So, your event is coming up and you’re wondering how to maximize your reach outside of social media. As in, The Real World.

Without the face-to-face connection how can you be sure that the people who have RSVP’d are actually coming? We all know that outside of a faithful crowd or following, only about 10% of people really show up and what it comes down to is word-of-mouth.

First, look at your local calendars. These can be found through the city website, arts organizations, etc. Maybe there’s a regular event you yourself go to and you think your fellows would like to know what you’re throwing.

As you do your research, you’ll find that most of these events charge a booth fee. The benefit, though, is that the public turnout is huge. If you have some volunteers to spare to work the crowd, you can get tremendous returns signing up volunteers or just raising awareness. Such events would be:

• Farmer’s Markets – when the weather is fair these can be as often as twice a week on different days for different crowds.
• Festivals & Fairs – One-time events with huge turn outs and long run-times, like state fairs.
• Sports Events – Such as marathons or competitions can get a lot of media coverage.
• Other expos – specialty crafts, cultural show-cases, auctions, etc.  

If you have a small budget and you can’t afford to purchase a space, look to organizations already dedicated to community building, ie:

• Public Libraries –  libraries are all about getting people in libraries. Period. Think about how your event might be relevant to whatever programming they’ve got going on and have some ‘literature’ ready to hand out.
• Engage public schools – this can be daunting as public school teachers have a lot to keep up with during the year, but there’s probably an after school club or program that would love to have you.
• Small businesses – community awareness is crucial to the vitality of small business owners. By helping you, they help themselves.

Whatever you decide to do, make sure your materials themselves are engaging. Make stickers, make t-shirts, use fun colors and interesting fonts. Smile, be aware of body language and make your rap short and sweet. You never know who you might impress or where sponsors will come from!