Recent
articles about social media and the events industry seem to suggest that any
organiser not using Facebook, Twitter and the rest is either incompetent or an
idiot. It’s a classic tactic used to sell unproven products.
If social
media was half as effective as it’s claimed to be, its promoters would have
powerful case studies to show. Nobody has any yet so they point to statistics showing
Facebook as 845 million users worldwide. That’s as relevant to an organiser in
the UK as the fact that 3 billion people watch TV across the world.
SM might yet
prove to be an invaluable communications tool for trade shows and conferences.
The problem is that nobody has yet figured out how to use it effectively. Until
they do, we’ll continue to see vacuous comments on FB event pages from people
who are ‘so excited’ to be en route to this conference or ‘delighted to be on
stand XX’ at that exhibition.
For now it’s
best to wait until somebody else figures out how to use it and learn from their
mistakes.
Originally published in Conference News
