Home

How to Be Sticky in Spokane

October 17, 2008 7 Comments

If the squeaky wheel gets the grease Spokane is no exception where sometimes our wheels can seem a little tired, indifferent, invisible or ready to fall off altogether. Regardless of your message or agenda, here are a few fail safe tips for getting your word out on the street:

  • Come to grips with your own social awkwardness.

Manage it, grab it by the horns and wrestle with it. Don’t let it get the best of you! Exercise patience and perspective no matter how awkward the situation and you’ll be well on your way towards casting a broad social net. Push yourself to attend events that put you way outside of your social comfort zone. You’ll be surprised what can result!

  • Perfect your coffee habit.

Develop your omnipresence by knowing when to be where the people are. Try the Rocket on W. Main Tuesday mornings at 11am and the Empyrean Thursday nights starting at around 7pm. Lindaman’s gets hoppin’ about 3pm on Saturday while the Rocket on 1st & Cedar is your best bet for Sunday afternoons.

  • Never do anything alone.

Always talk at least one friend into joining you for a show, shopping, working out, cooking, fixing things, exploring  or otherwise generally bumming about. This is the stuff that relationships are made of and is the heavy lifting of building better community cohesion.

  • Just “Say No” to electronic discrimination.

Think you’re too classy for MySpace? Get over it and log on. Spokane LOVES the ghetto of the internet and you’re shooting yourself in the foot here if you refuse to participate.

  • Always have your materials on hand.

Whether they be fliers, business cards, pamphlets, notebooks your laptop or iPhone, be prepared to pass things out, post them up, and record whatever strikes your fancy. When you get good at this you’ll be able to hit a number of different birds with different stones. Find a small backpack or messenger bag to conceal these items, and don’t be shy – 65% of the time people are genuinely appreciative of your efforts to fill them in.

Happy hawking!

Twitter Digg Delicious Stumbleupon Technorati Facebook Email
Arts & Culture
,

About The Spovangelist

View all posts by The Spovangelist →

7 Responses to “How to Be Sticky in Spokane”

  1. Jonathan McKay October 18, 2008 at 1:32 pm

    Well, at least I have #2 down!

  2. The Spovangelist May 8, 2010 at 8:42 am

    It is amazing to me how this advice could already stand for a few updates:

    Atticus at any time of any day is sure to get you in touch with a few friendly people.

    MySpace is finally done in Spokane. A larger percentage have finally adopted Facebook, and anyone serious about the local landscape needs to be on LaunchPad.

    Everything else still stands on its own terms.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Poster Pole Signaling - October 20, 2008

    [...] emails, writing up Public Service Announcements for KYRS, creating event listings on online, and passing out handbills and party invites.  Too often people interested in certain things have a really hard time figuring out when they are [...]
  2. Tools of a Trouble Maker? - December 27, 2008

    [...] gak [...]
  3. A Political Departure: Comment on the Sustainability Action Plan - April 18, 2009

    [...] the resulting plan would not be incorporated into City operations. Instead I chose to invest my limited time and energy doing independent organizing work that focused on relationship building among my immediate [...]
  4. Worms Eat Our Inlanders - November 19, 2009

    [...] are information and encouragement to overcome the “Ew!” factor associated with worms. Taking my own advice, I set out to do just that by hosting a worm bin workshop during a Community Roots Market at Fresh [...]
  5. Introducing The Pope - May 8, 2010

    [...] local writer. Social, cultural and political movements aren’t won alone, so it is time to take our own advice and bring others into the [...]