| I sure hope you are opening this email for the first time on Tuesday after a relaxing holiday weekend that capped off a great summer. If you still have some weekend hours left, read quickly and get out on your deck, your boat, the golf course, or wherever you do your best relaxing.
Many people have not even discovered the LinkedIn Event Application, let alone all the other features that can help them boost attention and ultimately attendance at their event. Thus, I thought I would share my best practices for using LinkedIn to promote events.
13 Ways to Effectively Promote Your Upcoming Event Using LinkedIn
1. Start by using the LinkedIn Event Application to actually post the event details so the event can be found if LinkedIn users are searching for events in your area.
Events is an optional application that you download by selecting the "More" tab on the top toolbar and scrolling down to "Get More Applications." Go through the download process, and then you will be able to add your event to the LinkedIn calendar for all to see and RSVP.
After individuals RSVP, a status update goes out to their network, and the event entry remains on their profile for all future reviewers of their profile to see. You will be amazed how many people will become aware of your event because they see an entry about your event on other people's profiles.
2. When creating the event on LinkedIn, you get a chance to tag the event with two different things -- keywords that describe the event and titles of the people you think should attend the event. You get 20 keywords and 20 titles; so don't be stingy. Think about all the different titles and keywords people may use, not just the ones you use regularly.
3. Immediately after creating the event, LinkedIn will prompt you to share this event with a selected group of your connections. This is a great feature to get the word out to people you think would benefit from the event.
4. During the time leading up to the event, you will want to periodically visit the event page and use the "Share" button to re-invite connections or invite additional connections who were not previously invited. You can also use the "Share" button to share to your groups, your Twitter account, and individuals not even on LinkedIn directly via their email.
5. Leading up to the event, use your Status Box several times in order to promote the event. Change up the topic of the update and include information like the theme of the event, venue, speakers, etc. Use a URL shortener, like budurl.com or tinyurl.com, to link them directly to the LinkedIn event. This will enable you to use more of your 148 characters for your comments.
6. Start a discussion to promote your event in the LinkedIn groups that would most likely attend the event. Do this multiple times leading up to the event date. Change up the discussion/comments to generate interest. Always include the link to the event details.
7. Use the Advanced Search to prepare a list of people you will contact directly, via phone or email, by using keywords (probably the same tags you used above).
8. Go to the Advanced Search in the Event Application and see if there are any similar events going on in the area, and review the RSVP list to see if you should directly invite any of those individuals to your event. You will need to either be connected to that person directly or through a group. This is just another benefit of joining several regional super groups like Link Up Milwaukee or the Milwaukee Business Professionals Group.
9. Ask a few of your closest connections who have already RSVP'd for the event if they would consider either inviting some of their connections or using their Status Update to promote the event.
10. Ask a few of your most connected connections to "Like" or "Share" your status update on their homepage or with their connections or groups.
11. If the event is far enough in the future, consider starting a group just for the promotion of the event, and be sure to post updates to the agenda, speakers, RSVPs, and solicit input from the group members.
12. Upload a pdf version of the event brochure into your Box.net files. You may want to mention this in your Summary section so people realize that it is there.
13. Create a short video promoting the event. This could include clips from last year's event, an interview with the keynote speaker, testimonials from attendees of previous events, etc. This video can then be put on the profiles of all the board members, committee members or others involved in the event in either the Website section (as a hyperlink) or in the SlideShare or Google Presentation Application.
You may want to consider adding a statement in your Summary that would say something like, "See the Google Presentation below for a video of what you can expect at this year's benefit gala." |
At the end of summer our thoughts typically move back into work mode full force, as we attempt to finish the year strong. Sometimes this includes hosting business-related events. 