Update: Zvents is closing its doors on Oct. 31, 2014.
Here’s another local events calendar listing service to add to your list.
Zvents.com sends your event listings to more than 200 media outlets, for free. They include the San Jose Mercury News, The Denver Post, LA.com and newspapers in the North Jersey Media Group. Read the full list of media partners.
News about a restaurant event in San Francisco, for example, would be included in the Contra Costa Times, Marin Independent Journal, San Jose Mercury News as well as other smaller websites, and often in their print editions.
A word of caution: If you want a larger story, don’t use services like this one as a substitute for pitching a customized story idea. The media are bombarded with calendar listings. Shoot for a customized, compelling story pitch—preferably with a local angle.
“Don’t use services like that one”? I’m not sure I agree. Certainly, if you want a larger story, you don’t want to use a PR Wire and just blast a story out but my understanding is Zvents is the event calendar for those media companies; if you want your events and business promoted/listed by those companies, all you have to do is add it there. You want to want to be in the Merc’s event guide, you don’t pitch it to them, you just put it in; you pitch it to get them to write a story about it.
I said, “If you want a LARGER STORY, don’t use services like this one AS A SUBSTITUTE for pitching a customized story idea.”
In other words, submit your listing to this service so it gets into the calendars. But if you want a bigger story, think of a local angle to your story, convince the newspaper why readers would care, then pitch it to a beat reporter or a section editor.
I have used this website with great success we had people come to our event who did not know about the event until they did a websearch on zvents. It seems that you need to post even small fundraisers on multipule sites to get the max exposure “Free”. Many times I am posting to many event sites 2 to 3 months ahead of the event just to get the additional exposure, but the key is it is free.
Joan,
The news and information you offer is invaluable.
I wanted to thank you for reminding me of this contact. I was doing some late night work for a client in Manhattan, several hundred miles away, and this offered me an opportunity to post to a site that I would have forgotten about.
I agree with Rebecca. You need to post even small fundraisers on multipule sites to get the max exposure.
How many other local event calendars can you recommend?
If you want your item to get to Zvents and all the other online as well as traditional calendars, I post to FullCalendar.com. It’s not free (a minimum cost of $19.95), but it is like one-stop shopping.
Dave,
I just wrote a column this month for WomensCalendar.org on the wide variety of calendar sites. You can read it (and listen) here:
http://www.audioacrobat.com/note/CLqJ7T4s/