Part II
If you have an event that does not charge admission, you need to decide if you just want people to show up and collect business cards, or if you want to gather the registrations to list build. This post however is not an exercise in list building.
In our example case study, the 2010 8th Annual Integrated Alliances’ Denver Holiday Party, we not only had an admission fee, we had three:
- Early online registration (up to a week prior) $29
- Final week online registration $39
- Walk-in registration $49
We elected to use a 3rd party online registration system to manage this aspect of the event; this is where money changes hands. We promoted it on all of the major social platforms and pointed our vanity URL back to the primary site.
Fortunately, the major online registration systems can handle customization of the event page as well as all the registrations, check-ins, name badges and other important details. We selected www.EZRegister.com as the primary registration and EventBrite as the backup site. (Although having two registration sites can be troublesome at the actual event, you can’t afford to have your site down. We STRONGLY recommend that you only promote your primary registration site unless they have serious technical problems.)
In Part 1 of this series, we learned to use a Pretty URL for the event that actually redirects users to the selected registration site; it can also be quickly redirected to the backup site should serious issues crop up.
Super Tip #3 - Make the registration site gorgeous! Use pictures, links, formatting, bullets… make it shine. Preparatory tasks such as to crop and resize images should be done outside of online systems to get the best results.
Super Tip #4 - Use Social Media Platform features wisely. When you select Share or Promote or Tweet, you may get results that are not what you expected. If you’re not sure where it will post or how it will look, test during late night hours and be sure to delete any unwanted posts immediately! As you post, always customize default text. Always! Especially as you post on different platforms. Try to customize the text for your audience and target market. It is better to get more of the right people to an event rather than just lots of people.
Super Tip #5 - Include a phone number for people to call; choosing one that reaches a live individual able to answer the most common questions about the event. Have a cheat sheet handy for anyone who might answer the phone with quick answers.
Be sure to check back for Part III coming soon! Get more tips and insider real-world strategies for using Social Media to promote and support your events and improve your business outlook.
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