Christmas markets go online
CTV has a piece about Christmas markets going online but although they mention a couple, they do not link. Once again I’m nonplused by this mainstream media insistence on reporting an online phenomenon but not linking to it, as if they float above the web but do not sully themselves in it.
Yes, I know the arguments. One, maybe they’re not supposed to be actively supporting the entities named or giving them free advertising. Two, maybe everyone can now Google so effortlessly that no linking is necessary. Both these arguments are bad – we’re talking Christmas markets here, not individual businesses, plus they’re telling us about them, so they’re already giving out free PR. It’s not advertising.
Googling is also no guarantee. Puces Pop has always been slipshod about publicity, putting some things on the Pop Montreal website and some on Facebook, and we know that finding things reliably on Facebook is a mug’s game, besides which – does this even have to be explained? – not everyone is on Facebook so relying on it for your publicity is simply not smart. It won’t reach everyone. It doesn’t even reach its own users reliably.
That said, here’s the Puces Pop Facebook page which indicates their online service won’t be open till December 4 anyway, a fact not mentioned in the article linked above. The other one mentioned I can’t find at all.
I’m lambasting CTV here but most of our media are guilty of this refusal to link. The only news site that reliably links is the Metro paper.
On reddit, someone posted a well researched list of local online businesses to order gifts from.
Chris 12:26 on 2020-11-29 Permalink
A good ‘rant and rave’! This annoys the hell out of me too. I’d love for them to explain why.
EmilyG 13:19 on 2020-11-30 Permalink
It is difficult to find things like this online sometimes.
On a personal level (hope this doesn’t count as advertising!), I usually sell my work at craft fairs in the fall/winter, and I’m still trying to figure out how to sell locally online. I’m not the best at publicity or “selling myself.”
Michael Black 13:48 on 2020-11-30 Permalink
I’m not suggesting them as a specific site, but Phoenix Books in NDG often finds space for NDG made craft items. It’s not Indigo adding endless items to increase profits, it seems an honest attempt to give some space to local people. But I guess that sort of thing means selling yourself to the store owners.
One downtown church has an annual Christmas sale, they went online this year. But that’s
already past. Maybe check places where you’ve sold in the past to see if they are doing something online.
I worry that continuity will be lost, all these volunteer run events, will they be around when things are “normal”? They are.fundraisers, but also places to get things, and things to do.
dwgs 16:52 on 2020-11-30 Permalink
There’s actually a pop up craft shop in the corner space beside Encore books, I think it opened last week and if memory serves it’s called Angle. I saw some nice things looking through the window before they opened.