Reinventing Virtual Events

CHAPTER 18Dark Social Community Building: Hub‐and‐Spoke Formula for Public Relations

I don't want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members.

— Groucho Marx

Since the early 2020s, building your community has taken a hub‐and‐spoke strategy, just like a bicycle wheel. With LinkedIn hitting the 830 million‐member milestone and now part of Microsoft, it's the ultimate hub to utilize as the focal point of your online interactive events. However, reach within the platform is limited unless you're willing to “pay for play.” You can hit a button for paid advertising to amplify just about anything you do or share on LinkedIn. As an exception, there is a solid, free “LinkedIn Events” feature where you can tag the speakers and drop invites on attendees' calendars.

Leverage this powerful free LinkedIn (LI) feature, as it syncs with Google Calendar and Outlook for convenience. You may be shocked to see the diagram in our “hub‐and‐spoke” event amplification model and that your website isn't the hub. Why? Network effects and Metcalfe's Law: the value of your network is exponential based on the number of users. Envision an interactive web portal hooked to 61,000 people who follow and comment on what we share versus a website.

Beyond social media prowess, we recommend ...