One good thing about using Google+ Hangouts is that they don’t have any advertising banners attached to them. This allows your guests to directly focus on what you are saying during your Hangout.
What some smart companies have been doing is finding ways that they can still generate some form of advertising revenue from their Hangouts. Have you thought about connecting with sponsors?
Let’s look at an example of this. Say you run a beauty type of website you could run a Hangout that focuses on hair care or styling. Then during the Hangout you use certain brands of products. The manufacturer of this product would be your sponsor.
This could potentially work extremely well for established businesses who have conducted several Hangouts. If you can show your potential sponsor that you can attract a few hundred guests, they will be more willing to jump on board as a sponsor.
What large company wouldn’t jump at the chance of being a featured product in a 10 or 15 minute Hangout Commercial?
If you are just starting with Hangouts then use this idea as a goal which you would like to achieve. As soon as you can attract a good number of guests start offering sponsor time on your website.
The sponsor will also help you advertise your Hangout and bring you both more potential customers. Both parties are using the other to highlight a great media opportunity.
Another way to get advertising for your Hangout is by interviewing high profile people. This could be an athlete, a prominent business person in your community or niche. People love to ask celebrities live questions and if you can find someone to be a guest on your Hangout your views will dramatically increase.
This method has been done by several companies including the New York Times when they invited Olympic athletes to attend their Hangout. Guests were allowed to ask questions and the event attracted a ton of people all over the world.
Use this same scenario to announce a new product or service and publicize it as a Press Release event or conference. Promote this to your local newspapers and TV stations and invite reporters to come on air with you and ask questions.
There are many different ways that you can advertise with Hangouts. You can offer to be a sponsor or you can promote your Hangout as a publicity event.