How to Market a Real Time Event

 

by Chris Brogan

Always a URL. Always

If you’re going to wire up people and connect them to an event in the real world, you need a web page of some kind or another. People need all the details. They need some kind of intangible tangible that they can pass around to point out what’s what. Give them a web page.

If it’s just a one-off, use an event system like Eventbrite. If you’re going to do this over and over, consider setting up pages on your own website of choice, and then maybe double-up with an Eventbrite to manage the signup.

 

Extend onto Event Sites

Here’s where you can really get things moving. If you want this event to really spread, use sites like Upcoming.org and Eventful, to name a few. If you’ve got a Facebook group, put up an event notification there. If you’ve got a LinkedIn group, and the event matches, put it up there, too.

 

Status, Status, Status

Without being “that guy” (and never forget, I mean this for either gender), mentioning your event is easy across your Twitter, your Facebook, your LinkedIn status, and all the other social sites that make sense to promote. A word of caution: this gets close to what feels like carpet-bombing, so go gently. In fact, out in front of such a promotional effort, make sure you’re doing your good deeds and promoting others, and sharing other good information. People don’t like a tireless self-promoter, but they don’t mind someone who shares the good stuff, even when some of it’s their own.

 

Email Marketing

Do you maintain an email list? Don’t forget to drop a gentle note of your event into there, too. Again, the goal is subtlety and just a gentle pointer to your URL.

 

Flickr and YouTube

Want to amp up your event’s pre-buzz as well as give it some love on the day of the event? Here are two things: use photos and videos for pre-event invites and promos. Then, encourage people to take photos and videos AT the event. If at all possible, make it easy for the folks who might be into making media to have something to take photos and make movies about. (A side note: if you’re bothering to throw an event with a lot of web presence, use a tag – metadata – to denote the event, for people’s blog posts, for Flickr and YouTube, and for Twitter. For instance, we’ll use #trustsummit for our event in NYC.)

 

Blog Posts Matter

You can do much worse than to find local bloggers and bloggers who care about the subject matter to cover the event, should they find it useful. If you’ve a budget to do so, invite some to attend in exchange for blogging anything that might be of interest to them. Realize that in the new world, bloggers are rarely obligated to do whatever you ask, and yet, if you make it interesting and worthwhile, folks love to tell a story.

Getting a few posts out about the event ahead of time, and/or after give you a lot more traction and appreciation before and after. Again, make sure the event’s worthy of coverage. If it’s just a straight product pitch or the like, that’s tricky to justify.

 

Twitter on the Day Of the Event

To me, Twitter’s the magic sauce in making your NEXT event really light up. It’s too late for your event by the time folks start tweeting about it, but it’s a great way to really warm up your future events. If people are tweeting that they’re having a fun time, that they’re learning, that there are still a few hours to get down to the event and have fun, magic can happy. That’s why Twitter’s the Serendipity Engine.

 

 

Chris Brogan wrote a blog a week or so ago about what he'd do if he suddenly found himself with some unscheduled time, such as a flight delay. The only thing I remember from his list is he'd write a recommendation on LinkedIn. That's a good task to knock off your to-do list but probably wouldn't make my top ten list. If I had 30 minutes of unexpected time open up, here is what I'd do.

1. Re-organize and prioritize my tasks. I'm always making lists and checking off completed items, which means sometimes my lists get messy. I find that taking a few minutes to clean them up and create clear priorities helps me stay relaxed and be more productive.
2. Investigate new social media sites. I have a list of social media sites that I keep meaning to investigate. 30-minutes is just about the right amount of time to really dig into a social media site, see what they're trying to do and then compare their value to some of the better known sites. Since a lot of people ask me about social media I feel an obligation to be well versed on the subject.
3. I like to take 30 minutes and focus on one client. I ask myself one question: What can I do or recommend that will improve their business? Sometimes this results in a proposal but most of the time I just call them, share the idea and let them know that I'm thinking about them. In my experience these types of phone calls are very well received.
4. Call a friend. Everyone is busy so it's hard to stay in touch with all the important people in our lives. Give me 30 minutes and I can leave voicemails, no one answers anymore, for 5-6 people and just say, "Hello, I was thinking about you and wanted to touch base.". (I need to do more of this.)
5. I subscribe to the online version of the Wall Street Journal but don't read it everyday. Sometimes, as a change of pace, I'll open it up and read whatever interests me. Typically, I tweet a link to the most interesting articles. It's my favorite source of Tweets.
6. I subscribe to several business journals and receive summaries regularly. It's a good way to keep current and has, on occasion, been the source of new business. It typically takes 5-10 minutes to get through one summary.
7. Promote my blog. Few blogs grow readership by themselves, you have to promote them. I use Twitter, FaceBook and LinkedIn (primarily) to let folks know a new post is up. In addition, I read several other blogs and leave comments, which is a good way to get people to read blog, in return, and you help grow an audience.
8. Speaking of blogs, 30 minutes is just enough time to brainstorm blog topics and write a short paragraph outline.
9. Take a walk or just look out the window. I have long days and seldom take a day off so every once in a while I just need to step away from the desk or whatever I'm working on to relax and regain my perspective.
10. Clean up my desktop. By the end of the week my computer screen is often cluttered. I don't like clutter so spending 10-15 minutes to get files organized and into a folder is time well spent. This is similar to #1 so here's an extra bonus.
11. Bonus: Check out the competition or one of my clients' competitors. Websites are being changed all the time. My arsenal of intelligence gathering and website analysis tools is constantly expanding so it pays for me to take the time to do a little competitor checking.

So, what would you do?

Steve