Establishing a LinkedIn Group for Successful Event Management

Many companies are looking for alternative, cost effective methods to market their events. This is why numerous have been quick to latch onto social media. Web sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are all free to use and possess great scope when it comes to reaching a widespread network of people.

LinkedIn is becoming especially prevalent for businesses. Founded in 2003, it is a business orientated social networking web site. Generally used for professional networking, it has more than 60 million registered users across more than 200 countries worldwide.

With over 4 million users in the UK, events companies are starting to comprehend the benefits it can bring to their event marketing. Along with networking with colleagues and peers, LinkedIn also enables members the opportunity to create and manage groups focused on a wide range of subjects. Lots of these groups have hundreds of thousands of members and alone can rival many niche social networks outside of LinkedIn in terms of their size and activity. These groups can offer fantastic networking opportunities for members - who gain access to resources and information that can help their careers.

This editorial talks about the best way to create, manage and promote a LinkedIn group with the goal of building up a strong network - in which you may talk about key industry subjects, learn from peers and market your events.

Creating a LinkedIn Group It’s very simple to establish a LinkedIn Group. Simply head to ‘Groups’ then ‘Create a Group’. You will need to think carefully about what to name your group. Think about the keywords your target members will look for. It’s almost definitely that people will join a group when it’s founded around an industry, therefore it’s best to not name it after your business.

You’ll need to design a logo - this is quite a small logo (100x50 pixels) so don’t try and put in excessive text to it. Keep it clean and straightforward, yet eye catching. Then create a short description that effectively informs LinkedIn members what your group focuses on and who it is for. Make sure that the box is ticked that says “Allow group members to display the logo on their profiles. Also, send my connections a Network Update that I have created this group.” This will provide your group increased visibility inside LinkedIn and can help to generate new members.

Promoting a LinkedIn Group When you first make your group, you’ll need to add some members - afterall, who really wants to join a group with no members! So invite colleagues (past and present) and existing customers to become a member, and encourage them to begin discussions.

Once you’ve started to build up a small membership base, showcase the group in your site, email newsletter, blog plus further social media networks. Ensure that you’re advertising your group wherever possible and that individuals know how they could join. If you’re already on Twitter and Facebook, consider generating new accounts to match your LinkedIn group. This enables members to network across all key social media platforms, yet all giving the same messaging, content and industry focus.

If you’ve got industry leaders attending or speaking at an event, invite them to join up and interact with the membership base. They could start up threads centered around agenda topics which may be discussed in the lead up to an event. They could also advertise an event by explaining in added detail what their involvement is.

Remember to advertise your LinkedIn group at your events - print details of the group on literature, ask presenters to mention it in their presentations and talk about it when you are networking with delegates.

Managing a LinkedIn Group You'll have to control your group rather closely in order to maximise the benefits to both you plus your group members. Content should be provided on an ongoing basis in the manner of discussions, news, events and jobs. The greater chances intended for interaction you add to your group, the greater importance your members will gain from it.

It can often be the case that vital information will get lost in a big discussion thread. As a way to overcome this, as a group manager you can use the ‘featured discussions’ feature. This highlights individual content, offers or events and can ensure that this thread is sar at the top of the discussion board for as long as you wish for. This can be a smart way to market your events - by opening a new thread providing information concerning the event and then making it a featured discussion, your members will see it each time they log into the group.

A further option to showcase specific information (e.g. key events) would be to send announcements. Announcements are emails sent from you through LinkedIn to your group members. Because the emails are coming via LinkedIn they come with an better deliverability rate since recipients plus their ISPs are more likely to recognise and trust the LinkedIn name. Annoucements can even get added as a discussion thread within your group, and yet again, being a group manager you've the opportunity to pin this as a featured discussion to gain extra visibility.

As a way of integrating your other social channels, it is easy to import your blog RSS feed and have your blog posts automatically feed into your group News section. If your blog is relevant to your group this can be a great way of giving additional content to the group along with promoting your own web site and your own events.

LinkedIn groups can be tremendously effective at creating a focused, engaged network of members. As soon as your group is established you'll be able to use it to advertise events and offers; however this should be done without looking spammy. Members will not appreciate being marketed at continually - the objective is to build a vibrant membership base, with a wide selection of discussions based on the industry/topic in question. Endorsing events and offers of your own events, and also from other members is something that may have huge dividends - nevertheless it needs to be handled thoughtfully.

Iinternet and technology is opening a myriad of opportunities for event managers to sell their events in a cost effective way. Methods such as LinkedIn and other social media platforms, websites and email marketing are all part of a modern event manager’s marketing plan. These marketing methods, when used in conjunction with a comprehensive event management software solution can make event managers even more competent. Advanced event management software solutions contain email marketing tools in addition to website and social media integration and the faculty to take online bookings and payment. They can help to increase delegate attendance and satisfaction in addition to reducing costs and increasing event ROI (return on investment).

For more information on event management software solutions, speak to evocos: http://www.evocos.co.uk. In the previous year alone evocos event software solution has produced over 7000 events, managed approximately 75,000 delegates and has taken over 50,000 registrations online.

Containing integrated reporting and analysis resources as well as social media, email marketing, website integration, registration, online payment, badge production, resource management and event surveys, evocos is one of the most all-inclusive event management software solutions on the market today.

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