When it’s time to promote your next live or virtual event, don’t assume that you’ll find your target audience on all of the Big Three social media sites: Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Spending too much time promoting on one of those sites, particularly if the people who you’re trying to reach aren’t active there, can waste precious time.

The only way to know which sites they like most is to ask them. Or, you can do some quick research.

Better yet, do both.

This morning, Roberta Chopp, one of my Facebook fans, posted the question below on my wall. I’ve decided to answer it here, and link to this post from the comments section, because it will help you understand how to spend your promotion time wisely:

Roberta is assuming that because she has found breast surgeon groups on Facebook, she’ll get a decent response.

If her client is already active in those groups and knows for sure that breast surgeons are too, and that they would want to know about the event, then go ahead and start a discussion in that group about your event. She should also check to see whether her client is connect to surgeons in that group, either as friends or as fans.

Another option is to create an Event on Facebook and invite friends with whom the client is already connected.

But I think there’s a better way.

Most Facebook Groups Ineffective

The truth is, with a few exceptions, the shine has worn off most Facebook groups. As I’ll explain on Tuesday, March 15, when I host the webinar 12 More Ways to Avoid Missed Opportunities on the New and Improved Facebook, Groups have fallen out of favor for two major reasons:

1.  Too many people are using them as places to spam group members.

2.  Facebook Pages offer so many more opportunities to attract a huge following, promote a brand and encourage interaction with fans.

Besides, I wouldn’t expect breast surgeons to be active on Facebook. I’d expect to find them on LinkedIn.

Find Your Target Audience on LinkedIn

I went to LinkedIn just now and used the Advanced Search function to look for contacts who have the word “physician” in their job title and the word “breast” anywhere in their profile. I found 232 people.

Then I searched for contacts who used the word ”surgeon” in their job title and the word “breast” anywhere in their profile. I found 411 people.

But how many groups are devoted to those topics? I found 50 groups that include the word “surgeon” and 422 that include the word “surgery.”

Wayne Breitbarth, a LinkedIn expert, demonstrated how to used the Advanced Search function during my webinar last week on “Your LinkedIn Power Formula: How to Make Killer Contacts, Pull Crowds to Events, be a Star in Your Industry & Track Down Leads Like a Bloodhound.” We recorded it, and you can learn more about what else Wayne taught here.

He explained that if you’re a member of a LinkedIn group, you can communicate with fellow group members even if you aren’t connected to them. So I’d advise Roberta to tell her client to check out the LinkedIn groups that are attracting breast surgeons, and join those groups. Her client can also use LinkedIn’s Event function and share information about the event to all members of the client’s group, as well as the client’s connections.

Those are only two of 12 ways that Wayne explained during the webinar on how to promote events on LinkedIn.

How to Promote on Twitter

Promoting an event on Twitter is about more than just pushing out a steady stream of free commercials of 140 characters or fewer.

Denise Quashie, who is @DQtweets on Twitter, is an event planner in Atlanta who wrote a fabulous list of five tips on how to use Twitter to promote an event. I particularly love her idea about creating a public list on Twitter and adding to it the names of people who have registered for the event.

“No one really knows what to do with the list feature on Twitter.  However, with events it’s simple.  Add every attendee to your event on a list titled “GoingTo[YOUREVENTNAMEHERE]” and publicize the list on your blog/web site.  Let’s face it, people want to go places when other people they know are going.  By showcasing and updating the list you’re giving prospective attendees and sponsors the ability to weigh the odds of attending your event.”  (See How to Use Twitter Lists & Directories to Generate Business & Build Your Brand).

You’ll also find a similar list of Twitter tips for event planners and promoters on the SocialBrite blog.

Use Your Blog, Too

Writing about your event at your blog and offering a Q&A session with a speaker, or posting a video welcome by the keynoter, can be very effective when combined with the Big Three sites above because you can provide so much more information at a blog than you can on the social media sites. Write enticing tweets and status updates on Facebook and LinkedIn, and link those to your blog where people can find more information.

You can publish a series of posts in the weeks leading up to the event and use the social media sites to create a buzz.

All the ideas you see here can keep you busy for months promoting your event. How else do you use Twitter, Facebook and Linked to build anticipation for your events and fill seats?