Rather than print out pages of handouts, I’m posting my Digital PR workshop materials here for the world to enjoy.

First, we’ll talk about how to become your own publicist using the PR P-R-I-M-E-R

Next, we’ll go over the Digital PR=Publicity Repositioned presentation.

Then, we’ll cover essential elements of online and social media press releases.

And, we’ll cover some real-life success stories. Have to join us in person to see those, but here are some videos to inspire and inform.

Disclosure: image provided by shutterstock.com

Have you tried do-it-yourself online PR? What lessons would you share?

Coming up on October 30 in Lombard, Illinois . . . here’s a press release about an event that’s expected to draw over 500 people and 50 exhibitors. Need a business to business social networking or social media marketing strategies speaker? We released new about the expo via PRWeb.

Social Media Talks Buzz Up Lombard Chamber Business EXPO

Lombard, Illinois October 16, 2009 — Successful businesses know that one of the best places to network is a chamber of commerce business EXPO. Even better? Add in presentations on how to build up social media buzz and then attend a networking reception. Thanks to the Lombard Area Chamber of Commerce and Industry, businesses can do all three at the 13th Annual Expo at the Westin Lombard Yorktown Center in Lombard, Illinois. Social Media keynote speaker Barbara Rozgony of CoryWest Media, LLC – online at http:wiredPRworks.com – a virtual PR, social media and marketing consultancy will present three 20-minute social networking presentations: Facebook: Your Business or Your Life; Twitter 101: How to Tweet: Not for Birds, But for Business; and LinkedIn: 5 Power Strategies to Stand Out and Be Sought Out.

The “Wired PR Works” presentation is being sponsored by Chamber Gold Member Premier Payment Systems provider of Merchant Card Services. For more information visit: http://lombardchamber.com or call 630.637.5040.

Yvonne Invergo, Lombard Area Chamber of Commerce and Industry executive director, says exhibitors represent a wide variety of business sectors including banking, finance, insurance, marketing, computer, healthcare, senior living, education, publications, recreation, government and more. A social networking reception, at Harry Caray’s Italian Steakhouse from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., follows the EXPO.

Sponsored by Premier Payment Systems, Barbara Rozgonyi’s social media keynote presentations will cover:

Facebook: Your Business or Your Life? | at noon
How to have it both ways and become friends with people you can do business with
Learn how to harmonize your business, life and branding into a unified, cohesive presence that compliments your business – and your life!

Twitter 101: How to Tweet: Not for Birds, but for Business | at 1:00 p.m.
How to fly into twitter and attract a flock of loyal followers and customers
Birds tweet, but should you? Find out if twitter is a time-waster or a tool worth turning on and powering up. Discover how to leverage twitter to attract prospects, connect with customers, personalize branding and respond to everyone, including the media.

LinkedIn: 5 Power Strategies to Stand Out and Be Sought Out | at 2:00 p.m.
Becoming an authority on LinkedIn is easier than you think. In this session, take a look at the top five strategies authorities use to get attention and claim their space on LinkedIn: profiles, recommendations, answers, company sites and networks.

About Premier Payment Systems, specializing in merchant accounts for credit card processing
Premier delivers a personalized hands-on approach to businesses that are looking for competitive merchant solutions. Managed by an expert team with a collective 50 plus years experience in the bankcard industry, Premier’s leadership’s extensive background in risk management, leadership and sales management drives the company’s service and its vision. Premier’s diverse client portfolio consists of thousands of businesses, some of whom process as little as $60,000 annually in credit card charges while others process in excess of $100 million annually. Headquartered in Chicago’s western suburbs, Premier’s client base includes internet, retail, wholesale, mail order, phone orders and home-based businesses. Partnerships and alliances with the most well respected financial institutions in the world include First Data, named by Inc as the #1 Fastest Growing Business in Financial Services Industry 2008. For more information, visit http://ppsbankcard.com.

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Disclosure: Thanks to Premier Payment Systems for sponsoring my presentation and the event promotions.

When Problogger gave the assignment list to come up with a list post for the 31 days to a build a better blog project, the first topic that popped into my mind was: how to sell out an event in less than 24 hours.

Yesterday, we opened up 300 spots for Social Media Club Chicago’s Open Mic Night event. All 300 were gone in about 18 hours. So . . . what’s so cool about that? This is the fourth time we’ve sold out. On twitter, people were calling this, “The hottest event in town.”

With event registrations down all over the country, I’ve been researching what’s drawing people into rooms.

In a word: people.

There’s huge shift from wanting to learn to desiring to network. As one event planner told me, once people find their group, they just want to know when and where to meet and they’ll show up.

If you’re planning an event, be sure to allow – and promote! – time for networking. What would happen if you asked each speaker to build in a networking activity for every event?

Event Marketing: 10 Keys to Selling All Seats Fast

1. Date – send out a save the date notice before you open registration

2. Venue – recruit a sponsor to host the event in exchange for promotion

3. Speaker – engage real sparklers who have a ready-made fan base

4. List – build or borrow a list

5. Limit – start with a low capacity with plans to announce more openings

6. Free – need I say more? okay – get sponsors to underwrite the event

7. System – communicate across all multiple channels

8. Plug in – connect and route your invitation through all systems

9. Partner – pair up with another group or companion event

10. Wait – open up an overflow list and host a dual party for these folks, too

A reader writes . . .

Hi Barbara – My name is Mark McGinnis and I’m not sure just how I got on your mailing list – but it was good timing for this…

My wife (Kim) and I are new to offering Seminars.  I saw that you got 77 people signed up for your event.  You promoted this just on Facebook?  Have not tried that – is social media a good place to get localized attendees to register for events?  We have noticed that about half of the people that do sign up for seminars – just don’t show up. We are looking at new incentives and such but that is something you may want to keep in mind for your events as well.

I have a new Manifest Passive Income Seminar scheduled for Boulder Co – in early December. Please let me know any tips you have for gaining registrants (other than print mailings and Radio spots which we do).  Social media sounds intriguing.

All the best,

Mark

Dear Mark:
Thanks for writing. By the way, you got on my list when you purchased How to fill seminar seats using the power of free publicity, an interview I did with Jenny Hamby, the seminar marketing pro. So, thanks for buying my ebook and for reading my newsletters! Visit Jenny’s blog SeminarSavvy to search for seminar marketing tips.

Yes, social media can be a good place to get localized attendees to register for events, especially when you start a group to build a following and then begin to promote your events.

The people who showed up for our event enjoy being social media activists. One participant invited a dozen friends; that’s the power of word of mouth. When your topic is compelling and valuable to your audience, they will spread the word for you. Setting up a Facebook event is relatively simple. Like most marketing and communications, the more strategic you are, the better your results. To get started with Facebook, check out this list of 100 Facebook marketing tools and read my article on how to use Facebook to market local events.

In thinking about the answer to your question, here are four steps to marketing seminars on social media sites.

Step One: Seek out the right social networks

Where do your clients congregate online?

Survey your clients to find out which social networks they use: LinkedIn, Facebook, twitter, YouTube, flickr, ning. Ask about subgroups – join the groups they’re in and start your own. To meet the social media leaders in your community, search “[community] social media” and people and events will pop up. Colorado’s social media scene is very vibrant; you’ll learn a lot and make some valuable connections.

Step Two: Tune into conversations

What are they talking about? How do you and your seminars fit into what’s on their minds?

If you’re on twitter, you know the value of being able to communicate in 140 characters or less. Many seminars talk around the value and the actual product. The more people have to think about why they would attend, the less likely they will be to sign up. I think you have to be absolutely clear up front about what you’re promoting: coaching, information products, home study courses, workshops, affiliate programs, etc.

Step Three: Choose Your Social media tools

How much updating do you really want to do?

Participating in a social network requires being active and reaching out. Answering questions on LinkedIn a few times a week may be more your style than publishing a blog post every day. But, checking into Facebook and updating may turn out to be more fun and rewarding than you expect it will be. Think about time and why what you’re saying is relevant. Money is usually not an issue, but having images is. You can record and upload videos with a flip camera that costs less than $150. To add lift, send out a series of multimedia news releases before and after your seminar that include links to your social networking sites.

Step Four: Add Value

How do you and your seminars fit into their lives?

I’m not surprised that 50% of the the people who sign up for free seminars don’t show up. Why would they? They haven’t made a commitment to you – or to themselves. Charging a small token fee in exchange for information is one way to get them to commit in exchange for receiving something of value. You might get them to register on a site like Eventbrite – that way you capture their information and manage the registrations automatically.

Your turn: Where do you find about seminars? Does being able to see who else is going, like on Facebook, have any weight in your decision-making?

Image: Barbara Rozgonyi presenting Blogging for Business

Notes from Community Media Workshop’s 2008 Making Media Connections conference panel: Butts in Seats-How to Turn People Out: the Secret Ingredients.

This post is one in a series of four; browse the Making Media Connections 2008 category.

Were you at the conference? Let us know about your links or leave a comment.

Panelists

Mike Ervin, Freelance Journalist: writes mostly about disability issues, works at Victory Gardens on The Access Project to help people with disabilities: sign language, audio adaptation, if people want to be onstage, they have performance art workshops; also involved in ACT with civil disobedience

Mandy Burrell, Metro Planning Council: related to regional and urban growth and development, active in a group called Neighbors Project, also writes for Gapers Block, used to work as a community reporter for Wednesday Journal and Conscious Choice

Tanya Saracho, Teatro Luna: female Latina theater company only one in the country until a year ago, don’t have a lot of money, but they consistently sell out the shows

Christopher Piatt, theater editor for Time Out Chicago, theater scene is really broad, Denise is the media rep that reaches all parts of the city and Tanya does not, manages weekly magazine and online presence-blogs; have to watch trends in cities and rural area

Denise Garrity, publicity director for Goodman Theater, do almost 10 productions a year between 2 theaters, her job is to act as a liaison with the press, fortunate to have a separate marketing team, she pitches theater stories and works with critics. Fourth installment of the Goodman’s Latino Theatre Festival coming this summer. Moving to the new facility means they can invite off-Loop theater companies to present in that space.

Question about strategy

Christopher

Smaller companies are at Time Out Chicago’s mercy. Their response [Time Out Chicago] to the show is their [small theater] advertising. This Sunday at the Tony’s, you’ll see Steppenwolf and Shakespeare Chicago. The importance of that legacy is why Time Out Chicago’s subscribers want to know about the artist and the works. It’s harder to get their attention than it used to be. Send an email to let them know about the production. A lot of his job is emailing people about photographs. Presence of the glossy magazine means that theater is going to look different to the average consumer. There is a science and photographing theater is a craft. They have a lot of freelancers writers they have to trust. For people who are trying to push their companies out there, their attention spans can be very short sometimes. You can call him up. If you do, he will remember that. They get a lot of pitches, but sometimes they want to write about something else. Just be yourself and give them a personal contact.

Tanya

Teatro Luna’s motto: redefining the mainstream. How can you not be interested in a quarter of the population of Chicago? They were an accident, met her partner and got a group together. Don’t know how they filled that main stage at Victory Gardens. Got an email list, now they use Facebook and MySpace. They want to reach 25-32 year olds.

Question: What could you attribute the success to the initial show?

Tanya

We were doing something original and we had a product, but we didn’t know we had a product. Played to their strengths without the money, realized they were something special and we need to tell the people who might care. Started doing postcards. Whole Latin explosion; people wanted to see that on the stage. Originality and reflecting.

Christopher

It’s basically hip hop theater. For the show Machos they interviewed 54 men and women played them. It’s an accident, but a way that you’re answering the call.

Denise

In terms of delivering the information, you have to pay attention to the calendar. We’re in the midst of the festival season. They’ve taken the cast of “Ain’t Misbehavin’” to two baseball games. Now they’re investigating ways to get the performers out. Even the Goodman, we still rely on that. Put posters in boutiques on Southport.

Tanya

You got to talk to us the way we’re listening. We like to listen to the radio. There’s a free way to diffuse information via an events e-blast. Also use party promoters. From the beginning, they knew the importance of having on-point marketing materials. The logo needs to be something extraordinary. When they did start producing postcards and a web page they stood out, it’s kind of like equal opportunity on the net.

Mandy

Similarities, new project: community planning process, do people really want to go to another meeting? Started in 3 different areas, began a web site and started blogging about it, looking at transit missed connections and also looking at retail amenities. It’s been a challenge because there are new people in the neighborhood. Pushed out via e-alerts and they come up with some reason to send it out. How do you have a list? Started out with a list of leaders from business and community groups to connect them to larger groups within the neighborhood. There’s some back and forth there. Then, when people came to the meetings, they collected emails. Collected stories from people who came to the meetings and had interesting things to say. Passing out at neighborhood events, festivals and libraries.  Most meetings are interactive. Use surveymonkey.com. Brochure has a tear off to win a $50 transit card.

Denise 

Enter to win works well.

Tanya

They do holiday parties; secret Valentines bought in so much money and 350 people.

Denise

Tailor-made event, they identified their goal. Chief diversity heads at corporations very interested – had their boards blast out the information via eblast and a paper donation, caterer donated food, had to invest a little bit of money to get the artists to preview the show.

Tanya

They use Constant Contact to manage email

Question: How can we tie into arts to get our message out?

Tanya

Comedy, art and music are good partnerships

Christopher

Journalists love it

How did you come up the fake protest and have you done anything else like it?

Tanya

Fake protesting low priced jeans as performance art landed coverage in the Trib: Latinas have had enough. Also wanted to find out how men use urinals, got attention online.

How do you get volunteers?

Tanya

We only use volunteers, always important to build your board

Mandy

Use idealist.org

Denise

Created a program called university ambassadors that exchanged tickets for service

Mike

Theaters use Saints as ushers

Christopher

Saints are the best kind of volunteers to have

Tanya

pizza and beer

How do you do eblast trades?

Tanya

Partner with other groups to exchange lists

Mandy

Host an event with another group that’s well established to cross-promote stuff, make it easy for them

Tanya

Have an incentive, give them a discount

Christopher

Have to remember the law of diminishing returns with email, the more they see you, the less they pay attention. People block some companies. The really good publicity offices know how to pick those battles and how to really carefully arbitrate that.

Denise

Always attach attachments

What makes a good photo?

Christopher

Very few people in the photo, the eye is going to be drawn to simplicity and movement. Michael Braslow? is so good at capturing even in the still moments. There is a difference between a production and promotion photo. Production photos will help you get coverage. Make two investments: one in production photography and one in promotional photography. Be very simple so that the picture tells a quick story. Look at the advertising campaigns across the board and see which fonts and looks that draw attention. Never place an ad or take a photo for a show you wouldn’t go to. Don’t want a photo to run with the review that looks like the ad.

Observations

Discussion centered mostly on theater production. The secret ingredients? Be original, find a need, feed people, perform where the people are, collaborate and present two faces: production/doing and promotion/marketing.

What do you think?

What’s your secret for getting butts into seats?