What are Talk City Promotions?

As a Room Owner, you are entitled to promote your room across Talk City using the Talk City promotions system. When you submit promos, Talk Citizens far and wide will know what's going on in your corner of the City!

There are three types of promotions:

• Chat Event promos allow you to publicize scheduled chats in your room. These promos appear on the Talk City home page, on our active chat listing page, and on the My Rooms page.
• Hot Topics promos are for interesting threads on your message board. These promos appear on the My Rooms page along with Chat Event promos.
• Web Article promos are for room-related Web pages you may maintain. These promos also appear on the My Rooms page.

Chat Event Promotions

To submit a Chat Event promo, go to your room's Control Center and click on the "Chat Event" link in the "Forum Promotion" menu. You'll be presented with a form where you can enter information about your chat. The page also includes complete instructions and helpful suggestions.

These promos must be submitted at least 1 day in advance of the chat event listed. A three to five day run for chat promos will get you the best results.

Hot Topics Promotions

To submit a Hot Topics promo, go to your room's Control Center and click on the "Hot Topics" link in the "Forum Promotion" menu. You'll be presented with a form where you can enter information about the message board thread you'd like to publicize.

Message Board promotions can run from one to ten days, and should be rotated on a regular basis. Five days is probably the most effective time limit for a single thread. All Hot Topics promotions must go to active discussions in public folders.

Web Article Promotions

To submit a Web Article promo, go to your room's Control Center and click on the "Web Article" link in the "Forum Promotion" menu. You'll be presented with a form where you can enter the URL and some information about the Web page you're promoting.

Web Article promotions must include a prominent link back to your message board or chat room on Talk City.

Writing Good Promotions

Think of your promo as the teaser on the cover of a magazine; it needs to be short, engaging and written in an active voice. There is a strict size limit, to ensure that it will fit within the appropriate space. All promos must meet Talk City Standards, as well as follow the style guidelines shown on the promotions pages.

Featured Rooms

In addition to the forum promotions you can run, Talk City will choose forums to participate in the Featured Rooms section on the Talk City home page. These forums must meet Talk City Standards, and must be PG-13 type rooms. Adult rooms will not qualify for this section for promotions. If you'd like to be included in the Featured Rooms section, just drop a note to any staff member, or post your request in the Owner's Lagoon.

Active Content

Specific information about each of these promotional tools is available in your control center, under the "Forum Promotion" heading. Message board, chat room, and Web page articles are limited to a combined total of 5 at any one time. Active Content must be used in Web pages, and will not function in messages or start pages on Talk City itself.

Beyond Promotions

When you first open your chat room and message board, you don't want visitors to just see an empty room and blank message board. They should see an open room with ongoing discussions on the message board with posts from others besides you. With a little creativity, you can have some discussions in place when your first visitor arrives, and have your chat room up and running!

Getting Started

Set a Chat Schedule
If you can't keep your room open full time, set a schedule of regular chats, list the schedule both on your Start page and on your Message Board. Send out invitations to friends. Until you build your community for a while, it make take extra effort to get people into your chats.

Make it Easy to find Your Room
Fill in your profile, make sure you list your chat room under "Favorite Forums". That gives people a direct link to you, without them even having to ask! Always put the URL to your forum in your signature, when posting in official help forums, so that other members can check out your room if they find what you've said attractive.

Schedule Special Chats
Use special occasions, guest speakers, holidays, and "themes" to bring your evening's chat alive. Tell ghost stories, write group poems, invite someone to give a talk about their hobby, or profession.

Seed your Folders with Messages
Make sure that there is at least one message in each folder. The first one will usually be from you, explain the purpose of the folder, and invite others to contribute to it. Get friends or assistants to respond, so that your messages won't be the only ones people see. You can even visit with a second account and respond to yourself, if necessary. Try not to make it obvious that both are you. Set the style for what you hope will follow.

Ask Questions and Invite Responses
Make it obvious that you want others to post. The more you get others involved, the quicker your Forum will grow. Be controversial and invite disagreement. Ask for opinions. The majority of visitors in most Forums never post at all. They stay in lurk mode reading, but never responding. You want to give them every possible reason to get out of lurk mode.

Be Inviting
Welcome your visitors warmly, and acknowledge each and every room entry. Chatters that feel welcome, will help your room grow and thrive. Draw your chat visitors into the conversation, and don't let anyone sit for too long without special attention from you or your room moderators.

Use Polls
The easiest response for a visitor on the board to make, is to respond to a poll. It gets them out of lurk mode and may encourage them to post a message response, too. Make sure polls are enabled in your Controls page's Main Settings. Use the Create Poll link at the top of your discussion page, and fill in a question and possible responses. Follow the poll with a message with your comments and challenge people to explain their responses.

Follow Up Board Activity with Chat Activity
Did you find a subject your members are passionate about on your board? Follow up the discussions there, with a chat on the same subject. Or vice versa! If your current members found the subject interesting, there are undoubtedly dozens of others that will as well.

Invite Friends
When your Chat Room is ready, use the Invite Friends feature in your Controls page's Forum Membership menu to invite people you already know. Enter their names and e-mail addresses and customize the message you send.

Use Talk City's Promotion and Listing Features
Don't forget the importance of your chat room's Topic and Welcome Message features. Keep your content interesting, and lively, and remember that thousands of people a day will see your room name and topic on our chat listing page. Save email addresses for your discussion board, people are here to chat!