Launched in January 2008, www.socialbetty.com connects venues and event organizers who are planning events, both private and corporate. Organizers simply post their event’s details, free of charge, and tell the venues what they want and details about their needs. In turn, venues fill the requests of the organizer in order to fill available space and generate more revenue.
“In addition to helping event planners, many venues benefit from using Social Betty because they now have greater opportunity to generate additional revenue that would otherwise expire at the end of each business day, especially during non-peak hours, slower weeknights and vacant times,” Leslie says.
Gil Chevalier, a social networking event planner, uses Social Betty for its convenience. “When I called restaurants and nightclubs directly to book events, I spent a lot of my time going back and forth trying to reach the right person and to negotiate my event details. Now I can post my event information online and receive bids from numerous locations within a day or two,” Chevalier says. “I sometimes get food and beverage minimums waived because venues know they will make money off the guests attending my events, and VIP seating because they know they are competing for my business.”
Nelson continues to use SCORE’s services as Social Betty grows. “I look forward to working with Dick and San Diego SCORE in the near future on the company’s strategy for growth as I will be expanding Social Betty’s reach to Orange County and Los Angeles and eventually expand the Web site nationwide,” Nelson says.
In the first quarter of 2009, Social Betty Web site traffic increased by more than 200 percent over the previous quarter and the event organizer and venue registrations have nearly doubled. Nelson is finalizing the second phase of her Web site design, which features a new look and more user-friendly components. As Nelson prepares to offer Social Betty’s services nationwide, she continues to work with Dick Leslie on strategic planning, raising capital, and managing overall operations of her company.
Social Betty has been featured on the local FOX, CW and ABC news stations as well as in Pacific San Diego magazine and The Daily Aztec. |
