Social Awareness

Social Awareness
Experts share tips on using social media before, during and after meetings

By Katie Morell

The very way we interact with each other is changing rapidly, with major news events reaching us first via "tweets," momentum for social movements large and small first harnessed via Facebook and the foundation of how we present our professional selves to the world built on a LinkedIn platform.

Those who work in an industry such as meeting and convention planning, which begins and ends with interaction, are embracing this social phenomenon and acting as a conduit to attendee cohesion.

Among them is Jessica L. Levin, president of Seven Degrees Communications, who firmly believes social media is a transformative force that must be harnessed. "Social media is not a trend, it is a shift in the way we communicate," she says. "The job of a meeting planner is to bring people together and educate them, which is also the purpose of social media."

This being said, some planners have yet to jump on the bandwagon, notes meetings technology guru Corbin Ball, CEO of Corbin Ball Associates.

"Not everyone is on board; many planners are still trying to figure it out," he says. "Plus, there are some vertical markets that are not using social media at the moment."

Even so, the numbers indicate that nonusers make up a small and rapidly shrinking percentage. More than 500 million people use Facebook, more than 200 million use Twitter and more than 100 million use LinkedIn.... Read More...

Twitter Tips

By Zachary Chouteau

A little bird told me that it couldn't be easier to get started on Twitter, and it's a wonderful way to broadcast your events, network with others and share what you're up to in the meetings industry. Here are a handful of quick tips for making the most of this growingly popular social networking platform.

• Have an end-goal in mind, even if it's just a general one, which will help shape the future of your tweeting efforts as you build a following. Are you trying to drive attendance for a particular event? Network with as many peers as possible? Build massive traffic to your website? Decide ahead of time, before you paint yourself into a corner by building a poorly targeted following.
• Tweeting isn't a one-way street. Don't just broadcast yourself on Twitter, make sure to interact, follow others, search for interesting news, and so forth. By actively participating you'll engage more followers, discover news briefs that often scoop mainstream outlets, and be seen as industry-focused rather than just self-promotional.

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