Today's guest post is by Jason Tucker, a digital marketing executive with Organic Development, on behalf of his client, Banks Sadler.
Over the past three years, LinkedIn has quickly risen to be the number-one business networking Web site. With more than 200 million members, LinkedIn is a ready-made address book, packed with contacts, just waiting to be opened.
So if it’s that easy, why isn’t everyone promoting their events through LinkedIn?
Because LinkedIn is like a beautiful city—there are hundreds of places to go, but without a street map and guide, most people miss out on the best bits. It’s like only making it to Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport, but missing out on seeing the Eiffel Tower. You have to put the effort in to find out where to go, but when you do, it’s well worth it.
There are plenty of paths you could follow when promoting your event on LinkedIn. You could choose to walk down them all, or be selective. It will depend on how many people you want to invite and who your target audience is.
1. Does your organization have a LinkedIn page that already has a following? Do you have a fair number of LinkedIn connections? The simplest way to raise awareness is by updating your LinkedIn personal profile and organization's page.
Ensure your update is effective by defining your audience (that way the right people are more likely to read your update). Keep it concise and with a clear call to action. Use some techniques to make your message stand out, perhaps by capitalizing one word, or asking a question. And, naturally, include a link to your event registration page.
2. One method that is often overlooked because it takes longer to implement (but has generated the best results for me) is the "direct message to connections" option.
Keep the message short and benefit-focused, send it to connections who are likely to be interested, and wait for the attendees to pour in. It’s worth noting that you can only message 50 people at a time, so it takes a bit of monotonous clicking to send a lot messages.
3. LinkedIn Groups provide rich pickings if your event is aimed at a particular subject or group of people. Join relevant groups and strike up interesting discussions around your event.
4. Back up your free LinkedIn activity with a paid-for ad. What’s great is you can pinpoint exactly who will see your ad with LinkedIn’s data.
5. Ask speakers to promote the event to their network. They will be likely to have engaged networks that are already interested in events your presenters are speaking at.
It's actually quite simple, and can be boiled down to these three points: be social, be targeted, and use what LinkedIn has to offer!
This post was provided by Banks Sadler, a global agency that offers event management and venue sourcing to clients big and small.
