KozWealthSystems.com
I attended the Phoenix-area July 9 LinkedIn Live Event organized by Chris Kolkanis of CKME – Yore Town was a sponsor. We brought fliers that were picked up quickly, and got two minutes to address the 180 attendees. We also gave away three books, two on local history, which got Yore Town’s name mentioned three more times. I met several local business people and talked with someone whose friend was looking for a content writer/editor and was I interested? I am . Another wanted to write for Yore Town. The next morning, yesterday, I had eight people from the event inviting me to join their LinkedIn network, three of which wanted to talk about “working with” Yore Town. One was publisher of a local magazine. Perhaps most importantly, I got to tell all 180 that once launched Yore Town would be a free place for them to list their profile and tell their own “stories.” Community contributions and traffic are the most important elements of kick starting Yore Town’s success. Of course, once we have the traffic we’ll be monetizing through advertising and sponsorships. We’re also licensing Yore Town in other areas as well.
If you, or someone at your newspaper or organization is not on LinkedIn, you should be – as a person, not as a company. If you are, why not create your own LinkedIn live event in your area? Schedule it on LinkedIn events. if you have room at your office – a conference room, a hall – hold it there. If not, rent space at a centrally-located hotel or other venue. Bring in a speaker that will lure the crowd, announce it on LinkedIn events, offer appetizers and a bar (open or not, according to your budget) and charge a minimal fee for attendance (less for early birds, of course.) If you hold it at your newspaper, you could as well offer tours of your paper. People love to see the press in action.
The speaker at our event, Internet marketing expert Koz Khosravani, talked about online marketing tools and resources and then his last slide offered package pricing for his services that were significantly reduced if people signed up that night. I don’t know what he was paid, but you might even get someone to talk for free (or the price of their travel expenses if not local) for the opportunity to promote their services. A speaker who is NOT local is a much better draw, FYI.
For those of you in or around Phoenix AZ July 9, I hope you’ll join us for the LinkedIn Phoenix social media event that evening, organized by the CKME Group. Yore Town will be one of the sponsors. It’s a great idea – bringing together the folks who’ve been talking to each other via LinkedIn for so long, and just never met. I’ve met fellow LinkedIn’ers in Phoenix once before – a group of eight who still stay in touch. I can see this as a powerful way for a local newspaper to serve its community and touts its products at the same time. You could host the event, and solicit sponsorships of your advertisers – or prospects who haven’t advertised with you yet but could perhaps be brought into your advertiser fold with this inducement of a low-priced sponsorship.
Media Evolution - Hear the Roar 