Ojai WordFest premieres March 19-27, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



Ojai WordFest premieres March 19-27, 2011

A 9-Day Celebration of Words, Ideas and Stories





OJAI, Calif., November 16, 2010 — Ojai WordFest will launch next Spring with nine days of reading and writing events in one of the most beautiful settings in Southern California: the majestic Ojai Valley.



“We’re excited to be showcasing Ojai authors,” says Roberta Raye, owner of Made in Ojai - Artisans & Mercantile and co-founder of the event. “In Ojai you can find New York Times best-selling authors as well as screenwriters, playwrights, slam poets, cookbook authors … you name it.”



The mission of Ojai WordFest is to celebrate the wealth of Ojai’s literary talent; to nurture aspiring writers as well as seasoned authors to further develop their craft; and to introduce Ojai to the world as a literary destination.



“We hope to draw people from all over Southern California,” says Sequoia Hamilton, owner of Paris Writers Retreats and co-founder of Ojai WordFest. “Ojai is already home to Ojai Music Festival, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Ojai Film Festival and other arts-centric events and we are thrilled by the outpouring of support from local businesses, organizations, the City of Ojai, and volunteers.”



The nine-day event kicks off Saturday, March 19 with an all-day Book Fair and is followed by a multi-author Book Release Party that same evening. Ojai WordFest continues for eight more days with a host of community events – open mic venues, poetry readings, a scrabble pajama party, a literary-based big screen movie night, a downtown “Lit Crawl” – and is anchored by a 3-day Writers’ Conference (Friday, March 25- Sunday, March 27.)



Highlights of the 9-day event are numerous and include Cooking Classes at the Lavender Inn with local cookbook authors, soulful workshops by esoteric authors at local venues including the dome at Soul Centered and Ojai House, classes by Yoga authors at Ojai Retreat, and numerous author readings around town including Theater 150, Bart’s Books, the Ojai Library, and more. Ojai WordFest will culminate with a Gala and Awards Banquet on Saturday, March 26.



“Ojai is a natural venue for such an event,” says Bret Bradigan, publisher of Ojai Quarterly magazine, and co-founder of Ojai WordFest, "We are brimming with talent, tranquil beauty and inspiration.”



For more information, visit: www.OjaiWordFest.com



# # #

Media Contact:

Sequoia Hamilton

(805) 766-7222

www.OjaiWordFest.com

Word-of-Mouth 2.0

This is part of a conversation earlier this week about socializing my work's website, www.OjaiVisitors.com. I wanted to add a Facebook 'Like' Box to the site to help drive up our Facebook content. Read and tell me if you think I made my case.

The “Like Button” is for article content, the “Like Box” is to integrate your website with your Facebook Fan Page. They are not the same thing.

If our goal is to drive traffic to the website, we need to take advantage of the tools at our disposal. If we really want to use the Facebook to

drive traffic to the website, we need to make a customized landing page, which will showcase the site immediately when new users click on our Facebook. The way we have it right now, the website isn’t even mentioned until we click the “Info” tab on the page. Consider the fan page is like a continuously streaming e-newsletter, users see the information and specials I post in real time. Most of the information I post on our Facebook directly links to our website, so why not try to get more fans so they can be continuously updated with specials and information?
This is where the symbiotic relationship between the website and social media comes in. Our mission is to drive midweek overnight stays, and by not making our website sharable or incorporated with FB or Twitter, we aren’t allowing the possibility of crowd sourcing. Social media is making e-blasts and e-newsletters obsolete, and the more out of town people we have on our Facebook, the more up to date they will be on what’s going on in Ojai. And they will tell their friends

, and so on and so forth. It’s “Word-of-Mouth 2.0!”

Shortly after this post was written, we added a beautiful landing page to our Facebook to help drive traffic to the website. Check it out:

Despite my finding that my confidence in the "like" box wasn't good for the site, I am so happy that my team listened to what I had to say. You win some and lose some.