 by Karen Kuszel
Online social networking is less about how many people you are connected to than how well you employ those sites to advance your availability, accessibility, and marketability. When one viral marketing tweet or YouTube image zips across the planet faster than Donald Trump can proclaim, “You’re Fired,” the days of pursuing 15 minutes of fame via a publicity stunt or financial investment are relegated to a 2007 time capsule. Nowadays, MPI-GOA members know that imagination, time, and the computer skills necessary to dart from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc sites are the most important resources required for success.
When MarCom Director Chris Doyle, CMP (2008-2009, VP of Communications, 2009-2010) needed committee volunteers for chapter website assistance, she discovered posting a notice on the chapter’s LinkedIn and Facebook pages brought quicker responses than help-wanted pleas on the chapter’s website, e-newsletter, or from marshalling members at meetings. When researching this story, I found that asking for input at meetings, through email blasts, or the chapter’s publications went unanswered. Within the first hour of posting a notice on the MPI-GOA LinkedIn page, created and hosted by Michael Decker, I had my first response to “How are you using Social Online Networks To Creatively Market Yourself?” With so much “marketing” competition, Bill Deutsch, CMP (National Sales Manager at AGS Expo Services) uses LinkedIn as “my web page for clients to see my depth of experience and amount of connections. This validates my strengths. One of the benefits is the (posted) recommendations/references from past clients.” Viewing other contacts’ connections may lead to otherwise unobtainable introductions and business. Joining LinkedIn groups, such as MPI and CMP, “adds to my ‘universe’ of connections.” The user-friendliness of the social networking sites enhances their viability for promoting one’s services and products. When Decker, Director of Sales for Expedia Destination Services, assumed hosting the MPI-GOA page, LinkedIn management sent suggestions for enhancing participants’ experience. Most are common-sense, such as joining groups of interest, while others encourage expanding industry contacts by interlinking online networking sites to better organize your time and efficiency. They foster garnering recommendations from peers and engaging in group discussions for making one’s expertise and name recognizable. The true purpose for most social networking sites is to gain business. George Kong, an Event Management student at the Rosen College of Hospitality Management at the University of Central Florida, credits using Facebook (“more often than I check email”), with landing him a job. Though preferring face-to-face conversation and phone calls over texting, the MPI-GOA student chapter Public Relations Chair said that after exchanging business cards at an industry meeting, that person asked to link up on Facebook. A week later, that connection led to an internship offer. “Social media cuts out a lot of needless networking, as you are able to check people out before actually meeting them,” says Dawn French, chair of education for MPI in the UK for a recent Meetings: Review article written by Pete Roythorne, Joint Editor in Chief. While not actually replacing face-to-face experiences, it “allows us to filter people and can make the whole process that bit more effective, which is a major consideration in the current economic climate.” Organizations and businesses also utilize sites to create a buzz for themselves and their clients. Intriguing surveys, videos, controversial discussion topics, invites for last-minute get-togethers, and news posts often drive users back to more traditional websites. By using MPI-GOA pages on LinkedIn and Facebook, Meeting Planning For You, Inc owner Chris Doyle reaches a wider audience for chapter events by posting “notices for networking, fundraisers and luncheons, as often as necessary. Past experiences have shown this exposure increases attendance at most events.” In an online story posted on LinkedIn’s EventPeeps site, author Kerry Smith urges going digital to “collect data, communicate with attendees (and non-attendees) and to enable attendees to interact with you/your company based on their information needs. Incorporate digital technology into your on- and off-site experiences to extend the life of the event, and to make the event itself more ‘rich’ for participants.” Though addressing the subject of online banner ads as a longtime mainstay of Internet advertising, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer Verne Kopytoff says in her February 16 story that “marketers and the agencies that cater to them are borrowing from the social-networking craze and infusing their sales pitches with invitations to leave comments, take opinion polls and share funny video clips with friends.” The goal being that if the interaction is “compelling enough, Internet users will recommend it to others… increasing the marketer's reach and credibility.” For Carrie Ferenac, co-mingling her years in television news production with the latest social media to elevate her company’s profile in Corporate America begins with creating a buzz that drives conference attendees to their host’s website. Posting daily produced video to the client’s website encourages attendee attention, says the president of ConventionNewsTV, but what has proven most valuable is Twitter. In the past year, Twitter use in the United States alone has grown 300 percent, according to a story in the April 9 issue of MPI’s One+. While Author Ryan Singel cites tech authority Corbin Ball, CMP, CSP (Corbin Ball Associates) assessment that the meeting and event industry is fairly conservative about new technology and won’t take risks with “mission-critical” components, Singel notes that New Media strategist Amber MacArthur argues that as meetings and conferences become more competitive, “proper use of technology will make the difference.” Twitter usage enables Ferenac’s company to engage attendees in real-time updates. By the end of a conference for Aviation International News, Ferenac says people were regularly following her company’s tweets. “We discussed the convention and where to go for schedules and coverage, which drove traffic to the client’s website. That was the goal.” Significantly, the MPI-GOA Chapter Star Winner said, “We were able to instantly react to attendees’ feedback and formulate instant coverage to what they watched and liked. Adding video to a website is the most visually compelling thing groups can do to drive attendance. That video can be posted to YouTube and emailed to all members, thereby creating excitement and encouraging event attendance. Instead of a costly DVD sent to your database, you have six to eight outlets. People watch what they want, when they want. It’s important for us to be connected because our clients are.” Karen Kuzsel, aka Natasha, the Psychic Lady (VP of Communications 2007-2009; VP of Membership 2009-2010) is a professional journalist/editor for the hospitality, events & meetings industries, as well as a corporate level psychic entertainer. | 