Sell Tickets Through your Facebook Fan Page with Fan Page Ticketing

TicketBiscuit today unveiled a Facebook App that enables its clients to sell tickets directly from their Facebook Fan Page, without ever having to leave Facebook. The TicketBiscuit Fan Page Ticketing App is the latest in a series of innovations introduced by TicketBiscuit to help clients leverage social media to sell more tickets.

“In 2008, we were one of the first ticketing companies to offer seamless Facebook integration, and now we’re setting the pace again,” said TicketBiscuit Chief Marketing Officer Eric Housh. “Using Facebook for live event promotion is a necessity now. If you’re not doing it well, you’re not as successful as you could be,” he continues, “Our new app has taken it a step further, transforming a client’s Facebook Fan Page from a marketing channel into an actual sales channel .”

Housh says that the TicketBiscuit Facebook app is unique in that it links in real time to the client’s TicketBiscuit account, meaning that ticket sales can be taking place simultaneously on Facebook, on the client’s website, via the TicketBiscuit-provided mobile optimized smartphone interface, and via TicketBiscuit’s web-based box office point-of-sale software, with all inventory managed centrally in real time.  The look and feel of the ticketing interface matches the clean look of Facebook. And in keeping with TicketBiscuit’s core philosophy, the client’s brand stays out in front. “It takes the concept of white-labeling to a whole new level: now you can have a white-label ticketing solution seamlessly integrated into your Facebook Fan Page along with your other web properties.”

Though TicketBiscuit just publicly announced Fan Page Ticketing today, it has been in testing for a couple of months. Several clients, including the Re:Generation Festival, Yarmony Grass Festival, and Comedy Zone Charlotte are already using the app with great success. The TicketBiscuit Fan Page Ticketing App can be added to any Facebook Fan Page with a couple of clicks. Housh says the only requirements are that you be an Admin of the Page and that you have a TicketBiscuit account.

TicketBiscuit, Georgia Theatre Extend Partnership (Official Release)

If all goes to plan, the legendary Georgia Theatre will reopen this June, almost two years after a fire completely gutted the historic structure.  Owner Wilmot Greene says that while the building will be brand new and state of the art, not everything is changing. “It’s still going to be the same crew, the same spirit, just in a new building,” he said.

Another thing that is staying consistent is The Theatre’s longstanding agreement with TicketBiscuit to provide ticketing services. Greene and CEO Jeff Gale inked a long term, exclusive deal earlier in the spring.  “Those guys have stuck with us, helped us out, and they’re a great team,” Greene said, “Plus, they still have the best technology and service in the business, hands down.”

Todd Coder, TicketBiscuit’s Director of Music Business Development, said “Having an icon like the Georgia Theatre as a part of the TicketBiscuit family is something we’re very proud of. We’re excited about their reopening, and are sure they’re about to write a few more chapters of music history there.”

Gale and Coder, who toured The Theatre earlier in the year, were impressed with the new space. “Wil is building a world-class showroom in Athens. The new Theatre is absolutely phenomenal,” Gale said.

The Georgia Theatre is scheduled to open with local acts in June and July, and have a series of Official Grand Opening performances in August. For more information, visit www.georgiatheatre.com.

About TicketBiscuit: TicketBiscuit, founded in 2001, provides proprietary software that powers the online ticket sales of over 500 clients in 1500 venues across the United States and Canada. TicketBiscuit’s complete suite of services and solutions empowers clients to sell tickets online through their own websites and social media properties, via call center, and via the TicketBiscuit web-based box office interface.  For more information on TicketBiscuit, please visit http://www.ticketbiscuit.com .

Ex-Ticketmaster CEO Denounces “Middle Man” Model

In a Wall Street Journal article out today, former Ticketmaster CEO, Fred Rosen, denounces the Ticketmaster model that he essentially created in the 1980s and ’90s. Says Rosen, “The middle-man model is dead.” Rosen’s new venture, according to the Journal, is different because “…instead of listing and selling tickets for thousands of events on a single, centralized website, the new company plans to offer a so-called white-label service that will enable clients … to sell tickets to consumers directly from their own websites.” What a concept! Not to toot our own horn, but this is the model TicketBiscuit has espoused since we opened the doors in 2001.

Back before Google, Facebook, Songkick, Eventful, and the other myriad services and websites that help fans find events, Ticketmaster arguably provided a valuable service in aggregating events on one website. But now, that “service” does more to hijack event owners’ website traffic than it does to provide exposure for those events.

I often hear Ticketmaster clients claim that “people just know to go to Ticketmaster.” I disagree. They know to go to Google; they know to go to Facebook; and they subscribe to services like Songkick which notify them of events they’re interested in. This new paradigm frees event owners from having to get the word out about their events (let your customers do that for you) and lets them instead focus on building brand loyalty and establishing direct communication with customers.

The live entertainment biz is changing – for the better if you ask me. As the combined Ticketmaster and LiveNation struggle to maintain their outdated business model, event owners would do well to sidestep the “middle man.” Those who do not may find their life rafts getting pulled under by that massive sinking ship to which they are tethered.

Cool New Tech from TicketBiscuit: Promote Your Events with Auto-Tweets

Love Twitter or hate Twitter, it’s hard to disagree with the reach and influence of the popular micro-blogging platform. Now, TicketBiscuit makes it easier than ever to leverage this powerful community for the promotion of your events with the TicketBiscuit Twitter App.

Already built in to all TicketBiscuit accounts, this powerful little bugger lets you schedule pre-written, post-dated tweets about your events that will go out automatically – from your own Twitter account – at pre-defined times relative to your events.

TicketBiscuit's Twitter App Makes it easy to tweet consistently about your events.

Your auto-tweets are fully under your control. Customize any part of the tweet, and insert event-specific details by using the handy drop down menus. Some of the details you can include:

• Event title, name, and date
• Links to buy tickets and to event details pages
• Ticket price ranges
• On-sale dates and times
• Venue city, state, and name

Scheduling your auto-tweets is a breeze as well: choose to publish the tweet when the event is announced, when the tickets go on sale, on the date of the event, or at any date or time prior to any of these.

You can schedule as many tweets as you like!

The TicketBiscuit Twitter App is just another example of how we never stop innovating to help you sell more tickets. For more information give us a call or send us an email.

Introducing the TicketBiscuit Affiliate Program

We never stop thinking of cool ways to help our clients sell more tickets. Today, we’re launching the TicketBiscuit Affiliate Program to the general public.

How does it work?

The concept is pretty simple actually – website owners, bloggers, and publishers link to our events from their website or blog, and we pay them commissions on referred ticket sales.

How did we do it?

First, we took our massively cool legion of clients and their ever-expanding multitude of awesome events.

Next, we built an easy, intuitive way for web publishers, bloggers, and site owners to tap into those events.

And finally,we topped it off with a generous commission structure. One that even pays commissions for presale tickets or ticket purchases made within 24 hours of when tickets first go on sale to the public (unlike that other, less awesome ticket affiliate program). 

Where can I learn more?

Check out our affiliate program page to learn more, sign up now, or email affiliate (at) ticketbiscuit.com.