Art of Seduction in the Russian Moishe House

Inviting guests to my home used to be a simple task - call them up,
extend an invite, and done. Simple. Direct. Personal. Having an
agenda was optional. Ok, so once in a while I may send a text
message. I might even send one message to a few people to save time.
While this may not seem as personal, we knew each other very well, the
intent was clear and unambiguous - I wanted their company, and nothing
more. Whether the guests would accept my invite or not, life was
easy, and the consequences were few to nonexistent. Those days are
now long behind. In my few months of living in the Russian Moishe
House, my roommates and I had to develop this method to a science.

Contrary to the emotional connection I share with my close friends,
the connection we share with members of our community is unfortunately
a bit more artificial. Reasons for this are clear - throwing events
is fun, but also an obligation we face as an organization. We realize
this, and so do the guests. Granted, we love everyone's company, but
the price of growing a community is having to rely on marketing
tactics and attracting many people that we don't know too well.

We consistently rely on a number of measures to attract guests to our
events. As a primary means of event marketing, we utilize Facebook.
We do our best to post events at least two weeks in advance to give
people ample time to organize their calendars, but occasionally get
lazy in this matter. In general, a lesser time window before the
event tends to bring in less people, but the event fun factor also
plays a large role here. We typically send one or more reminders in
the days leading into the event. While Facebook marketing may suffice
for the most social events, we try our best to supplement it with more
personal channels of communication. Text messages are one example.
Granted, we send these to multiple recipients, but because we address
a smaller group of people, the invitations seem more personal, and the
fact is usually reflected in the quality of the responses. My
Blackberry only allows a maximum of ten recepients per text message,
so my invites are especially selective! On an even more personal and
selective basis, we make phone calls and extend in-person invites.

So far, we relied almost exclusively on these methods for bringing
guests to our events. However, there are never any guarantees or
metrics to accurately predict the number of expected guests for any
event - only loose correlations. The event content is another large
determining factor. If we the event is perceived as dry and boring
when advertised, the attendance will be low, and the few people who do
attend may strongly consider this experience in the future, regardless
of past experiences. Taking this into account, we try to make the
programming as fun as possible, and have the fact reflect in the
marketing, regardless of whether the event is purely social, or
primarily educational. Depending on the event time, duration, and
other specifics, providing food and drinks helps in bringing people
in, but the event programming is usually the bigger driving force.
Last, but not least, it definitely does not hurt us to live in an
upscale place and at a nice location!

This is how the game is played at the Russian Moishe House. We have
also been marketing our content on Twitter, but more so for the sake
of experimenting. We might even consider putting together a website
to boost our popularity. There is no single approach that is always
effective in this business, so we have to consistently explore
innovative ways to attract guests to our home.