Bolster PR Efforts with Electronic Communications
As everyone knows, special events can be
planned perfectly and delivered beautifully, but without the audience
you desire, much work will be for naught. In addition, if the special
event is designed to inspire, indicate support, or illustrate success
and no one attends, the entire goal or message of the event can be lost.
What is the answer?
The answer is the very best event public relations possible, matched to
the desired audience and delivering a matching message. If your audience
is Web savvy, the Web can provide great support and delivery
possibilities.
Web Event PR
Venues
The World Wide Web
offers a variety of ways for event planners to integrate web
environments into event publicity and planning. Like any environment,
however, the web provides both good and bad (but primarily good)
elements for making dynamic information accessible.
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GOOD Elements |
BAD Elements |
Web-based
Event
Publicity |
Web
environments are unique environments, allowing publicity to be
customized, personalized and updated with great speed and
efficiency. Web publicity can provide critical publicity links to
registration information, payment for events, pre-printed tickets,
event directions, customized information (e.g., information and
access for special needs, health-related issues), audience
outcomes, content to read before/prepare for the event, updated
news, activities/event agenda, credits for event planners and
sponsors, fundraising activities, post-event content, post-event
activities, and post-event evaluation.
Clearly, one
major positive element of the Web is that it can be linked to
other web-based tools that can also be used for publicity
including links to other organizations’ Web pages, individual
emails, electronic lists, and blogs
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As with any
“dynamic” environment, timing is everything. Connecting
information to people through publicity and advertising can be
typically a one-time thing, meaning that sending emails to
individuals or lists may only get an individual’s attention once.
Therefore, when to send out e-publicity that links people
to your Web page is a critical element of designing Web
environments. Other more negative elements for event publicity
delivered over the web can include:
- Web
environments may be expensive to design, host, serve, and
maintain
- Third party
website managers may not maintain currency or accuracy needed
- Using a
third party to update content may necessitate too long a lead
time for changes needed
- Not all
audience members have access to the Web, therefore multiple,
more expensive venues may have to be employed to reach and
attract all desired audience members
- Some
interactive Web opportunities such as listserv and blogs may
provide venues for unwanted comments and possible negative
publicity
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Web-based Event
Planning |
Event planning is a time-intensive
but exciting activity. Using the web and web-based resources to
assist and enhance planning is not new; it does, however, offer
increasing sophistication and opportunities for success every
year. The Web provides opportunities for diverse groups of
planners to efficiently and effectively identify examples and
benchmarks of event PR, link dynamic information for other event
planners, display drafts of information for other planners during
the planning stages, and complete other pieces of event planning
such as forms and applications. |
Web-based event planning can limit
those involved to those with Web skills and Web access – thereby
possibly eliminating critical partners. Web-based planning, which
often moving swiftly, can move along at a pace so fast that some
individuals may not be able to keep up and, in fact, may get lost
in a morass of emails and digital documents. |
How to…
Plan/Publicize
-
Identify
individuals who can participate in the medium of web-based planning
and the level of their possible involvement including asking, are
they:
- Individuals with
only email access?
- Able to
join/receive electronic list emails? In digest form?
- Able to exchange
digital documents?
- Familiar with
threaded discussions on emails?
- Familiar with
blogs?
- Able to complete
Web forms?
- Able to design
Web pages?
- Have no or
limited Web access but has access through others
- Have no or
limited Web access by has access to faxed information
-
Establish Web-based
forums for discussion and document sharing.
-
Establish
identifying signatures for participating individuals for critiquing
documents (e.g., colors, typefaces, formats).
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Identify potential
audiences accessible by Web including email addresses, and electronic
lists critical to potential event/activity audiences.
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Design Web/online
content message(s) to match electronic forums and outline timelines
for serving Web pages and distributing messages.
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Identify who on the
event planning group will respond to interactive discussions with
potential event attendees.
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Establish Web pages
to “approach” for linking and advertising event Web pages.
-
Outline the
timeline for distributing and updating content.
Recommendations
- Identify critical
potential audience members who will assist event planners in
publicizing through electronic posting/discussions. Leaders from the
field can often – through comments and postings – engender more
enthusiasm than event/activity planners.
- Strive to include
strategic planning partners in specific – although in possibly limited
ways - even through they might not have Web access in order to
establish broad input at critical junctures.
- Rather than
putting static content advertising a single event on a webpage, opt
for dynamic effects for Web pages even though the content may be
tangentially related or only focus on a single event. Ever-changing,
but relevant, content builds a constituency for pre-, during and
post-event activities.
Be sure to
designate event planners who will be the responders to web-based
discussion and content. Invaluable enthusiasm for and commitment to the
event can be the critical pieces to success as leaders take roles in
creating online forum messages and responding to potential attendees’
questions and ideas.
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