5 Steps to Promote Online Engagement

The success of any online engagement process rests on your ability to get the word out. While it is theoretically easy for people to find your online forum  using a search engine, it is likely that your web page will get lost in the sea of online content unless you promote it effectively.

All hope is not lost, however.  By following these easy steps below, you can help ensure that your engagement process is found by your target audience and improve your overall online engagement experience:

How to Promote Your Online Engagement

1. Place a prominent link to your consultation site on your organization’s website. At PlaceSpeak, we have found that this will drive around 1/3rd of your traffic.

2. Create an easy to remember vanity web address (eg. www.placespeak.com/urbanfuturessurvey).  This is especially important if you will be doing offline promotion or holding public meetings. Direct links can account for around another 1/3rd of your total traffic.

3. To ensure your topic is easily found by search engines use appropriate keywords in your topic title, abstract and description. For help determining the best keywords to use, Google offers a popular keyword search tool.  Also consider embedding links to related website in your description text. Search engines are responsible for approximately 25% of topic page traffic.

4. Links in emails are another effective way of driving people to  your topic page. Send out an email invitation to your key stakeholders and target audiences letting them know about the project—and the topic web address. Ask them to forward on the email to their friends and family. This will provide between 5 and 10% of your traffic.

5. Let the broader community know about your topic through social networks. Promote the topic sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. In addition to simply posting the topic URL, ask engaging questions or including interesting information. This will provide the final 5 to 10% of your traffic.

Stay tuned for a follow-up post on promoting your online engagement offline.

Image: Creative Commons © ahans on Flickr