Brainstorming - How to promote BizJam?

This is great. I think any networking group would love to hear about it.

Also, another great way is links. We have put a BizJam link on our website (in two spots) as well as on our blog. We will also be making a pitch for it in our free weekly etip we will be sending out next Tuesday. And finally -- word of mouth!

Where a bright red nose ;)

Advertise it to college business and tech programs. (BTW I was serious about the nose, if you haven't read the 'stop clowning around' thread Hsuan-Hua you'd see it is to promote bizjam.)

I love the red nose idea... even if I was the second one in the pool! It shows camaraderie which is always a positive. I also, in addition to a cute honker, have a rather large mouth. (not literally) Not too many in my "circle" don't know about BizJam and how beneficial it is going to be for everyone involved.

Viva the Revolution!!!

Here was a fun, quick, simple way I just promoted Bizjam (using Seesmic video message, like eyejot -which powers our video profiles, but with a public timeline) -it then went out to twitter.

Hey guys, I just remembered --if you click on the link in my last post and then do a reply, each response will be shown in the public timeline -could be some good extra promo for bizjam. Just takes a minute to register, then leave a few seconds positive plug for biznik and bizjam!

I've just posted an interesting promotional link to twitter and other places that you may be interested in passing along to those considering coming to bizjam: http://www.eyejot.com/et?LeifHansen-258652 Enjoy! -Leif

Just saw this thread- I would put it up on the various community sites around Seattle. Meetup and Upcoming both have fairly significant followship, for next year I would reach out to Gnomedex (a lot of Seattle tech indies there) and do cross-promotion. I would also seriously look at partnership opportunity with the Bellevue, Seattle, Queen Anne, South Snoho, and Edmonds Chambers. Any one of those chambers has the ability to double attendance with indie business owners.

I would also think about doing an affiliate program (invite a friend,etc) giving credit to attendees for recruiting. I.E. bring three, get in free.

The SBA here in Seattle is also open to marketing and business building workshops, and the price point is well within what they normally roll-out to members.

From my professional end, a coordinated effort to get it promoted online- especially on the community sites relevant to small business. There are enough social media people involved to get a lot of exposure for any conference with just a little coordination and agreement.

I would also recommend some more technical marketing and promotion ideas- including some twitter (like Leif said) and a e-mail / SMS text campaign to everyones network. Just with the network effect, 100 members X 100 e-mails = 10,000 exposures. A 1% conversion would be 100 attendees. Multiply that out to 500 members and an even lower conversion at .5% and you still get 250 attendees.

I think the same math holds true to some of the bloggers involved in Bizjam, it just needs to have more reason to coordinate the efforts and track how it is working.

Great tips Barry --you da numbers god! ;) (Just found out that ChrisBrogan re-tweeted it (13k followers on twitter, and Jeremiah Oywang said he would as well).

And look at this great blog/free giveaway/promotional from Michelle here: http://www.anti9to5guide.com/2008/07/04/win-a-free-pass-to-bizjam-seattle-08/