You understand the importance of hosting events, and you’ve started the planning process for the next event in your space. Now it’s time to start promoting! So where do you begin exactly? You’ve determined the topic your community is most interested in, you’ve figured out the who, when, where, why, what, and you have your collaboration partners. It’s time to get people to actually take notice of your event and register!
Event Registration
Let’s start by creating a registration link for your event. We recommend using the Proximity Platform to create and manage your events! You’ll create a name, add a custom image, set date/times, and add a detailed description. Add your location and the maximum amount of registrants. If you need to accept ticket payment, this is where you can link to Eventbrite or another event payment management site. You’ll begin to collect email addresses of registrants, and as your space continues to hold events, your email list will grow drastically, which means more people at future events! Tip: If you’re using the Proximity Platform as your registration, check out this fun video!
Social Media Promotion
Facebook: Let’s face it everyone uses Facebook. However, it’s often better to build your own registration database in an event platform (see above). We recommend creating a Facebook event solely for promotion purposes and linking to your registration platform within that event to collect those RSVPs. It’s also really important to promote and tease your upcoming event with Facebook posts. Post a few times in the weeks leading up to the event, and more frequently as the event gets closer, this will increase buzz and gain interest. Don’t forget to link back to your registration page!
Google My Business: We’ve talked about this amazing free tool in the past, it’s not to be overlooked! Not only can you use it for basic information but it also allows you to post about your events! When you create a post on Google My Business you can select “event”, and add important event information (image, time/date, registration link). The event then appears when people run a Google search for your business! This allows you, as the space owner to drive more traffic to your event from those who were already curious about your coworking space.
Instagram: This might be where most of your followers are spending the bulk of their time on social media. You can get really creative with your initial posting of the event and continue to build the promotion from there. Similar to Facebook, increase the frequency of your posts as the event date gets closer. It’s also important to use Instagram Stories for promotion. All of your followers can see your content on Instagram Stories, whereas due to the Instagram algorithm, not everyone will see your regular Instagram feed posts. Include more information in the days leading up to the event and use different images and graphics for each promotion to keep the visuals fresh.
Telling Your Community
You’ve posted all your event information onto social media, now it’s time to notify your community! While posting events on social media channels is notifying your community, it’s still important to ensure that your core community is getting reminded on a more internal basis.
Newsletters: Consistent emails and newsletters are a great way to inform and educate your community about upcoming events. Link any speakers or organizations that might be involved, as well as including your ever-important registration link!
Slack: This is likely your community’s messaging system. Announce your upcoming events here, and set reminders for those who have registered. Create polls to see who still needs to register, who’s thinking of coming, who’s attending, and even vote on future events!
Posters: This old fashioned yet still effective way of communicating events is still such a great tool. These should be creative and eye-catching to grab the attention of those passing by. Hang posters up in your coworking space, and ask your local coffee shop, universities, libraries, and more if they’ll display them. Remember that all event postings should include the who, what, when, where, why, and never forget that registration link.
So you’ve promoted the heck out of your event and registrations are comin’ in hot! Stay tuned, we’ll soon cover what you need to know on the actual day of the event to be the best host you can be and make the day run as smooth as possible to keep your attendees looking forward to the next one.