Photo by: blogefl
You probably heard of Web 2.0
Just to give you an idea, think of a static html page in 1999, well that is Web 1.0. No Interactivity, no community, no sharing.
Think about blogs. This is Web 2.0. A whole new lot of possibilities. Interaction, groups, communities. You can now upload instead of constantly download content, videos and opinions.
If you feel that your target audience have somehow been exposed to a computer lately, they likely witnessed this shift and changed perception accordingly.
The problem with this is that expectations are now harder to meet. If you are loosing on revenues, attendees and sponsors, the above may be the underlying reason.
Let’s troubleshoot your event:
– You have a web page but not a blog
As said above a web page in itself is static not interactive and most of all not personal.
Hey you, I am talking to you. Do you agree with this?
You cannot adopt this tone in a web page, but you definitely have a chance in a blog. If your event has no blog just forget about it. Give your audience the ability to reply, share your content and interact, or should we assume you don’t have compelling content at all?
– You don’t have a Twitter account for the event
Twitter has changed the event scenario dramatically. 90% of the events I go to, I discovered on Twitter. My peeps know what I like and suggest me great events to go to.
Referrals is more powerful than any other Markom. Events on Twitter are marked by the #. Get yourself a twitter account with your event name. Add people who may be interested through the powerful search tool. I did it for Linked in London.
You also have to expect that the people at the event will tweet during the event. Are you addressing those people?
Twitter in plain English
– You are not webcasting.
If I cannot attend in person I actually want a chance to do it online. You can do it at no cost with an Internet connection, or you can choose fancier solutions. Have you set up a special pricing for those not attending in person?
That could mean more revenues at no extra cost.
– You did not create a community beforehand
I don’t know about you, but I found out that most people attend events to network. They don’t care about how interesting your content is, what great buffet you put together, how comfortable the chairs were.
Who is coming? – is the question you will be facing. Technology gives you the ability to easily create groups, forums, communities either in your website or outside such as on Facebook or Linkedin.
What these great tools do is to actually answer to the above question in a way that maximizes satisfaction.
– You are having an impact on the environment.
Technology gives you the opportunity to minimize your carbon footprint. I expect that in events. If you don’t recycle, don’t offer carpooling, do not suggest offsetting the trip to the event, I’ll note that down and be extremely unhappy with that.
Great tips here.