Social media has become an important marketing and communication tool for event management companies. A recent survey released by Earthtimes.org reveals that 65% event managers have already been using social medial to promote their events and maintain communication with their partners and clients.
As a hospitality product, events are intangible; service is provided simultaneously while it is consumed. In many cases, clients only have one-shot experience of their wedding or events, which further pushes them to seek information from online reviews or through their social networks. This makes social media critical in event management business. The potential problem, however, is “social media is incredibly time consuming” (Minda Zetlin at Inc.com). I feel some of Zetlin’s ideas are helpful in managing social media. For example:
1. Delegate some responsibilities to staff. Facebook had 111 million visitors in 2009. In March 2010, Facebook just out-passed Google and became the most visited website in the U.S. Chances are someone in your company will be more than happy to manage a social media account for you.
2. Determine who “controls” the initiate message and strategically select the right social media tool. You don’t want just anybody to post anything he/she wants because once the message is posted, it will be there “forever.” Meanwhile, you probably don’t want to see 10 signatures before a message is released.
3. Social media is more than just to sell, sell, sell. Building human connections and networks is, equally if not more, important.
4. Whoever is chosen to managed a social media account, that person needs to know you and your organization well in order to represent you.
References:
Earthtimes.org: http://tinyurl.com/linchikwok03172010-1
Inc.com: http://tinyurl.com/linchikwok03172010-2
The Wall Street Journal: http://tinyurl.com/linchikwok03172010-3
Picture was copied from: http://tinyurl.com/linchikwok03172010P
As a hospitality product, events are intangible; service is provided simultaneously while it is consumed. In many cases, clients only have one-shot experience of their wedding or events, which further pushes them to seek information from online reviews or through their social networks. This makes social media critical in event management business. The potential problem, however, is “social media is incredibly time consuming” (Minda Zetlin at Inc.com). I feel some of Zetlin’s ideas are helpful in managing social media. For example:
1. Delegate some responsibilities to staff. Facebook had 111 million visitors in 2009. In March 2010, Facebook just out-passed Google and became the most visited website in the U.S. Chances are someone in your company will be more than happy to manage a social media account for you.
2. Determine who “controls” the initiate message and strategically select the right social media tool. You don’t want just anybody to post anything he/she wants because once the message is posted, it will be there “forever.” Meanwhile, you probably don’t want to see 10 signatures before a message is released.
3. Social media is more than just to sell, sell, sell. Building human connections and networks is, equally if not more, important.
4. Whoever is chosen to managed a social media account, that person needs to know you and your organization well in order to represent you.
References:
Earthtimes.org: http://tinyurl.com/linchikwok03172010-1
Inc.com: http://tinyurl.com/linchikwok03172010-2
The Wall Street Journal: http://tinyurl.com/linchikwok03172010-3
Picture was copied from: http://tinyurl.com/linchikwok03172010P
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ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your feedback. I added eventsbot.com/blog under Useful Resources, and I will check it out more often.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like eventsbot offers some useful tools of managing events. Unfortunately, I have not tried any of these tools yet. So, I cannot tell how good they are.