Social media can be an effective and very serious tool of promotion for business owners.
Here are some ideas to amplify the reach of your online meeting or event.
Table of Contents
Never Run Out of Tools
The organization of an online event can be greatly facilitated by intelligent use of the internet and the different tools that can be found online.
For example, ClickMeeting gives you customizable web conferencing software, with different features that you can use to organize a successful online event (I particularly like the useful translation option which makes this tool particularly suggested for international meetings).
Of course, you will need a reliable internet connection such as the one provided by the Earthlink internet plans.
Other than the right tools, social media can be a great opportunity for promotion that can not be neglected.
Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, and many other social networks available are channels that can contribute to the success of your online event.
In support of “standard” communication channels (media, mailing lists, specific journals, corporate website, etc.), social media can be used as a megaphone for every moment of the event, from the stage which precedes it, with the distribution of content and technical or logistical information, such as the presentation of the topics to the introduction of the speakers or sponsors, the registration procedures or the description of any other initiatives.
Be sure to continue the work even after the event, in order to gather feedback from the participants, giving a sense of continuity, publishing on your website or blog the reflections, curiosities or anecdotes, so as to invite users to leave comments, tips or tales.
Encouraging individual stories mean broadening the interest of your online meeting.
Twitter offers several solutions for sharing the word about an online event (or your business).
It’s one of the most effective social media channels, thanks to features like hashtags, that allow you to find, remember and search any topic (included your event) easily.
Hashtag is a convention introduced by users to “classify” better a tweet, to add before your keywords (eg, your #eventname).
Simply use the hashtag in all the tweets related to your event and encourage your participants to do the same, so as to be followed by as many people as possible.
On the other hand, you can suggest your audience to simply ReTweet your messages to reach their network of contacts, expanding the number of people you reach.
Don’t forget the power of Twitter Cards (an exhaustive article here). They basically give super power to your tweets.
Or the Twitter Chat, which is another great method to promote your event and increase your audience.
Facebook is the most suited social media for the launch of an online meeting, given its popularity and particular features, such as “pages” or “events”, one of the most powerful tools of the platform.
With its attractive power, you can easily retrieve users before, during and after the event, in order to continue the communication about the topics covered, thus creating a community of fans.
Generally it is best to create a page before the online event, following the Facebook instructions and specifications.
This is particularly useful and effective if it is an initiative that is repeated over time, because it allows you to gather a group of friends who are united by the same interests.
Another popular tool offered by Facebook is the ‘like’ button, to add to your website for the promotion of your event and for inviting visitors to read and participate.
But it’s great also to reach people outside of your circles, expanding in this way the possibility of contacting other users.
Other Channels
The use of the media is very effective for promotion: publishing photos is sometimes more direct than using many words.
Even videos are very indicated: you can create quick interviews with the protagonists of the day, with speakers, sponsors and also with the public both before and during the event.
Do not forget to upload pictures on Flickr and other photo sharing sites, taking care to give to each image a specific name, an accurate description and inserting appropriate tags to share with as many people as possible.
Other than the above mentioned ones, there are many other social media sites you can use to promote your meeting or business.
Are you targeting a local area? Use Foursquare.
Do you want to show off the pictures of your event? Use Instagram.
Do you need to promote the video recorded? Use YouTube.
Conclusion
Internet has become a powerful channel to promote your business, whether it’s your online meeting or your product and service.
Online marketing covers a wide range of methods to promote your business.
Social media is just a small part of it because the marketing opportunities online are endless!
Are you using these social media tips?
Do you have something else to add?
Please share your knowledge in the comments below, thanks!
Image courtesy of bplanet at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
John says
I liked the suggestions in your post, thanks for the share!
Social media is great to promote your business.
Komal Gupta says
Hello Erik,
Great post.I really like all points like as Othe channel, Google+, Facebook. Wonderful ideas for social media. Thank you for putting this together. I will share this with my friends.
Have a great day!
Regards,
Komal Gupta
Nanda Rahmanius says
Hi Erik,
You really mention all the social media platforms.
I agree with the power of hashtag, I have felt the benefits myself though. 🙂
Indeed, if we can take advantage of this platforms well, our online meetings or our business will be more easily accessible and growing. Thanks for sharing this with us, Erik.
Have a nice day for you!
~Nanda
Rob says
I like the way you explained how to promote an online meeting via social media.
Very useful. Thanks for sharing.
Sonam Gupta says
Hello,
Awesome tutorial on how to promote an online meeting with social media. There are many webmasters who share this kind of tutorial but don’t share in a good manner. They make things complicated. I love your style how you shared everything in a good manner.
Keep up your good work!
Thanks so much share this great post.
Andrew Warner says
Hey Erik,
Great post.
I never had the opportunity to have an online meeting yet … but that’s going to change in the future as I’m starting to become more active again online and getting involved in video and possibly podcasts again.
Regarding this post though, it seems that Facebook along with G+ would be one of the best options for promoting an online meeting. Or any big webinars, etc.
But realistically, if you have a meeting, you should try and use any method to promote it to get the most eyes on it.
Thanks for sharing this.
– Andrew
Nikhil Ganotra says
Hey,
Great tips Erik! I never thought of promoting online meeting through twitter.
You also shared some amazing methods of promoting online meeting through various social media networks.
I wonder from where you get such brilliant topics.! LOL!! 😉
Thanks!
Sylviane Nuccio says
Hi Erik,
What can’t we do online nowadays?
Because of the online world we have so many different ways to promote whatever we want to promote. Event, meeting, product, etc. So many tools and ways.
Thanks for sharing this, even if I don’t have a meeting or event to share, it’s still great reminder.
ikechi says
Hi Erik
As usual your posts are always awesome and so simple to digest.
Using Social media for online meeting is the trend today. So I love the points that you raise about social media and how they can be used to promote an online meeting. Thanks for sharing.
metz says
In a world where we now communicate and collaborate mainly via the Internet, it’s important to have the right tool available, like for example, Google+ Hangouts. It’s very useful and another network that supports video chatting and with a group. Marketers use this tool for meetings. Most of my friends online recommends this.
Sunday says
Hi Erik,
Promoting an online meeting is always a great idea. It can help facilitate engagement and social connections.
The use of social media platforms like Google Plus, Facebook and Twitter is not surprising.
After all, these are all avenues to promote social engagements and events. It sure would be easier to promote an online meeting if the individual or business understands what he is doing.
I think, one way of making online meeting work via social media is to ,first of all, pursue a highly engaging social audience.
I have shared this comment in kingged.com where this post was “kingged”.
Pritam Nagrale says
Hey Erik , Great points you have highlighted here ,
Now a days everything is on internet , many people use smartphones and internet on their phones, Internet has become most useful way of communication. I like to use Google+ hangouts app for group communication, I like skype as well to do audio chat with multiple peoples.
Zara Khan says
Now a days everything is on internet , many people use smartphones and internet on their phones, Internet has become most useful way of communication.
Riya Chaurasia says
Hi,
I’m second time visit your blog really glad. I liked the suggestions in your post and social media is very important for all like me. At this time there are four famous social networking like as Google+, Facebook, twitter and LinkedIn. I love your way how to present this.
thanks for the share this great info:)
Have a nice day!
Regards,
Riya Chaurasia
Kuldeep says
Hi Erik,
Great post as usual.. Social Media is undoubtedly a great marketing tool, you have shared some easy yet effective tips to promote online meeting.
Thanks for sharing this guide 🙂
FreedomBlogger says
Hey Erik!!
Great tips on promoting your online meeting here!
One thing that you can also do is create Facebook Groups related to what you are offering. Share value in there daily, and encourage people to join that facebook group if they want to learn for free. Then, when you have an online meeting, you can promote it in the facebook groups you own! 🙂
It’s a win-win strategy!
Thanks for sharing your knowledge here!
Keep up the great work!
I wish you the best!
Cheers! 😀
Rahul Choudhary says
Hey Erik sir !!
Great tips on promoting your online meeting here!
siva says
Hi Erik,
That’s super cool post once again from you. I wondered how you will get all this ideas about the post and tools for that. That is very impressive. I haven’t heard about Twitter chart ,click meeting tool .. let me try it out and see the results.
Hash tags : are a great way to increase the overall social media traffic. I believe that it will provide great values to expand our reach in particular indicating the #hash tag for key word or phrase. And also I’ve seen some decent results by using the hashtag when we share the content in social media.
Great Work Erik 🙂
Thanks
Siva
Atif Rahman says
Its an awesome article Erik! But if you personally ask me then i must say that Twitter is best among all for this purpose. It can grab you a lot more audience then expected.
Will go with Twitter anyday. 🙂
Rahul Yadav says
Hey Erik,
Awesome tips as always.
Thanks for this and other great posts.
Swadhin Agrawal says
Hi Erik,
good one!
I love twitter chats and they are an amazing source to get to know many new faces and also showcase your skills to an audience beyond yours. (we can also use it for limited and known audiences though). I would also say facebook groups are awesome along with the events feature.
To add a li’l humor I had read a piece of news a couple of months ago reporting the arrival of 2000 people to a teen girl’s house because she invited them on a facebook event (without really expecting they would drop by her house). So be cautious! haha
Emma says
I have to say many bloggers are guilty of believing these myths and even actively letting them affect their blogging success. I like the first 2 myths the most as they are actually connected – instead of publishing daily it’s best to publish once or few times per week and spend the rest of the time promoting. And one of the best forms of promotion is taking advantage of the search engines, rather than ignoring search engines. Google is bigger now than ever before and will keep getting bigger. If bloggers spend more time writing articles that rank and promoting such articles to get more links, success will be easier and long term.