Building Your Business with Linkedin Tip #6 - Have an Event!

By now, we are really getting into some of the more intricate ways to use Linkedin to build your business. If this is the first tip that you are reading, then you probably should start back at the beginning and read Tip #1, Tip #2, Tip #3, Tip #4 and Tip #5. They will help to set the foundation for this article which will begin to make your virtual community more tangible.

If you have read the book Marketing 2.0, you know that the idea of using all of these tools is to Bridge the Gap Between the Seller and the Buyer. If you have not read it, I would highly recommend it as it is a social media marketer's handbook. In an effort to bridge this gap, I have dedicated this article to creating and publicizing events through Linkedin. In my business, there are very few people that would want to meet with me if I told them I wanted to discuss Risk Management Consulting. However, if I find a creative way to engage my audience, they are more likely to listen to what I have to say and realize that I may be the guy that can help them with their sleepless nights!

From my perspective there are three basic types of events that I promote on Linkedin:

• Events that I am holding/facilitating online such as webinars.
• Events that I am hosting in person such as lunch and learns or social mixers.
• Events that I am not hosting but am attending that may be of interest to my audience.

Events that I am holding online are one of the best ways for me to engage with my clients and prospects. I am able to find a topic that is current and relevant and deliver fresh content about that topic to my audience. This gives me an opportunity to engage with my audience verbally and give them a chance to ask more about me, my company and its offerings. I don't stand on the mountaintop and shout about how great I am, I simply give them great content and the ability to ask questions. I don't need to advertise in this arena.

Events that I am hosting in person are also a good way to engage with a client or a prospect. While these events require a little more of a monetary investment, they are a good way to engage with your prospects and clients face to face. Once again, Bridging the Gap.

Finally, by advertising other peoples' events it shows my audience that I am not a shameless self-promoter. It also shows my audience that I am someone that is "out there" and "connected" in my local business community. It is important to share other peoples' events because they may become your next prospect. It doesn't hurt to help someone else.

We have covered the different types of events that you can participate in, let's talk about how to use Linkedin to gain publicity for your events. I typically use Eventbrite to manage any event that I host whether it's online or in person. I am comfortable with the platform and it doesn't cost me anything to use it. So for purposes of this illustration, let's assume that I have already created the event in Eventbrite. When I create the event, I also give it a unique URL. This is important because it will really help when using Linkedin.

The first step that I use when publicizing an event is to share the link to the event in my lInkedin groups. I typically submit it as a news article and then add a comment about it so that it shows up in the "most active" discussions when the daily updates come out. By doing this, I can get my event publicized to nearly 30,000 with under 10 minutes of work. Not bad, huh?

The next thing that I do is create an "event" in Linkedin itself. To do this, log into Linkedin, click on the "more" tab on the top toolbar at the far right and scroll down to events. You will see that there are now four tabs that you can choose from: Events Home, Find Events, My Events and Add Events. For purposes of this article, we will focus on My Events and Add Events. I would suggest however that you spend some time getting to know the other tabs as they can help you find events that other people are hosting.

When you click on Add Events, a new screen will appear. It is basically a fill in the blank form for you to use that will allow you to input as much information as you can about your event. For example, you can place the same link that you shared in your groups in this space as well. That is the best thing to do as it will guide them to the appropriate registration as opposed to them thinking they can simply register on Linkedin.

My advice is to fill in as much information as you possibly can. When you have the initial screen up, it is only a few lines long. When you get to the bottom of that screen it will give you a hyperlink to "add more details" this will allow you add several key fields that you otherwise would not have listed:

• Venue Address - it allows you to put in the address of the venue or select "virtual" for an online event. This also integrates with a map application that will give your audience directions.
• Description- it allows you to give a summary description of your event so that your audience has the opportunity to "pre-qualify" the event and determine if it meets their needs.
• Event Categorization - allows you to categorize your event so that people searching for events on Linkedin will see your event if it matches their criteria. If you were to stay on the main screen, you would not have access to this feature.
• Keywords - allows you to enter keywords that will "tag" your event and enhance the ability for the event to show up in searches.
• Who Should Come - allows you to enter the titles of people that would be the target audience for this event. This will really help you nail down the ideal audience that you are looking for.

Once you have created your event you will be able to publish it online on Linkedin. Once this is done, it will show up in the Linkedin events directory. It will also show in your activity feed that you are planning on attending the event. This will give your connections a chance to see the event without you sending it to them. Once the event is published, you can choose to "manage" the event. This allows you to send the event out to your Linkedin contacts directly with a note. If it is an event that is online, you can send it to all of them. If it is an event that is local to a certain area, you can send it to only those contacts that are located in that geography. It is truly a great tool.

You will want to periodically check up on your event to make sure that you are getting a response. You also want to compare the people that have chosen to attend the event on Linkedin have also gone to the "official" registration page. Sometimes there is a disconnect when people do not click on the registration link and simply state that they are attending according to the Linkedin invitation.

That about sums up how I have successfully used Linkedin events to grow my business. I am sure that you if you are reading this you have seen my webinars and mixers published in the past. I encourage you to check the out the next time that you see one so that you can see this tool in action!

As always, we appreciate comments and feedback on our articles. If you have found this or any of the other tips to be helpful to your business, please don't hesitate to drop me a line. Until next time........

David R. Carothers, CIC, CRM is a Risk Management Consultant and Licensed Insurance Agent with Praxiom based in Tampa, FL. To contact David Directly, please email him at drc@praxiom-rm.com