For about a year now I've been running the Ealing Tweetup.
An informal social media networking event in West London that brings together a
diverse range of (mainly) local business people, politicians, bloggers &
journos, digital industry types and other interesting folks from many walks of
life… With live music - and sometimes
even free pizza courtesy of the host, Tom at the Rose & Crown, the events
are proving a great success with anything from thirty to over 200 attendees
joining to meet fellow twitter users and expand their networks!
What is becoming increasingly hard, however, is to find corporate
sponsorship for the event. Even in these tough financial times, we have had
companies willing to sponsor/donate money to provide a first drink at the bar
or to pay for the band. But we cannot always go knocking at the same doors, so with
the next Ealing tweetup now less than 5 weeks away and taking place on Thursday 1st March... I thought I would explain what any potential sponsor might get in
return:
1. Association
The Ealing Tweetup is one of the most well-known and
successful London Social Media events. Linking with the night automatically
boosts an organisation's ‘social currency’ and builds awareness of their brand
online via event Tweets and subsequent press releases. Previous sponsors have
associated themselves with the event to improve their visibility in Ealing and
with the wider community....and not just in Greater London, but also further
afield (we've had attendees from East Anglia, Scotland and even Sau Paulo,
Brazil).
With Social Media constantly growing in popularity and
increasingly integrated with corporate marketing, PR and commercial targets,
this is the ideal time to partner with Tweetup events.
2. Knowledge
Understanding and participating in Social Media can be quite
daunting to the inexperienced. The Ealing Tweetup provides the ideal
opportunity for a company marketers and managers to meet with a variety of
practitioners, from in-house Social Media mangers to PR agency directors ....
or even just normal average people who now follow, post and ‘retweet’ as part
of their daily lives. From finding information on the latest blogging platform
through to ways legitimate of building up your followers, attendees of all
experience can learn something new.
3. Marketing visibility
Previous tweetups have been attended by journalists,
bloggers, BBC presenters and senior political figures including the Deputy
Mayor of London. Consequently it provides a fantastic vehicle for any marketer
to promote their company. The sponsor has the opportunity to place banners
alongside the band which are usually captured in photos and videos throughout
the night; and then in the nature of Twitter, will be constantly posted online.
The sponsor will get numerous mentions in blogs, online press postings and even
local & regional newspapers.
4. Search Engine Optimisation assistance
Links are the currency of the World Wide Web, with search
engines such as Google using them as the key indicator of your site's online
gravitas. This means that when someone mentions your company in a post and link
back to your website….. you can gain a better foothold on search engines. Therefore
one of the many benefits of being a sponsor is the number of online mentions
your company will receive in association with the Tweetup.
