Online Promotion for Your Events

The Internet is a great way to promote your event to a large group of people quickly. Although we mentioned online promotion in the previous installment it is important to go into more detail about it since it is one of the biggest ways to contact your audience. Some methods have been mentioned previously, but there are others that have not been discussed and are worthy to learn more about.

Blogs

There is a multitude of blogs on the Internet about a variety of topics. As mentioned in previous topics, there is probably a large number of blogs about your specific sport. Promoting to blogs is a great way to reach the enthusiast. If a blogger discusses your event or organization you will have much more of a chance of attracting people to your events.

Social Networking Sites

As previously mentioned, social networking sites are one of the best and cost effective ways to get your event promoted. Social networking sites work like word of mouth, yet they are better because they can advertise for you much more quickly. This site, gather.com, for instance is a great way to find groups and promote your event. For example, if you are promoting a "cook-off" event, find a group on cooking and join the group.

Your Own Website

It is very important, as discussed in the event website installment, to have an up to date website with information about your events and organization. If your website is complete with your event information, this is an easy way for people interested in your competitions to find out about and register for them. Plus, you can also publish your press releases and articles that the media has written about your event on your website for your competitors to read. Check out www.prweb.com for a inexpensive way to distribute a press release to the masses.

Write Articles Online

Another way to promote your organization and events is to submit articles to websites and E-Zines about your industry. This is a good way to advertise who you are and what you do. The goal is to find websites and E-Zines that will target your audience, so they need to be sport specific. Fortunately, there are a lot of websites and E-Zines, so it is easy to find one to write for. I found information about writing articles at this website and would suggest reading it: http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/marketing/a/bizpromotion_2.htm.

Online Forums

Many industry specific community websites have forums, or message boards that members post to. You can post messages about your events, your organization, or simply take part in conversations with a link to your website included in your messages. Once again, this is a very cost effective way to publicize your events. Susan Ward also has advice about online forums in her article: http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/marketing/a/bizpromotion_3.htm.

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Note about this article: This article is part of a newsletter series from Compete-At.com. Compete-At provides online event management and online registration software for sports.