Article on social media and web 2.0 for meeting industry
by
Nicolaas Pereboom
—
last modified
Apr 29, 2009 12:51 PM
Filed Under:
Interesting article by by Pete Roythorne about the effect of social media and web 2.0 on the way the meetings and events industry works. Are these technologies a distraction from our lives or do they really have a business benefit?
On meetingreview.com an interesting article was published by Pete Roythorne about the effect of social media and web 2.0 on the way the meetings and events industry works. This is part one in a series of features on this subject. Are these technologies a distraction from our lives or do they really have a business benefit?
Some excerpts:
- “Social media and Web 2.0 technologies are becoming increasingly integrated into the meetings and event marketing industry,” (Ian McGonnigal - George P. Johnson)
- “Internet and mobility-based tools and platforms are ultimately a complementary communications channel to any live experience." (idem)
- “All forms of marketing are a constant balancing act and in some cases, the ship is beginning to list. If we do not rebalance the load, the ship will capsize and we'll all be in over our heads. Yes, these are powerful tools but must exercise caution, which always brings me back to the 80/20 rule: 80% of marketing should be against proven activities and 20% to experiment with new tools." (idem)
- "So far these technologies have had a limited affect on the meetings and events industry – but not for much longer. “ (Carina Bauer - IMEX)
- “We are increasingly seeing applications created which are specifically focused on helping meeting planners to use social networking sites to their advantage – be that through the automatic issuing of event invitations to Facebook friends or Twitter followers (Twtvite), surveys on twitter (Twtpoll) or simply to monitor and promote what others are saying about the event (TwitterCamp),” (idem)
- “Web 2.0 is changing meetings marketing and management with numerous benefits for meeting planners, exhibitors and attendees." (Corbin Ball)
- “This has a crucial impact for meetings and events professionals by, for example, shifting the balance of power from the speaker to the audience. So, whether you like it or not, your audience will increasingly demand a say in what they want to hear during presentations. They may even try to take control and demand it. Wise meeting and events professionals will recognise these trends and work with some of these tools to help direct this conversation.”
- " Social media can make meetings and events much more efficient and therefore improve return on investment. “Social media cuts out a lot of needless networking, as you are able to check people out before you actually meet them. While this can never actually replace the face-to-face experience, it allows us to filter people and it can make the whole process that bit more effective, which is a major consideration in the current economic climate.” (Dawn French - MPI)
