Wednesday, January 26, 2011

2013 PROMO: Promote your events: short checklist

Event promotion checklist
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I hate to see people go to the trouble of preparing for an event and then have a low turnout because they did not promote it effectively.
- Here are my suggestions for effective promotion of an event:
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  • Embed everything you want to give in one notecard.    
  • You can embed landmarks, objects, and other notecards in a notecard by dragging each one  from your inventory onto the card.  
  • Do this with the notecard in your inventory -- it may not work with a notecard in an object.  
  • Think of a notecard in somebody's inventory as a way of advertizing what you do -- don't waste it on just a single event unless that is all you have.
Affiliated groups
Consider other groups that may be willing to promote your event (perhaps with reciprocity). 
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Imagine you get the note you are writing.   You are busy.   Here is what you want to know fast:
  • Teaser:  Why do I want to read this? (Hook)
  • Date and Time: California time, SLT
  • Place: Land mark and SLURL
  • Promotional materials 
  • (make it easy for other people to promote your event): 
  • Posters and textures (full perm
  • Publishable copy.  (What you want the bloggers to use).
  • Contact person: Second Life name
  • Who would want to attend.
  • Why someone would want to attend.
  • Action  from recipient (be explicit, be clear, make it easy for the user): 
  • Come to the event now (best send IM with  SLURL and post notice on Twitter/Facebook ) or
  • Mark your calendar (use group notice, notecard, and outworld routes,  include SLURL landmark) 
  • Contact XXXX for next action
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When you send a notecard, be sure the title includes keywords that will help people find the card in a crowded inventory.

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3 comments:

  1. I spent two years writing about events for New World Notes and feel pretty qualified to comment on this post. What you have said about the notecard is spot on and people would do well to heed your advice. Having said that I would add a number of important points.

    1) You need to get the word out about your event in advance! The day before or the day of is too late. A week to ten days in advance you want people to hear about your event.

    2) Send the notice to bloggers! There are plenty of people who will write about your event if you just let them know.

    3) Use social networks! Plurk is very Second Life focused and you should also make good use of Twitter.

    4) Put your event in Linden Lab's event list! Its a little cumbersome to use but people check it when they are looking for something to do.

    5) A day before your event send a reminder. Do NOT spam your groups and your FL or people will hate you forever. One notice a week in advance, one the day before and social networking or group IMs that say "come now! Here is the LM" is enough.

    6) To reiterate: spam=bad. gentle reminder=good.

    7) Use complete sentences in your note card and if you are not a good writer then have someone proofread your notices! Typos are embarrassing and unclear writing will not produce the results you are after.

    8) If you are going to do lots of events ask experience event planners for advice or consider hiring someone to help.

    9) Put on an entertaining event and you are on the way to building an audience. If your event is disorganized or not fun you will have a hard time getting people back for a second time.

    Wow that got long winded. I guess I have a thing or two to say on the subject. I should think about doing some posts on my own blog on this topic.

    Chestnut Rau

    ReplyDelete
  2. A nice, concise checklist that every promoter should keep on hand for easy access. Thanks for pulling this together! Chestnut's comments are right on target too.....

    -Karm

    ReplyDelete
  3. I will soon repost Chestnut's excellent comments. Later I will post more detailed suggestions about promotion inworld and, separately, ourworld.

    ReplyDelete

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