We have a talented team here at Sprout Social, and we love sharing their insights. This week, during our #SproutChat, Digital Marketing Specialist Michael Patterson joined the conversation to share everything he’s learned from planning and executing more than 15 partner webinars with companies such as Canva, Moz and Unbounce. Below are four key takeaways from this week’s chat. Check out all previous webinars here, and don’t miss the next one, “ROI of Content Marketing.” Register here.
Choose a Strong Topic of Value to Your Community
Leverage the community you’ve cultivated to gather insight on what kind of webinar topic would be valuable. Consider what these people might be curious to learn more about. If this seems out of reach, simply ask what might broaden their skill set.
A1. Try a tool like Buzzsumo or GA to see which of your blog posts get the most loving. Are they worth a webinar? #SproutChat
— Michael Patterson (@MPatterson22) September 2, 2015
A1) Look for “knowledge gaps” in audience, and determine best way to address them #sproutchat
— Gordon D (@gordondym) September 2, 2015
A1: Social listening and keyword research can definitely give insights. Also, simply asking the audience! #sproutchat
— Heroic Search (@HeroicSearch) September 2, 2015
A1: See what competition is doing for webinars. Then project out on what would be next to get ahead as thought leaders. #sproutchat
— Alan Fleming (@alan_fleming) September 2, 2015
Find the Right Presenters & Make Sure Their Vision Aligns
It never hurts to vet the presenter to ensure he or she can talk extensively about the topic at hand. Someone may possess the understanding and knowledge, but communicating and effectively teaching it to others is another skill entirely. When working with people from outside organizations, it’s a good idea to make sure your vision is aligned (or at least that you’re prepared for a civil debate).
A3. Detailed influencer research and vetting. Have an actual conversation. Be aligned on the outcomes of the webinar #sproutchat
— Alexander Wilson (@anthrofoodie) September 2, 2015
A3 read their stuff. Observe them on another platform before you invite. #sproutchat
— David Pepper (@thedavepepper) September 2, 2015
A3) What about vetting them for speaking skills in addition to knowledge? Stage fright and webinars don’t exactly mesh… #SproutChat
— David Boutin (@dmboutin) September 2, 2015
Engage Listeners by Inviting Them to Participate
Your webinar should integrate with social media to glean real-time feedback and promote your brand as a trusted expert. It’s also a great opportunity to get your community talking about your brand in an organic way. A hashtag ties all these efforts together and allows for a quick collection of Tweets to review later or repurpose in another content form.
A4. Offer a prize to the most engaged Tweet to help loosen up those slow first questions. #SproutChat
— Michael Patterson (@MPatterson22) September 2, 2015
A4. Don’t save all questions until the end. Pose them throughout and make it conversational. #SproutChat
— Michael Patterson (@MPatterson22) September 2, 2015
A4: Live tweet, encourage them to weigh-in on Twitter, answer audience questions #SproutChat
— Caitlin P. (@itsCaitlinP) September 2, 2015
A4:Make them feel their voices are heard #sproutchat
— The Credible Agency (@credibleagency) September 2, 2015
Follow up With Personalization & a Content Recap
People often tune in to webinars during their busy workdays. Don’t fault them if they need to step away from the live presentation. Be generous in offering the full presentation and any additional content your team produced from the webinar in a followup email. And be sure to send this fairly soon after the webinar—they’ll love you for it!
A5. A personalized email (using email marketing techniques from last week) and A quick survey! (with an incentive of course) #sproutchat
— Alexander Wilson (@anthrofoodie) September 2, 2015
Q5: Send out the recording and slides as soon as you can. It’s one of the most popular questions we get! #SproutChat
— Michael Patterson (@MPatterson22) September 2, 2015
A5: Blog/post a recap and include comments & questions you didn’t get to answer. Use the same hashtag. #sproutchat https://t.co/Q7BzrI1Pk1
— ThinkSEM (@ThinkSEM) September 2, 2015
#SproutChat is full of incredibly smart marketing professionals. They’re also quite “punny.” We had some fun this week with sea puns, so I’d be remiss if I didn’t include a few of my favorites here.
@ThinkSEM @pubclub @gordondym @sprout_sarah I shrimply don’t see the porpoise in this anymore. Tuna what I mean? #SproutChat
— Nathan Young (@notnathan) September 2, 2015
@notnathan @pubclub @gordondym @sprout_sarah I thought I smelt something fishy… #sproutchat
— ThinkSEM (@ThinkSEM) September 2, 2015
@notnathan @ThinkSEM @pubclub @gordondym @sprout_sarah They’ve got no coral with you. Go flex your mussels somewhere else. #sproutchat
— Adam T. Music (@MusicAdamT) September 2, 2015
Join Us
We’d love if you joined us next Wednesday at 2 p.m. CT when we discuss social media crisis planning. Join our Facebook community to stay up to date on topics and connect with the community.
The post #SproutChat: How to Host a Successful Webinar appeared first on Sprout Social.
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