If you’re new to hosting webinars, the team at SocialBrite.org has a very helpful summary of 10 steps for planning a successful webinar.
It includes nine ways to promote your webinar. I took their list and added to it. Most of these ideas will also work when promoting teleseminars. Here’s their list of suggestions on how to promote:
1. At your website.
2. On online event calendars such as Upcoming.com
3. Relevant listservs
4. In print and online newsletters
5. On Twitter channels
6. In Facebook groups
7. As a local event for nonprofits (SocialBrite.org specializes in teaching social media to nonprofits).
8. On Web pages that promote webinars in your industry.
9. At the end of current webinars.
Here are my own ideas
I added to their list and came up with 12 of my own ideas:
10. On Craigslist, but only on the list for the city that’s closest to where you live. (See How to Use Craigslist as a Global Publicity Tool.)
11. In the events or calendar sections in traditional media, including newspapers, magazines, trade journals and business journals.
12. In an online press release. (See Keywords: The Magic Magnets That Pull Consumers & Journalists to Your Press Releases.)
13. On the websites of local newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations.
14. In videos, where you can excerpt tips and lead viewers to the sign-up page. Upload the video to video sharing-sharing sites.
15. At your guest experts’ blogs, at their websites, in their newsletters, and on their social media sites.
16. Create an Event on Facebook, and share with your Friends and Fans. (See 11 Ways to Avoid Missed Opportunities on Facebook)
17. In an email blast to your opt-in list, and the lists of your guest experts.
18. In a podcast.
19. At the end of a quiz you create around the topic of the webinar.
20. In targeted ads on Facebook and LinkedIn.
21. If you have an affiliate program, encourage your affiliates to promote the event, using their affiliate links.
Add to this list
Did I miss any? How do you promote your webinars and teleseminars, and which are the most effective?
What about paid ads? Have you used them,
and are they effective?
My Next Webinar: How to Use Twitter Lists
I’m presenting “How to Use Twitter Lists to Generate Publicity & Build Your Brand” at 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, Aug. 26. This one-hour webinar is perfect for anyone who hasn’t yet started using Twitter lists, or for Twitter users who aren’t sure how to get the most out of their lists.
Everyone who attends will also receive a bonus special report I wrote on “How to Use Twitter for Business to Network, Promote, Sell, Recruit & Profit,” a $10 value, as well as slides of the PowerPoint presentation I’m using for the video, a link for the streaming video and the video download, and the MP3 recording. So if the time is inconvenient for you, register anyway and you can watch it afterward at a time most convenient for you.









The Publicity Hound
Everything you do online—good and bad—is publicity
By Phyllis Zimbler Miller
Guest Blogger
The basics: Correct spelling and good grammar
Yes, on Twitter I’ve been known to use 4 to mean “for” when I don’t have enough characters for what I want to say. But I always strive to spell correctly every real word I use.
And while some people might say “What’s the big deal?” about incorrectly spelled words, some people who read your tweets might think you’re careless with other things too, such as their business needs if they were your clients.
Off-limits: Swear words, off-color comments and slang
I personally was taken aback when a person for whom I was about to write a guest post called me “mate” in an email. In my perception, “mate” has a very particular meaning, and it’s not that positive. I nicely pointed out to him that I was rather surprised by the use of the term.
It’s not only what you write online – it’s also what you say online
Let’s say you’re on a teleseminar and you ask a question in which you unnecessarily disparage someone or something. Then that teleseminar recording is made available to the people on the teleseminar as well as others. It’s possible that what you said could get you in deep water for a very long time. And how do you apologize to a recording?
What if you disagree with something that someone has said?
Again, it’s important to consider how to disagree before you blast your opinion throughout the Internet. I faced this issue when someone responded to a LinkedIn question with what I believed was totally inaccurate information. I didn’t want to say the answer was wrong but I didn’t want to leave the person asking the question with the opinion that the given answer was correct.
I posed my dilemma as a blog post on my site, and I received a very wise response. I was advised to say: “There are differing opinions on this subject.” And then I was to give my opinion without referring to the other person’s answer.
I thought this an extremely reasonable strategy. I did not “put down” the other person’s answer, but I did share my own opinion with the person who asked the question.
And this advice definitely includes the photos you post. For example, whether you believe in Facebook’s privacy settings (which are changed, it seems, almost on a daily basis), do NOT post a picture of yourself holding a bottle of beer in each hand and looking the worse for wear. Of course, this advice is even more so for videos on YouTube.
Regardless of whether you think such photos or videos are in “good fun,” your brand or business does not need to take hits from such missteps on your part.
The Internet world is global by definition, and because we can’t know the sensibilities of everyone who might read our tweets, blog comments, etc., we need to be sensitive to the words we use.