Promoting an Event? Here's Our Annual Reminder of What NOT to Do:

It’s that time of the year when many organizations hope folks will attend their fun events. If only they thought through their digital promotion better!

Community news is a great source of content for businesses within the same geographic area. We like to use local event information in our own social media as well as when writing posts for our clients. Supporting fellow organizations makes for good networking, and posts about the local community have a high rate of engagement. It’s a win-win situation!

But every year, we are exasperated by some local organization whose news we want to share online but can’t because the news release was poorly formatted for social platforms. Here’s an example of what we mean:

• An email arrives in the inbox, clearly titled “News Release.” It’s an announcement for a fun event coming up, sponsored by a worthy organization.
• After reading the release, we’re happy to support this group’s mission, and it’s complementary to the work of several clients. Posting about this event on our clients’ social media platforms will encourage customer engagement while helping the organization.
• After spending some time looking for it, we confirm that there is no link to the news release in the email. But there IS a link to the organization’s website, so we click on that.
• The organization’s news story promoting their upcoming event is not listed under Updates, News, Events, or any of the other tabs on the website.
• Finally, we find the event posted on their calendar, but it’s just a bare-bones listing, not the News Release that was in the email. Also, there is no accompanying graphic image, so it will make for a very ugly Facebook or LinkedIn post if we use the calendar URL as a link.
• We could cobble together our own version of the news release and create some kind of image, but it won’t be official, the Home page link will annoy readers, and we’re on a deadline, so – nevermind! We just won’t share that event.

We’ve seen poorly prepared content like this from groups of all sizes. Even organizations that have News or Events pages fail to post their news and events appropriately. Instead, this is how news should be posted:

• You write an article about the event you wish to promote and choose an appropriate graphic image or photograph to accompany it.
• The article is posted in the News section of your organization’s website, along with the correctly sized graphic. It’s posted here first because your own website should ALWAYS be the primary source for your organization’s news. Not Facebook, not EventBrite, not any third-party platform that you can’t control.
• Make sure your web platform posts each news article on a unique web page so that when you share that link, it’s the only page readers see. If the specific event you are promoting is the fifth item on a list, readers lose interest.
• If your website has a Calendar, consider creating a summary item there with a link back to the original article.
• Write a press release about the event, including the exact URL link to the original article on your website. Don’t just provide your organization’s Home page, hoping your readers will click around for the event news.
• NOW it’s time to send the press release out.

No one has time to track down your news. If you want to spread the word about your event, make it easy for the community to help you. And don’t forget to plan ahead so that there is plenty of time to share your news more than once. People forget or their plans change. You want to stay top-of-mind.

If your current website isn’t conducive to proper news sharing, you are due for an upgrade. We have some great web tools to simplify your marketing efforts. Give us a call to learn more!

Photo by Alex Green

This article is an update to“How to Totally Blow Your News Release” dated 7/4/2016.

Kate GingoldKate Gingold

I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.

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Full biography

I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.

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