Taking It To The Streets…Of Facebook

March 30, 2010 By BJ Cook,

So here at Digital Operative we are big fans of San Diego, I mean it is our home. San Diego though is also home to a huge convention each year called Comic Con International. It was started here and is one the biggest events this city has. Well they are in a battle now to keep the event here in town and are facing tough competition from Anaheim as well as LA. There are many political and financial factors that will ultimately play a large part in this decisions but the fans of the event are not going down with out a fight. This article from the San Diego Union Tribune (Click Here) brought to my attention that a Facebook fan page was started by local Comic Con fans to help keep the event in San Diego, and now the city of Anaheim has countered with their own fan page to support the move up north. Each page is very active and provides a rallying point for people to share, congregate, and ultimately build the base of dedicated fans that will fight to have the event in there city. Although I feel that the San Diego Group is more powerful because it was started by fans and not a municipality the Anaheim page has done a better job of utilizing custom Facebook features by creating a tab with the reasons to move to San Diego and an open letter to the Directors of Comic Con. I do have a few more ideas for the San Diego page to make it more effective...

Brand the group with a logo and message that can easily be spread digitally
Utilize the FBML features available for the fan page application
Instead of just one open letter like Anaheim did they should have the fans write letters as to why they want it to stay in San Diego and what it means to them
Give the fans action steps to support to movement
Encourage fans to blog, tweet, and message friends about supporting the group
Educate fans on the impact the event has the city so they can support online and offline conversations

Keep Comic Con In San Diego v. Bring Comic Con International To Anaheim