Posting your Events, Blogs etc

Please post to NiS - it's your site!

Members can post networking events and blog posts free of charge. You can also post your own commercial training events, seminars and workshops for a very small fee - (details here) which goes towards keeping the site free for everybody...

GUIDELINES FOR POSTING TO NiS

The idea behind NiS is to make it easier for us all to network by having all (or most!) of the networking events in Surrey on one site.  It also helps if the listings are consistent and as complete as possible, so without getting too 'anal' about it, here are a few guidelines we ask you to follow please...

1. REGULAR MONTHLY, WEEKLY OR FORTNIGHTLY MEETINGS:

If you are posting an event organised by a group that meets regularly, please check that the group is included here on our Regular Group Meetings page. Each group has a page listing all its locations (with the town name as a link to the relevant page of the organiser's site) days oi the week (with dates if necessary) and meeting venues.

With over 150 breakfast meetings alone in Surrey each month, it's not practicable (or very interesting for site users) for us to devote a full page to each meeting by including all of them in our main EVENTS listing. That said, we're happy to list special events such as a new group launch, change of venue, or Visitor's Day, and the occasional standard meeting within reason to give the BNIs and 4Ns of this world some more exposure.

2. MAIN EVENTS LISTINGS - CONTENT:

Please make sure each main listed event has as much info as possible for its target end user - the business networker. That means things like the cost, address with full postcode (for satnavs), a link to a map (plus directions if poss), a picture of the venue, the organisers' logo, some info about the organisation, a picture of the speaker or organiser with a link to their NiS profile if a Member, details of parking (especially if this is not easy) - everything to make it easy for them to decide if they want to go, in fact.

If you can't put all of this in, please do as much as possible, and we'll do the rest for you (because we're nice like that!)

3. MAIN EVENTS LISTINGS - TITLES & LOGOS

You will find our software's a bit flaky with graphics - soz! The logo box is 175 x 175 pixels - so if you have a square-ish logo  it may come out OK - but in any case, we're happy to help. We can either careful create a square version or re-sizing your oblong logo to sit in the square space.

We think titles should clearly indicate where and when the event is taking place so users can scan down the listing and see at a glance which events they can make it to. So '4Networking Breakfast, Godalming', Ladies Who Latte Morning, Camberley', 'Best of Richmond Evening, Mortlake' all hit the spot, whereas 'Healthy Living Workshop - You Are What You Eat!' is lovely, but not informative - ideal for a heading witin the listing, but not as the event title.

4. BLOGS - SELLER BEWARE!

Posting a blog is not a way of getting an ad onto the site by the back door. We sometimes get attempted blog posts which simply say 'Here I am - I'm great - buy my stuff!' This is a 'splog' (spam disguised as a blog) and is neither acceptable nor likely to make you popular. If we allow one Member to do that, it could turn into a flood - please avoid!

It's true that most blog posts are indirectly aimed at selling you and your services, but in the spirit of networking 'best practice' they should contain useful, entertaining or thought-provoking stuff too. A blog should engage the reader, and encourage them to comment on the subject, or agree/disagree, or say 'thanks for that information or advice, it will be really useful in my business', or I enjoyed reading that it brightened up my day. Splogs don't do that - they waste people's time.

Of course, blogs can (indeed probably should!) contain links to your own site sales pages. It's a case of approaching the sales pitch obliquely really. If you give some valuable info, tips, advice etc, and then offer your services at the end of the post, that's a 'soft sell' which is much less 'in your face'.
You can of course include sales messages in your NiS profile if you choose, and if you have any free or discounted offers then do consider sending them for inclusion in our Offers & Freebies section.

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OT TECHNICAL ISSUES WITH POSTNG TO NiS, PLEASE JUST ASK... WE'D LOVE TO HELP!