“Not taking a pause can have us all messed up.
This past weekend was a lesson learned. I did not want to believe it. But it happened and I’ve come to realize that we are truly in a new era. Somebody recently told me that people don’t read and as a writer that comment pierced through my soul. I seriously debated that statement but what happened this past Saturday proved his point.
5:30pm: “Akimi, we have a problem,” said one of my staff members. “I think everybody went to the wrong spot.” What??? “How the hell did that happen?” Was my golden question for about 45 minutes. “People are used to going to the other venue so when they saw our event pop up they automatically assumed that we were there,” said one of my staff members. This past weekend we decided to move to another venue after about a year of doing events in a particular location. The details of the event were written on the flyers, on event brite, sent through messaging and so on. However on the day of the event, the majority of the attendees still went to the wrong venue.
I scratched my head a few times throughout the night and there was only one solid answer as to what happened: People simply did not read the details. They saw the logo fly across the screen during their daily scroll, locked in the date and skipped right over the description. At times, a description was not even posted. Just the photo and that was it. HUGE mistake. I know it may sound like no big deal, but one wrong number/street name can make all the difference in the world for your turnout.
2018. Coming from the world of grassroots promotion paying attention to detail was a MUST because the same mistake would have costed hundreds of dollars and numerous hours to correct. It still can. I’ve seen some social media gurus say that your captions should not be long, but in certain situations I would have to say that it is the complete opposite. The plus side to this situation is that when a mistake like that is made, a simple edit to the address or an updated post will fix everything.
The positive. The attendees that got the correct address had an amazing time! Everything was beautifully decorated, the music was tight and we’re getting prepared for the next one.
Moral of the story: Pay attention to the details. I know that social media has us trained to look at the photo, tap the heart, and keep scrolling but we have to train ourselves to pause and read the captions. Think about it: This could have been a casting call, a job interview, or the opportunity of a lifetime and you ended up on the wrong side of town all because you did not read the directions. If you are creating content, don’t assume that people understand the important stuff. Put it in their face!
SN: This made me happy as a writer. There is still a need for people to read 🙂
Are you one of the bonafide scrollers or do you like to read captions on social media? Feel free to leave a comment below!
Akimi Starr 