Event attendance promotion and social channels
Tuesday, October 9th, 2012
As with much technology related, the explosion of social media options for promoting events is nearly overwhelming. It’s not like when I started 20+ years ago and a mailed brochure was all it took. Today you have to like it, pin it, tweet it and post it – just to get started.
But while you’re building your social strategy – by whatever channels are best for your audience – keep these thoughts in mind.
- Be a resource. Social media is not like a direct mail promotion. Ideally, you want to be contributing to a conversation, not hawking your wares. Offer tips from speakers as a way to help your audience and promote your event at the same time.
- Be genuine. Don’t try to disguise your promotion. If you really believe I’ll benefit from your event, tell me about it. But don’t lure me to your site with a headline and have me find it’s the headline to a sales brochure.
- Build community. Building year-round communities makes event promotion a year-round activity – and a great way to crowdsource content, too.
- Peer promotion. Nothing spreads the word about an event faster than a social network. Tweeters, bloggers and industry evangelists become your unpaid marketing team. Use this to your advantage with the planned release of key pieces of event information. (But remember points 1 and 2 above.)
- Key influencers. Most social networks are very influenced by handful of “rock stars.” What these people do and say matters. It’s important for you to know and involve these rock stars in your event.
- Use everything. YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr, Pinterest, etc. It gives potential attendees the feeling that there are dynamic, interesting things about your event happening all the time, everywhere.
What do you think are some key practices for using social channels to promote attendance. Join the conversation here.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
