300 Seconds: Community Calendars
How many times after an event have you heard a customer say something like this?
“I didn’t know [insert author] was going to be here. I would have attended that event. Did you publicize it?”
For that author event, you probably created an event listing on your website, sent multiple emails about it, distributed news releases, created an event on your Facebook page, and tweeted incessantly. Even when we do all of these things, we still might not reach customers where they are.
One more tool to add to your publicity bag-of-tricks is the online community calendar.
If you check the websites for your local newspaper, public radio station, convention and visitors bureau, and independent publications, you’ll probably find a calendar to which you can submit events. This calendar works differently than submitting a news release with the hope that a feature story will emerge. This calendar is community-based, where people and organizations in the community supply the content and the host only has to approve submissions.
It can take some extra time to submit events to these sites individually, but it can be worth it to reach people where they look for information.
So today, take 300 seconds and search some of these websites for community calendars. Take some time to create a user name/password. Check to see if your venue is already listed and that the information is correct. Claim the venue, if necessary. And then add these sites to your publicity check-list.
