For some, communicating via e-mail and the status updates and social chatter online aren’t great ways to improve their business. You may be a great face-to-face communicator and feel like all the digital stuff just sort of gets in the way.
If you are one of these people and you want to increase the amount of time you spend face-to-face with people in your area, there are, of course, some social tools to help.
One of these is Eventbrite. Eventbrite is a tool that helps you schedule events in the real world and use digital tools to promote the events. You can also use it to find events in your area based on a variety of criteria.
Finding new events and real-world social networks
Eventbrite is, at its core, a database of events happening in many different locations at different times. Since the events stored by the Eventbrite database are submitted by users, the kind of events range from very simple and casual up to full on conferences.
One of the first stages of using Eventbrite is to use it to find new events that you might be interested in attending. It’s a little challenging to find where to search the whole directory, so I’ll help you out with the search link: http://www.eventbrite.com/directory.
At the top of the search page for Eventbrite are two text fields. The first one lets you enter the kind of event you’re looking for and the second is for the location. For best results, just enter a location and then filter down from there.
You can filter the results using options in the sidebar of Eventbrite. The different filters include paid vs. free, time-based filters to help you schedule out how soon something will happen, and types of events (classes, conferences, networking and so on).
Once you’ve found an event that looks like a good fit for you and your business, you can select it and get more details.
If the event is a paid event there is a checkout system on the detail page. There’s also usually a more in-depth description of the event so you can figure out if it’s going to be right for you. And some detail pages even let you know who else is attending.
All of the usual tools and widgets are also on the event detail page: like it, Twitter it, add it to your calendar, see a map of where the event will take place, send an e-mail, add it to your LinkedIn profile page, and so on.
So get out from behind the computer and use this tool to get in front of more people.
Taking it up a notch: making an event
Finding and attending events is a great way to increase your presence in your community. An even better way is to host some of your own events.
If you are already keyed into your local online community via Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn or other tools, perhaps it’s time to organize a get-together of digital friends in the real world.
Eventbrite can make putting together an ad hoc Tweetup or other get together much easier. Unlike just looking for events to attend, you’ll need a free Eventbrite account to create your own event.
To set up an event you just enter in the important details: time, location and cost, if any. You can (and should) enter a description of what the event is for, as well. Finally, you can add a description about yourself, as the host, and add custom graphics to the layout — it’s a branding opportunity for you.
Don’t forget to use the tagging feature to help your event show up in Eventbrite searches. And, of course, you know I’ll tell you take advantage of the Google Analytics integration so you can learn more about how your Eventbrite page works for converting visitors into attendees.
Hosting an event is a great way to actively demonstrate what your business is about and what sort of interests you have in your local community. And it’s a great way to get out of your digital cave and meet people in the real world.