Imagine that you are the president of a boutique marketing company, MarketWow, Inc. Your customers have been requesting a social media product for the past two years and you have now satisfied their requests. You have developed a new product that will make growing a business through social media a breeze for anyone. You need to get the word out about your fantastic new product. Email alone won’t do it, and you don’t have the budget or name recognition for a TV blitz. What do you do? 

You decide to go local.

So now you’re planning an event and it’s going to be great. The idea is a simple one: host an event where people learn great information, network, and enjoy themselves. When it’s all said and done, hopefully they will buy something from you – your new social media service.

You begin planning. The event idea is so simple, but as you begin really thinking through the details, you start wondering just what exactly you’re going to do and perhaps most importantly, how exactly are you going to fill the room? You need to get the word out. You need to get people excited about this. You need to build a local buzz about your event! 

Before you do anything, make sure that you have the basics in place. There is nothing worse than having to cancel an event because some critical piece was out of place. There is a short list of items that you must have before you can proceed.

First, make sure you have a venue lined up. Your choices here are infinite, but as you develop your plan your options will become more apparent. For very small events, check with local colleges or universities. They often have low cost options for local businesses to use a room for presentations or meetings. 

Once you have the venue lined up, get some other basics done before beginning the buzz. Call a few prospective speakers, moderators or others who you may need to call on for help. Make sure that others in your industry will be available. A few minutes of targeted phone calls should suffice.

Now you’re on your way. You have a venue lined up, dates picked, buy-in from local businesses, a small team of volunteers who will help you with logistics the day of, and a couple great industry analysts who will be speaking.

Finally…you can start promoting your event! Below is list of various marketing methods to consider for the most effective event promotion. 

First thing you must do is get the event information on the Web. So much of your buzz-building will be web-centric, it is imperative that there is a focal point. You’ll need a place to link back to from all of your buzz-building endeavors. Make sure your web page includes the following details: summary of the event, agenda outlining activities for the day, speaker bios, and most importantly, a registration link! Also, don’t forget to put a phone # on all of these pages so you can be contacted. 

 2) Local News Outlets

All local newspapers and TV stations will have contact information listed on their Web sites. It can’t hurt to call them to see if there is any news (or editorial) interest in your event.  But maybe more importantly, most also have a calendar of events. See this example on the Washington DC ABC affiliate, WJLA: http://cfc.wjla.com/community/addevent.cfm. 

 3) Web-based Event Calendars

One of the nice things about living in a digital age is the sheer volume of viable marketing vehicles that cost little or nothing. There are dozens and dozens of event calendar Websites that exist solely to provide information about local events. Here are just a few of the more popular ones:

Not to mention the thousands of chambers of commerce, business networking groups and the like. Your job is to uncover them all and begin your buzz!

A press release is always a good option. It can help you look more professional, especially when you contact a local news outlet. Having a press release handy is a must – you may well be asked to “shoot over some info” or the like. Be ready! 

An online press release is also a good idea. Take your press release and make sure that there are several well-placed links to your Web-based event information. Submit your press release to a news release and syndication service. www.PRWeb.com is probably the best choice, though there are many services out there – the more the better.

The Business Journal newspapers are in every major city and are widely read by business owners, business consumers and social consumers alike. It is well worth the $99 submission fee to make sure your event is posted in the event section and publicized. You can see details to register your event here: http://www.bizjournals.com/event/

This activity cannot be overstated. It is one of the most effective and least expensive methods to build buzz about your event. And best of all, the opportunities are endless. 

First - Tweet, Tweet, Tweet. Twitter® is fast becoming the social network of choice for anyone and everyone. Twitter is unique in that it allows you to post 140 character blurbs about what is important to you. Your posting is viewed by those “following” your posts. Your followers, in turn, have the option to push your message on to their followers (a “re-tweet”). The compounding effect of this can be extraordinary.    The challenge is that you can’t just go to Twitter, set up an account and post your event. This is a medium that will require you to establish a profile, begin “tweeting” and build a list of followers. There are many tools to use with Twitter, including those that will allow you to search for other users in your area and of course search for users posting about specific topics. Find people who are interested in what you do and begin following, being followed and tweeting.

Second, Facebook is a great place to build a network of local people who are interested in your products and services. Establish a Facebook group for your business. Encourage your new customers to join your group. Encourage them to spread the word about your group to others who may be interested. When it comes time for your event, if you have a well-established Facebook® Group, it will be yet another place to build buzz!

Third, all other social networking places. There are endless forums and blogs about anything and everything. Find those that are relevant to what you are doing and join. Begin posting as a registered user. In most forums, there are places specifically dedicated to posting events. Beyond forums and blogs, make sure to use the major social bookmark services to mark your event Web page – Stumble Upon, Digg®, Furl® and any others you can think of.

If you do this right, you will have a fantastic experience. Doing it right means thinking through what you will do, where you will do it and clearly defining what value people will get from attendance. Get organized and lay out all that is important for your event. Get the big, must-have details and once they are in place, begin buzz building. This is a marketing tactic that can reap huge rewards in brand awareness, customer loyalty and even customer acquisition. Just don’t forget…

Without value you don’t have an event. However, without buzz, you may have an event, but nobody will come.