[rham]

I've been trying to think of ways to incorporate social media into my haunt but not exactly sure how I should do it or what would work best.

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube for example.

Maybe setup a Facebook Page for my haunt and people can check in and say they visited my house. Would love a way to get instant feedback or pictures taken at the house.

I'm a Tech Person so I can setup web pages, and all that good stuff but I'm stuck on a way to do this.

Has anybody got any ideas or done this themselves?

 

[Madame Leota]

Lots of home haunters use facebook and instagram with good results.

 

[Michael Smith]

Put up a sign at the entrance with a hashtag ("Post your photos on Twitter with the hashtag #RhamsHaunt!"). If you've got a bit of budget, maybe offer a prize for the best photo to encourage people to participate. Then you can just search Twitter on that hashtag to see all of the posts. You can also embed it on your website and that sort of thing (and there's probably a way to connect it to a Facebook page as well).

It sounds kind of ridiculous, I know, but it works for seminars and such; I figure it'd at least be worth a try.

 

[Oak Lane Cemetery]

I did it because I wanted to keep my personal life and family out of the whole haunt thing for security reasons and network with other home haunters at the same time. No need to use one's personal page for anything other than direct (non online) friends and immediate family IMO. To do so is to risk exposing yourself to a myriad of possible crimes, schemes, and just plain creepiness. Not worth the risk. My friends list for my personal page is only 79 while my haunt page is fast approaching 2100. I always feel a little guilty turning away a friend request to my personal facebook page, but I always try to respond and explain why and direct the person to my Halloween page. Do yourself a favor and keep your private info as private as you can! I however think that every haunter, no matter how small their haunt is, should have a Facebook page for it'! Lots of fun to run one and a great resource for sharing ideas. Plus you get to see all of the goofy memes and pics that everyone posts.

 

[rham]

I think that's a great idea too Michael, thanks.

Nightfisher I agree, privacy is somewhat of a concern, would definitely separate my haunt page from personal stuff. I do live in a smaller town however about 14,000 people, I figure most town people would know who's house it is and etc, or could find out easily if wanted but yeah I would separate it from personal stuff.

Also, my street usually gets a lot of traffic on Halloween, I wouldn't mind getting more traffic by the house, do you think it would be wise to advertise my street address of the haunt ahead of Halloween on the Facebook Haunt Page, or just point people to the Facebook Haunt Page with a sign in the yard as visitors come by?

 

[Defenestrator]

Perhaps the use of a QR code would work for your purposes? If you're not familiar with them, give this article a look.

The image below might help illustrate the concept, or even generate an idea....it is an example of a slightly specialized version called a visual QR code (note the skull image embedded), from an advertisement campaign.

A bit specialized, but the basic versions are the same general idea....this squiggly nonsense can be scanned by phones and deliver the user directly to a URL:

QR codes can be easily generated, incorporated into larger images you might find in a haunt (wanted posters, 'paintings', circus ad slicks, etc.)

I don't know how much traffic it would generate, but they are pretty simple to create, and often can be done for free. The fancier visual codes such as the one pictured above will have a cost associated, but the basic versions can be produced without cost.