Today was a fascinating "kick in the head" kind of day. It was a day where government X was supposed to give updates on a set of federal regulations. The information was scheduled to be shared via an online meeting. The particulars of the information impacts thousands of individuals and businesses. Including, the guy writing this email.
About five minutes before the scheduled meeting start time, I logged in and entered my password. After that, meeting attendees are met with a "waiting for organizer to start the session" message.
At the 10-minute mark, I decided to call into the backup audio line. Then, more waiting and no action. Finally, after about 15 minutes, I started to make some telephone calls.
By now, you've probably guessed that the meeting was cancelled. And you are correct.
When I finally spoke with one of the organizers about the meeting, their response was, "we posted to Facebook that the meeting was postponed." Mind you; the post was published 13 minutes after the meeting's scheduled start time. And the post was made on a completely unrelated Facebook page.
Why am I bringing the above to your attention?
Should your event be postponed or canceled, you need to use multiple modalities to update your attendees, in short order! These modalities include but are not limited to your event webpage, all your event's social media channels, and contact lists. Depending on the size of your event, you might want to include local media outlets.
Here's one last crucial point. If something changes about your event. Please make sure that you let your attendees know first.
Attendees (especially ticket holders) finding out issues regarding your event from other sources diminishes trust and credibility with your customers moving forward.
Here are some additional social media resources you can use to market your event:
- Do You Make These Social Media Mistakes with Your Event?
- Measuring Your Social Media Event Promotion Efforts
- How to Leverage Facebook and Your Event Marketing
- Beware of the "Social Media" Event SMACKDOWN!
- Social Media, Your Event Marketing, and "Insider Info" . . .
- Social Media Comments and Your Event
- The Downside of Promoting Your Event with Social Media