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Events require a community of customers, industry professionals and delegates for them to work well and make money.  A profitable event should provide multiple opportunities for vendors and sponsors to showcase their brand whilst networking around a relevant industry forum and of course be very busy with networking and sales opportunities, a social community platform operates under the same principals.

The social community platforms supporting the events sector are no different and the same industry standards and practices can be applied to them to ensure that they make money and provide a healthy return, as well of course supporting off line event revenue. 

Consider your Social community platform as a direct extension of your offline event business, it builds your event brand equity whilst at the same time providing an online “venue” for your delegates to network, communicate and discuss information prior to meeting up in person.  As such your social community should be considered as an extension of your event brand that provides an integrated media and promotion platform between the online and offline worlds.

As part of an integrated media platform the supply chain benefits are clear, by providing online presence with your offline events offerings you can position your events with a clear differentiator to your competitors, you can also use both offline and online presence to negotiate a better rate for your events or online platform sponsorship and participation. Of course with delegates networking and discussing topics under your event brand your event is continually active which also serves to promote your offline event in much the same way as a corporate website with a large volume of traffic.

Events communities are best suited to niche sectors of industry where specific features and functions are industry specific and cannot be replicated by the features available in existing platforms.  Of course if the elements of your event can not be replaced by Linked in normally because your event:

1)    Appeals to an industry niche sector
2)    Provides niche networking and business opportunities
3)    Provides content relevant to your niche industry sector, vendor stands, speakers etc.  

Consider your social media platform in the same way that you consider your event; if you follow the same rules for your event and apply them to your social community platform you will be able to monetize your community easily and build a further equity platform for your business.  

 

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We refer to the process of monetization as making money from your social media investment.  Monetization can be direct revenue or providing an integrated package that can help ensure that you maximize your offline revenue.  Consider your social community application as your event venue; when your event venue is full of willing participants then it is easy to monetize this network with premium services.  We suggest that you offer a simple package program for your social community, with packages containing a varied number of vendor pages, rich media advertising options and marketing and sponsorship options in the same way that an offline event would host exhibitors, various levels of sponsors and delegate fees for premium content areas.

Packages can include a variety of pages and information, in the same way that a vendor takes a larger stand. Packages and what they contain (and their price) is of course your decision, but the following examples are provided as a point of reference. 

Vendor pages are the equivalent to “Stand Space.” A vendor page is a space that can be populated with vendor’s details, product information and contact details.  Various packages can be provided to your customers in a similar way that you provide stand space.   Vendor pages can be configured to provide a number of pages of content, with larger vendors taking further pages to showcase particular products and services from their product range to the community.  For example, vendor pages for a company like Panasonic may include a cameras page, a computers page, a phones page etc.  This allows a company with a larger product range to purchase a larger single stand rather than a separate stand for each product range in much the same way as your offline events.

Charges can also be applied for updates, managed by you.  The number of datasheet downloads available from the page, images available in each vendor’s gallery and videos shown on the page.

Extra charges can be applied per extra data sheet, image, video, or by requesting vendors to upgrade their package to the next level.  What is included in each of your packages should be defined based on your market requirements and acceptable price points, extra charges for updates and premium services should also be applied.

Video advertising is quickly and easily streamed into your social community. Video advertisements and promotional material can be streamed from every page of your community website.  The title sponsorship can be combined with premium display advertising positions in any configuration required.  Sponsorship can be charged on a tenancy basis by the month, quarter or year.

In a similar way to operating a VIP meeting service, your company can offer targeted marketing based on user profiles by email to your community members.  This can include requesting meetings prior to visiting a country based on the profile of users they wish to meet.  This can be combined with a telephone meeting booking service if required. 

Your customers can request to meet a profile of a community member; for example purchasing managers in IT resellers in Germany and meetings can be set up on their behalf and charged to members as a premium service. 

Delegates that pay to attend presentations and conferences can be charged a nominal fee to access premium areas of your social community.  Content can include white papers, videos of speakers, or industry information such as analyst reports from research partners etc that represent the equivalent of a delegate pass.  With a monthly ‘delegate pass’ your social community members can view premium content areas whilst their pass is valid.   VIP content access can be granted after the user pays a subscription fee online and can automatically be withdrawn when the subscription expires.

Your social community membership base offers a great opportunity for managed webinars as part of your service offerings. Vendors will pay to offer webinars to your subscriber based as a media partner, either on a fixed price or a performance basis.

Vendor TV or Show TV channels provide a direct and easily quantifiable benefit to your users that can be provided either as premium or standard content.  Companies will pay to provide content on the TV channel or to advertise between show segments.   Vendors can also be provided with their own online TV channel to promote their products and services, for example HP TV.

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