Are you a company that wants to extend your marketing outreach to thousands of people? If you’d like to utilise bloggers for this, my advice for how to host a blogger event is just what you need. How am I qualified? Because I blog, and I attend events. A LOT! Promotion Choice offers some brilliant deals on props for events.
Advice for How to Host a Blogger Event #1: Seeing is Believing
Bloggers are mental with their cameras. Make sure you offer them money shots. 
The Ampersand Hotel’s Science Tea rocked this. While they typically use dry ice for the visual effect for their unique special offer tea, they did it twice for us. This was to make sure we caught the explosive effects on camera.
On the contrary, I attended a tea somewhere else and only one tier of treats hit a table of 8 bloggers. The rest was presented on flat serving dishes. No fun! We were all struggling to take cool pictures of one tier of treats. Therefore, our visuals were not too exciting.
Advice for How to Host a Blogger Event #2- Throw a Blogger Bone
Let’s face it, most bloggers aren’t making a living from blogging. Extra, complimentary stuff keeps us motivated.
I loved the gift boxes that the Royal Horseguards Hotel Afternoon Tea gave us. And nothing can top the #RegentTweet event I attended yesterday. But, you’ll have to stay tuned for a more detailed account of that soon.
Thank you @BananaRepublic UK for the £50 gift card and beautiful flowers at #RegentTweet pic.twitter.com/q3Oj0BfNhl
— Sunny in London☀️ (@Sunny_in_London) June 1, 2014
I won the iPad Air at #RegentTweet !!! So happy I ended my holiday in the US to be here for this AMAZING international event!!
— Sunny in London☀️ (@Sunny_in_London) May 31, 2014
Those are treats Karen Millen gave us while we toured their exclusive Personal Shopper VIP room.
Advice for How to Host a Blogger Event #3- Tweet and Meet the Executive Chef
Make sure the Executive Chef, General Manager, or some impressive representative tweets the group before and after the event. Also, a personal introduction, welcome and thank you at the event goes a long, long way. Check out this great example from Chef Ben Purton who prepared a #LDNBloggersTea:
Loving the updates and feedback from the latest #LDNBloggerTea – what a great collection of bloggers 🙂 #blogginggreat #sconemasters
— Ben Purton (@Chefben1975) May 17, 2014
Fav quote of #LDNbloggerTea y'day "So this Chef Ben, is he your personal blogger tea chef then?" Sadly, no… @Chefben1975 @SelenaThePlaces
— Emma (@LondonKiwiEmma) May 18, 2014
If bloggers feel like the hotel’s Head Chef notices us, we’re happy. Happy bloggers generally equals happy reviews.
Advice for How to Host a Blogger Event #4- Name Tags!
Have a staff member make each blogger a name tag. What you don’t realize is, we actually don’t know each other’s names.
If we mention our blog’s name, we connect with each other. But, we can’t remember each other’s names, or ever really learned them, for that matter.
Unlike every other circumstance where we dread clipping (or gawd forbid… PINNING) our names on our clothes, we’d proudly wear our name badges to your event.
Advice for How to Host a Blogger Event #5- Do the Math!
There’s a damn gold mine sitting in your venue. Think about how many people we reach. THOUSANDS. Possibly hundreds of thousands.
Impress us. We spend a lot of time targeting our audience through SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
You could pay a lot of money to place an advert in a magazine or newspaper that may or may not catch your proposed audience’s attention.
OR…
You could trust our hard work.
We do this for a hobby, and many hope to make it a living. Use us to make you look good. This is me taking a Bowtie Master Class at #RegentTweet with Hawes and Curtis.
Photo courtesy of Sister PR, from #RegentTweet
How’s that for product placement? 😉
Our one post about our experience with you reaches thousands, yes thousands, of interested people. Why? Because we’ve developed a relationship with them. They trust us. They listen to us. They’ve subscribed to our thoughts.
Ask for our media kits. We’ll prove our value.
Advice for How to Host a Blogger Event: Final Thoughts
If you follow these suggestions with a great product/service, you’ll see big benefits. Foremost, you’ll receive tons of relatively cheap PR. Also, your social media impact will skyrocket.
Trust me. Over 4,000 people already do on my combined social networks…
PR companies, how can I help you host a blogger event? I have event planning, PR and blogging experience. CONTACT ME!
Blogger friends, this is your chance. What can you add to our list of suggestions for how to host a blogger event?
Brilliant post! As a blogger who also attends a lot of events I completely agree with all of these.
Thank you, Beverley. It means a lot because I know you’re very well respected and influential in the London blogging community. Cheers!
Aw that’s such a lovely thing to say, thank you so much! 🙂
This is a brilliant post so very true, really enjoyed reading it. Creating social media pages, advertising it in advance, getting the community excited talking about it and don’t forget the #tag so everyone can follow the magic. I am so gutted that I missed the #RegentTweet event over the weekend as was in Notts but thoroughly enjoyed your Twitter pics. I love the man from Hawes and Curtis doing a bow tie number on you brilliant. Lucy x
So happy you enjoyed it! The #RegentTweet event was truly fantastic. Loved your additions in your comment about other things we do as bloggers. Thank you for sharing!
All excellent ideas (though not sure about the name tags). My mane gripe with events is not enough notice! I have such a busy schedule I plan things literally a month or more in advance, and then I’ll get an invite to something that happens in two days. It might be something I would kill to go to and want to write about, but I will almost definitely already have plans that I’m committed to and therefore can’t. Very frustrating!
What a fabulous comment! Thank you so much! I agree 100%. I had a PR rep email me at 10:15am once about an event that night. I really wanted to attend but had already made a commitment. I would’ve gladly chosen theirs if I had more notice. Thank you for reading and adding this valuable insight.
Nice post! I love how you used Regent Tweet as a twist to inform about all the great strategies. I can only say I agree with all of them 🙂
Thank you for reading! If you think of any additional suggestions, please return to comment. 🙂
I always love when you feel like they really made an effort and love your presence their. I often had mass events where bloggers are secondrate compared to journalists or celebrities. Like we put so much effort in to make a nice post afterwards etc so they shouldn’t treat us second class 🙂
Oh my goodness, couldn’t agree with these more! Fantastic post. I would definitely say plenty of notice and blogger friendly hours – most of us work full time and have busy schedules outside too. I’m well jel of your Regent Tweet experience!
Thank you, Kat! It was an amazing experience. And yes, when you receive plenty of notice, it almost guarantees you’ll attend AND be able to plan time for writing a detailed post about the experience/product.
Totally agree with all this and also Kat’s comment about blogger friendly hours and getting a bit more notice about upcoming events. Getting an invite the day before makes it a little hard to attend a number of events when you are working!
I have to say the Milestone Hotel didn’t do that Afternoon Tea very well at all – they even retweeted my rather scathing review of the Afternoon Tea – social media fail!!! Always read the review before retweeting it!
xx
Kelly, Selena and I were discussing the Afternoon Tea we all attended a few nights ago. It’s a shame they didn’t read the reviews or respond to her email. I hear their regular teas are good, but perhaps the private room experience needs some attention!
This was a fantastic post, very helpful! I am thinking of having an event in a few months and am really unsure how to go about hosting the event.
Thank you for the insight!
Wow! That’s great! If I can be of any specific assistance, please let me know 🙂