this happening. Try to have a MAXIMUM OF FIVE, but i would seriously break a group that large into two and three.

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2) Odd number groups are better: Some people come in groups, some in couples, and still others rock it solo. If you can stage it, try to send odd number groups into the attraction. The odd man out prevents the ‘coupling’ dynamic from happening and makes people fell less safe. Other than that, I don’t know why. It just works.

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3) Wait for the third scream: Once your attraction has establish a tempo, you will be able to guess where people are in the attraction based on the screams. Have your queue attendant listen for the group they just sent in. You should be able to establish how far they need to be in the haunt before sending the next group.

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4) Line entertainment: Hopefully you will have a problem with the line being TOO LONG to get into your attraction. Be prepared for this with line entertainment. You ticket taker should be in costume and be able to talk and improvise with the crowd. You should also have costumed line lurkers stalking the crowd. If the crowd in entertained in the queue, they will take that in as part of the overall experience and improve the reputation of the haunt.

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Once inside the haunt…

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So… now people are actually going through the attraction and things can still bottleneck at this point. People can be scared to the point of be frozen in place or they can run through the haunt in fear for their lives. This is going to happen no matter what you do. Here are a few tips to help this situation.

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1) Scare Forward: When a group of 3 walks by, wait for the first one to pass, and come after the second one as they pass so they jump forward and the third will rush forward to be with the group. It is that simple. Going to early will make the who group stop, or worse, back up.

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2) Chicken exits: Your characters are NEVER to break character. However they can alert someone behind the scenes that you have a person who is not capable of going forward anymore. This can be done with code names for the patrons, which i will cover in another article next month. Simply yell “CATATONIC COPRSE” in a sentence and the behind the scenes man will come running to help them get out of one of the emergency exits. This is a last resort. most people will nut up and continue, but for a Chunker or Whizzer, this may not be the case.

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Remember that people are coming there to have a good time. If there are too many people freaking out in a bad way, then tweak it or tone it down. save it for the after 10pm crowd.

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The last post covered the importance of Craigslist as an advertising tool as well as how important it is to create a simple and visually  appealing call to action. This time, we are going to talk about placement of these ads and promotional models that can be employed.

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BUT FIRST… here is a link to the Craigslist terms of use, because it is too darn long to post here.

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There are a ton of promotion models to choose from. Since this is about Craigslist. I will cover three simple ones.

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1) Basic event promotion: “Come to my haunted house! It’s SCARY! THESE ARE THE DAYS AND TIMES!”

2) Promotional Giveaway: “Win FREE TICKETS & Come to my haunted house! It’s SCARY! THESE ARE THE DAYS AND TIMES!”

3) Opt-in promotional giveaway: “Win free Tickets if you register at my haunted house website! Then come to my haunted house! It’s SCARY! THESE ARE THE DAYS AND TIMES!”

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Each of them work differently but all will fall under the same categories in craigslist:

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• Community>General
• Community>Events
• Community> Activities
• Gigs>Events
• For Sale> Tickets

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DO NOT put it in For Sale> Free, even if you are giving away for tickets for free. You will be flagged as a spammer. If you do this too many times, and you will be banned. This is never good. In any event, 5 possible places should be enough for you to get the word out.

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Although you can put your advertisement in 5 places at one time, you may have some trouble doing this. I pulled this directly from Craigslist: You may post to one category and in one city, no more often than about every 48 hours.

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If you are submitting a post that is similar to another currently active post of yours on the site, you will get a blocked message. Removing the active post will allow you to post the new ad, unless the active post is less than 48 hours old.

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Craigslist has a program that checks your submission for similarities to other posts you have done in the past 24 hours. If it finds a match, it will block you. This is a protection against spammers and something to be thankful for. Although you can’t post identical advertisements, you can post different versions of your message without any trouble.

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Many people are tempted to post everywhere they can, but should you? I would argue against it. There are several levels of security on Craigslist from admins, right down to regular people who all have the ability to mark you as spam. if you get too many spam marks. POOF… it’s gone.

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I attempted it as an experiment and it lasted about 12 hours before being deleted. I reposted it again and it lasted only 2 hours. This is a dangerous game to play as well as wasted effort that could be better spent elsewhere. If you are only relying on Craigslist to do your advertising, you have bigger problems than being deleted or banned.

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CONSTANT VIGALANCE!: The repost option

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Posts last up to 45 days with the exception of Boston, NY, LA, Portland and several others, so if you are in those markets, you are going to be more with your posts. However, no matter where you are, the post will go further and further down the screen. Just like the phone book, being first is the key to getting attention. Why do you think there are tons of business with AAA in front of it. It guarantees them first placement!

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Check post every day. Manage your account. See if any have been deleted, rolled off, or expired. If you find any with a repost option, select from the account menu your postings and click on the posting title that you wish to update. Select “Repost This Posting” in the screen that opens containing your post and editing options. Then repost it. It’s that simple.

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I use the third advertising model so I collect information to build a contact list for follow up advertisements. With just this little bit of advertising in a town of 100,000 people, This still manages to get 10+ new contacts a day….in July…when very few people are thinking about Halloween.

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If you do it early enough, you will have a large amount of people aware of your haunt by the time September 30th roll around, and then its Showtime!

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We are trying to promote Poplar Grove’s new fan page on Facebook so we can keep in touch with anyone who is interested in coming to the Haunted attraction this year. SO we are having a daily drawing for free tickets once the Halloween season starts. The winners will be notified/posted on Facebook and they can come to poplar grove to come pick up the tickets.

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We have two pages to promote:

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http://www.facebook.com/CadaverCafe

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http://www.facebook.com/PoplarGroveHalloween

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If you like both pages, your chances of winning are doubled.

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Contest rules are HERE

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One of the best tools out there for free promotion is craigslist. I have used to buy and sell furniture, get rid of junk (CURB ALERT!!!) and find things to do in the local area. Craigslist is truly the internet’s flea market and I love it. Apparently, so do a lot of other people.

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Craigslist says on its factsheet that more than 50 million people use Craigslist in the USA alone and that there are 50 million new classifieds each month. It also says it gets more than 20 billion page views a month. That amount of web traffic is mind bogglingly exciting, but…how do you stand out as one of the 50 million?

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Craigslisters are like window shoppers at a strip mall. Sometimes they are shopping for something specific, and other times they are just browsing, waiting for something to catch their eye. In the advertising world, this is called ‘ A Call to Action.’ If done effectively, it will convert browsers into buyers.

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1.    Thin the herd: One of the easiest ways to do this is with an image. Craigslist has an option to display posts with image ONLY. This filter substantially cuts down the amount of post displayed. Make sure you don’t get filtered out.

2.    Get them in the digital door: When the reader glances at the subject line, it should be compel people to look further. No one will look further if you don’t create a need to see the details. which would subject line would get you to click on the link?

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• Come to Poplar Grove’s Haunted Hayride this October!
• Win Tickets to Poplar Grove’s Haunted House and Hayride!

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Each subject line has a call to action, but the chance of winning free tickets is the more convincing of the two. Yes, there will some free tickets to give away, but that can be decided at a later time and linked with another promotion to generate attendance, which i will discuss in August.

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3.    Be consistent with your message: Once the Craigslister has opened the post, they should see information directly related to the subject line or they will immediately move on.  No one likes to be fooled and they will remember it if a ‘bait and switch’ is pulled.

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4.    Speak plainly and have clearly distinct goals: Don’t use 25 cent words in your call to action. It be as clear and specific as possible. Be sure the call to action highlights the obvious next step. Not doing so could cause ‘choice paralysis.’ If the Craigslister doesn’t know what to do, they simply will do nothing and that choice is made in about 3 seconds. use that time wisely.

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5.    Simple HTML makes things better: Whenever possible, make your posts in simple HTML. there are tons of programs out there that will do this for you if you do not have one already. It will keep the content formatted, and the images can have links in them if you need.

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6.    Iconify your Links: If there is a link to click on, make sure it looks like a button. button icons for facebook, twitter, foursquare, YouTube are all over the web. Grab one and stick it in your post. People already know what to do. Let them do it.

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At this point, the Craigslist post is ready to be unleashed on the public. Look for part 2 next week for tips on when, where and how to place your Craigslist advertisement.

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I would like to believe that I treat my staff well. I let them know when they do things right. I encourage independent thinking and improvisation as long as it doesn’t put the haunt at risk, and I make corrections constructively and delicately. Most people are newbie’s when it comes to acting in a haunted attraction and they are going to need your help. They are also going to need your encouragement to keep up their A-game.
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One way to do this is by offering performance based incentives. This can be anything from cash bonuses, to prize swag like t-shirts and toys. BE WARNED! This can get expensive over the course of the season, especially if you are handing out multiple incentives each night…and some days you will.
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I have found one of the best working incentives is in the form of “The Whizzer Award.” For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, a Whizzer is a person who is so scared that they pee themselves inside the haunt. Anyone who is responsible for this happening automatically gets a Whizzer Award and all the bragging rights that go with it. This can be a strict rule, or you can dole it out to anyone you feel has honorarily earned it.
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Here is a basic template for what I plan to do this year:

• The Honoree will be presented with a certificate award, suitable for framing, which will be awarded in front of the rest of the staff.
• They will get their picture taken and it will be posted on the haunt’s facebook and twitter pages.
• This amazing event will be posted permanently on the regular haunted attraction website on a special page where a small humorous blurb about them and possibly how it happened.
• They will receive two complimentary tickets to the haunt so they can give them out to friends and family.

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The cost outlay is nominal compared to the benefits to be gained if you execute it properly:

• Every certificate awarded reinforces good performance and incentivizes their peers to do just as well or exceed those performance in order to receive the same recognition.

• Posting these awards to social media such as facebook and twitter allows your haunt to virally self-promote without being overt and may drive more traffic to your primary website.

• The two complimentary tickets generally encourage more tickets to be purchased because the average attendee group size is AT LEAST four, not two.

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This model can be applied to any performance based incentive and achieve similar results. Above all, remember that this type of thing should be FUN. If it seems rigged or forced, drop it because the resentment it will foster will do more harm than good.

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I have always wondered about the origins of my dark humor and was reminded by my older sister during my recent visit to Sleepy Hollow about my obsession with Charles Addams cartoons as a child. This actually pre-dates my ability to read so I can not remember a time without this fixation.

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My Father had four anthology books from Addams; Drawn and Quartered,  Addams and Evil, Monster Rally, & Homebodies. I still remember exactly where they sat on the bookshelf and how they had a slightly decayed smell that seemed to enrich the morbid sensibilities of the one-panel stories held within.

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Addams had the ability to take everyday life and turn it on its end with only a gentle twist. It took no effort to put myself into the shoes of the characters he created and I identified with, especially since many of them were children. Many of his best cartoons did not even need a caption. All that was needed was a keen eye to spot the thing that didn’t look right and then you would experience that “AH-HA!” moment.

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As my sister talked about the books I boasted that I knew them so well, you could describe only a portion of a comic and i would be able to basically describe the rest of it without looking. My sis took this as a challenge and began to Google Charles Addams cartoons to test me, which i missed only one. I kick ass, if I must say so myself.

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If anyone wants to test me, I’ll leave the challenge open, but you need to be able to produce the comic if you say I’m wrong.

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This past week I went to visit my sister and her family in New York State. Much to my embarrassment, it has been more than a few years since I have been up there when it hasn’t revolved around business. In fact I have not been there since they moved out of Manhattan and settled in Sleepy Hollow.

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This excited me. Not only would I get to visit family, but I would have a chance to wander around the town where Washington Irving lived and set the location for his story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”

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Irving tells the story of Ichabod Crane, a stern schoolteacher who sets his sights on marrying Katrina Van Tassel, it is not because of any feeling he has for her, but because her father is wealthy.  His rival for Katrina’s hand is Abraham “Brom Bones” Van Brunt. He is large, strong, rough, humorous, and good-natured, as well-known for his skill as a horseman. Needless to say, they don’t like each other and the headless horseman shows up on the scene, but if you want to find out what happens in detail, I would suggest you read the story on the Sleepy Hollow cemetery website.

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We are standing in front of the grave of Washington Irving. It is one of many historical finds in the old part of cemetery. We spent a few hours wandering about, but you can also get historical tours as well.

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One thing i didn’t know that I learned while there is that the cemetery is still active, meaning you can purchase plots and be interned, after you die, of course.

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