A notice about the Live Event on the World Bank website.

By Quentin Wodon

On 8 March, I helped organize an event at the World Bank in celebration of International Women’s Day designed to illustrate the power of women to change the world. The main speakers for the event, sponsored by the World Bank Group Staff Association, were Marion Bunch and Deepa Willingham, both dynamic Rotary members.

We learned a few valuable lessons from our efforts to promote the event online through social media. First, with about 250 people attending at the World Bank, the event was a success. But more importantly, 3,341 unique visitors viewed the event through the World Bank Live platform. That means 13 times more people watched the event online as did in person. We expect even more people to watch the recording of the event when it is made available on the event’s webpage.

Several steps contributed to the success of the web streaming:

• The event was featured on Instagram and Facebook, with strategic placement of low-cost ads, resulting in a total reach of an estimated 1.6 million people.
• The event was featured prominently on the World Bank’s external webpage for two days, drawing people to watch the event online live.
• The event was promoted through Twitter as well as blog posts (among others Rotary Voices, the education and health World Bank blogs, and the Rotarian Economist blog).

This brief analysis demonstrates how investments in social media can substantially increase the reach of events. If you are organizing an event that you believe has the potential to be a success online,  consider streaming it live and putting together a social media campaign to increase your visibility. If you would like more information on the event, please visit the Rotarian Economist blog.

About the author: Quentin Wodon is a lead economist at the World Bank. He holds PhDs in economics and in theology and religious studies, and has taught at universities in Europe and the U.S. He is a member of the Rotary Club of Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C., and is involved in several innovative global grants. He is also author of the Rotarian Economist blog.