5 ways to promote your community.

WITH REBECCA AND ANDREW.

Who are we and what do we do?

!  We are community managers.

!  Contact info: rebecca.mccarthy@bigmarker.com

!  andrew.bungert@bigmarker.com

!  Telephone: 312-869-9870

THE PRE-STEP:

!  Ensure you have your community’s ‘overview’ and ‘about’ completed.

The Fabulous 5 promotional tactics:

1.  Use existing networks.

2.  Avail of social media outlets.

3.  Encourage member activity.

4.  Reach out to likeminded people.

5.  Take advantage of blogging.

STEP ONE: Use Your Existing Network.

!  Notify email contacts and invite to join.

!  Result = word of mouth and community growth/webinar response.

!  Plug your community with your existing social media outlets, e.g. Twitter, Facebook.

STEP TWO: Avail Of All Social Media Outlets:

!  Statuses and tweets about your community’s events will help to:

1.  Keep your friends and followers informed of upcoming events.

2.  Circulate your community’s name amongst people’s newsfeed that you are not connected to.

!  Retweets, likes and sharing will all help broaden the scope of your reach.

Other Social Media Outlets:

Handy Cheats:

STEP THREE: Find like minded people:

!  If your community is about bird watching, reach out to fellow bird watchers that have a strong online presence. E.g. bloggers, people with multiple followers or likes etc.

!  Having their support may result in more traffic being generated for your community.

!  Reaching out to strangers may not always result in an acknowledgement, but all it takes is one person.

STEP FOUR: Encourage Member Activity:

“A community is like a ship, everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.”

-Henrik Ibsen

!  Without your members continued support, your community can become stagnant.

!  Take on board topic suggestions for webinars.

!  Addressing topics of interest will encourage continued support from your members and a good attendance.

!  Ask members to share details of your community on their personal social media profiles.

!  Use the community bulletin to engage with your members and stay connected through threaded chat.

STEP FIVE: Blogging:

!  Having an active blog that is reflective of your community and up to date with news of your community is a valuable promotional tool.

!  Refer to conference recordings to ensure that the information you use for your blog is correct.

!  Discuss the topics you have used in webinars.

!  Remember: a blog doesn’t have to be a literary work of art.

Hosting A test webinar: pros and cons:

!  When you have generated some interest in your community, you may wish to host a test webinar.

!  BigMarker has certain browser and system requirements so this will allow you to ensure participating members are set for an official event.

!  A test will help you and your members feel comfortable with our technology.

!  Your members may be deterred if they experience any difficulties in a test.

!  Your members may feel the community is too time consuming if you are trying to run a test before you have established a loyal following.

Recap:

!  We will have a blog published at http://bigmarkerblog.bigmarker.com/ . Check it out for a hard copy of what we have discussed today.

!  We are always on hand to help with community and webinar promotion so feel free to contact us for further promotional assistance.