How to leverage online communities to market your events

1. Understand the value you are getting

Understand the value of online community resources. Online forums, social networking sites and blogs can be valuable sources of information about upcoming events and issues affecting the meetings industry. They also offer opportunities to network with other professionals in your industry.

2. Develop your online presence

Invest time in developing your online community presence. Just like any other type of marketing or networking activity, developing a presence on social networking sites, forums, chats, and blogs takes time and effort. If you want to make the most out of these tools, you need to invest time into them regularly.

3. Be consistent

Make sure that your online identity is consistent across all platforms you use for business purposes. This will ensure that people find you when they’re looking for information about your company or industry — but also that they won’t confuse you with someone else who has similar interests or expertise but is not associated with your company’s brand image in any way.

4. Invest in premium features

Take advantage of special features offered by some sites — such as allowing users to create profiles with photos or videos — as well as tools that let participants post links or interact or, possibly, access exclusive premium circles.

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5. Make sure you’re listening.

If you want to make the most of your professional online community, make sure you’re listening. In addition to sharing what you know and learning from others, you should also find out what’s happening in the world around you by reading and commenting on blog posts, even if you are not part of the conversation. You can also go the extra mile and learn from industry experts by following them on Twitter and subscribing to their RSS feeds.

6. Leverage the power of online communities in special events

Participate in or organize events that bring people together both online and offline — like a virtual conference call where people share best practices for using social media effectively, a live webinar where everyone can ask questions about how to make their next event more successful (and then share those tips with their own communities), or a networking brunch for colleagues in your area.

7. Be generous with your time and knowledge

Share resources that will help others do their jobs better or write guest posts that show off your expertise and help others in your field grow theirs. Know what your fellow professionals want. Spend time getting to know them and their needs before diving into any conversations. Don’t just jump in blindly; you’ll be more likely to say something useful or interesting if you’ve done your research first.

8. Be authentic

Don’t try to fake it until you make it or pretend like you know everything about every topic of discussion just because someone asks you a question about it — people can tell when someone’s faking it, and they won’t want anything to do with them after that point anyway! Instead, be honest about what you don’t know and how much time or energy you have available to devote to the conversation at any given moment. This will help others see that there’s no need for them to fill in all the blanks for you — they’ll just have to wait until they have more information themselves before continuing their side of the discussion

Conclusions

Event planners who want to use online communities for networking should utilize them with the same care and thought that they put into creating events. Online communities don’t always capture the same nuance as face-to-face interactions, but it’s up to the user to adjust their approach in order to get maximum value out of these interactions. Everything that event planners do for an offline event should also be done for an online community. For example, responding quickly to members’ questions is essential; however, direct messages in Twitter may be easier than trying to respond to comments on your Facebook page. Regardless, you have to respond authentically and in a timely manner if you hope to build any type of relationship with other users.

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