How to promote your local node events
https://twitter.com/ReFiLisboa/status/1674103614069932042?s=20
Given events are the core function of a local node, its important you promote them effectively, build momentum and get a really good turnout! Here is an overview of a few key steps that we recommend, with a more detailed breakdown below.
Ultimately, it’s up to you to find what works!
Overview
- Announce the event as soon as possible
- Invite leaders from the community
- Announce speakers and sponsors every other day
- Announce attendees and highlight those with pedigree
- Ask community questions
- Final call to actions (last 2-3 days leading up to it) any logistics updates, etc.
Feel free to modify this workflow as you see fit, the main thing is to get the word out there as far and wide as possible! We provide more detail below
Distribution channels
We use Twitter, LinkedIN and our newsletter.
We also have a podcast in English and Portuguese that we use to insert small call-to-actions about upcoming events.
The combination of these channels can be very powerful. We usually have 75 people sign up for our local events, which is a good turnout given they happen every month.
Let’s get into the details!
Now you’ve gotten a quick overview, it’s time to dive into the details of promoting your event.
Announce the event as soon as possible
Don’t wait until you have it all figured out. Get your event listed on Lu.ma or another platform with just the core essentials:
- Title
- Date
- Description
- Photo
You can figure out the rest later:
- Speakers
- Catering
- Sponsors
- Location
We find that having the event link makes getting speakers, sponsors and a location so much easier. The important thing is to get sign ups, show interest and drive that interest to secure the remaining resources.
https://twitter.com/ReFiLisboa/status/1674719571230744578?s=20
Invite leaders from the community
It’s important to focus on regenerative leaders from public, private and third-sector institutions. You don’t want a bunch of random people at these events, you want committed leaders who are working towards a better world from a place of integrity and influence.
Of course, grassroots community involvement is essential, but those people usually gravitate towards leaders they respect, and those are usually speakers at the event.
Build a short list of leaders from your community you want to invite and send them personalized invitations!
Announce speakers daily
Given leaders are the key actors for influence and they play a significant role in attracting value-aligned community members, it’s important to get great speakers lined up and celebrate them as they come in.
Organizing events is dynamic and requires a lot of coordination. Get the right speakers in and everything else often falls into place!
Workflow
- Review speaker application form
- Interview potential speakers that you don’t know
- Contact the best ones and let them know they’ve been chosen
- Design a Speaker Card using Figma template
- Go to LinkedIN
- Copy headshot image
- Paste into Figma
- Use Remove.bg plugin to remove background
- Install Remove BG plugin
- Go to the remove.bg website and create a free account (you will need to confirm your email).
- After that you can find your API key here https://www.remove.bg/dashboard#api-key.
- Create new key
- Copy into Remove BG plugin
- Tweet it out, post on LinkedIN
- Email the speaker asking them to promote on their profiles
https://twitter.com/sprembo/status/1674171522536046594?s=20
https://twitter.com/ReFiLisboa/status/1674103614069932042?s=20
Announce top attendees
Most community events don’t do this, but we find that having an application form for all our events is really powerful. Don’t let anyone come to your events—insist on finding the most value aligned regens in your community.
Once you’ve got great people coming, it’s important to take the time to celebrate attendees who join.
Workflow
- Review applications for guests via lu.ma
- Open their LinkedIN profile
- Choose based upon a balanced mix of:
- Value-alignment
- Gender / ethnicity
- Residency (foreign, local)
- Web3 affinity
- Impact affinity
- Wellbeing affinity
- General feeling and description of their application
- Accept their application
- Send them a personalized email saying thank you
Announce sponsors
Whenever you land a sponsor, its time to celebrate with a post! Something short and sweet like this works just fine:
https://twitter.com/ReFiLisboa/status/1626630717357826048?s=20
AFTER
Shortly after the event it’s important to thank attendees, speakers and sponsors. Follow-up with some video content that helps to share knowledge and increase awareness about the work you are doing.
Capturing video content can give you some great materials to work with! Photos work too…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq0Xf4CUa30
https://twitter.com/ReFiLisboa/status/1630538531251560450?s=20
https://twitter.com/ReFiLisboa/status/1630855532558036993?s=20
Workflow
- Create a storyboard of your event
- What happened
- Who said what
- Key highlights
- Call to action
- Gather any video and photo content
- Create whatever you can to share the story and invite folks to the next one!
- Twitter thread to recap who came, what was said, major takeaways
- Photos and videos
- Thank speakers, sponsors, anyone else who supported
Conclusion
As you can see, there are a lot of steps involved in promoting an event—both before and after!
It’s super helpful to build a team that can support you in this work. The first person we hired at ReFi Lisboa was a part-time event organizer and social media person. She did a great job organizing all our events and promoting everything on social media in 10-20 hours per week!
Here’s the job description we used: