The Sentry Library centralizes relevant texts sourced across a wide spectrum of industries and publications to conveniently serve curious meeting professionals and provide a hub for their intellectual discussion. We hope that you will enjoy the online library and also invite you to explore our extensive collection of texts hosted onsite at Sentry Centers 810 Seventh Avenue (New York).
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_____“NYC-Based Social Media-Integrated Event Planning SUPERhero, Queen of Details, SM/Events Obsessed Blogger & Speaker,” Liz King has managed to take over the meeting industry, and catch the eye of BizBash’s CEO, David Adler. As our social media consultant, Liz King has explained the significant role social media can play in the meeting industry, and has allowed Sentry to better navigate the ever-growing community of social networks. Aside from consulting, Liz King has also started her own company, Liz King Events. Liz has been kind enough to offer us some words on the how social media effects small event businesses. We hope you enjoy Liz King’s post.
_____Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube… There are so many social networks out there that small businesses are leveraging to generate new clients and revenue. But as a small business, our time is extremely limited. Within the events industry, we are occupied by logistics, creativity, and so much more. It is our job to run our event businesses for our clients. We need to satisfy them and, in fact, wow them. So often, our focus is on delivering for clients. When it comes to social media, most of us are flying by the seat of our pants. However, to be successful on social media, it’s imperative that you have a strategic process in place for your social media marketing efforts.
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Who is your target market?
Who are you talking to on social media? Where does your target market hang out? For many small business owners, they can tell you who their target market is. However, they often don’t know what social networks their target market uses. In this case, I highly suggest doing a survey to your current clients. Ask them a few basic questions. What social networks do you use? How often do you use them? HOW do you use them? These seem like very simple questions, but you may start to notice a trend. Through this research, you may find that most of your target market uses Facebook on a daily basis. However, they do not like to hear from brands. If this is the case, it’s important for you to consider. Is Facebook the best use of your time?
What are you trying to achieve?
What is the point of using social media? Are you trying to expand your brand? Are you trying to bring in new business? Are you simply trying to become more relevant? These are all very important questions to consider as you’re developing your social media strategy. You need to have a very clear idea of what your goals are for your social media campaigns. This will allow you to compare that to the behaviors of your target market, to create a strategy that will engage your clients.
Take a look at the tools.
Once you have a good idea of what you’re trying to achieve using social media, and you are familiar with the behaviors of your target market, it’s time to take a look at the tools to help you achieve your goals. I am a firm believer that not every events business needs to be on every social network. For some businesses, Facebook may be the best outlet for them. For others, Twitter is the key to bringing in new clients. This is the part that is difficult for me to dictate to you. You need to do this research and come up with a strategy that works for YOUR business. Every event business is as unique as the people running them. For this reason, there is no single marketing strategy, or social media strategy, that works for every company.
Dig In.
I can promise you that you will never find social media success if you don’t work. Social media got its name from the fact that it’s highly social. It’s all about relationships. And, as in every other part of your life, relationships take work. This is what a lot of small event businesses do not want to hear. As I mentioned, they’re very busy. They don’t feel they have the time to update social networks in addition to all the other work that they’re doing. If this is the way you feel, please don’t bother using social media. It’s not worth it. The only way that you will find success on social media is if you have a genuine interest in your target market, take the time to get to know them, and have patience to see the sales come in slowly over time.
If you can embrace these few principles, you really can find success using social media. In the events business, as in every other industry, our currency is relationships. We bring in business through word-of-mouth. If ever there was a better tool for word-of-mouth widely spread, social media is it. Take some time to think critically about what you’re trying to achieve with social media. This will help you be more successful in the long run. Good luck with your social media efforts!
4 Trends Changing the Meeting Industry
_____Howard Givner has earned the respect of the Meeting Industry. His expertise and innovation is reflected in the various positions he has held: from founding the tremendously successful Paint The Town Red Inc. meeting planning company (which sparked the interest of the 13th largest event agency in the world, Global Events Group), to his executive positions on the NY Metro Chapter of ISES, to his columns for Special Event Magazine. Givner has even created an iPhone app, Super PlannerTM. It is no wonder we are ecstatic to present Givner’s opinion of the trends affecting the Meeting Industry this very day. We hope that you find his words both enlightening and informative.
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4 Trends Changing the Meeting Industry
by Howard Givner
This is a unique time in the special events industry, driven by the confluence of several key trends.
_____1) The first trend is the increased competition for jobs in our field, as a result of a maturing industry. 20 years ago, when I told people what I did, they would look at me and say, “Yeah? You can make a living planning events?” Over the years we’ve fought for the need to have events professionally managed. We now have dozens of colleges offering degrees in event management, and event planners are featured in movies and tv shows. Click here to read the full article
This broad acceptance has attracted tens of thousands of new people to our field, which is wonderful. However, it also puts pressure on those within the field to increase their education and grow their skill set in order to advance their careers, and set them apart from this influx.
2) The 2nd trend is the ability of social media to change the cost dynamics of events. Traditionally, events were a high-touch, high-cost marketing vehicle–very impactful, but very expensive on a per person basis. Now, however, social media enables organizations to leverage that same event spend to a dramatically broader audience. The same $100,000 spent on a 500 person event, now has the potential to reach 500,000 people via twitter, blogging, facebook and youtube. This is made even more meaningful by the fact that traditional marketing platforms are being tuned out. With DVR’s, satellite radio and iPods, typical advertising commercials do not have the sway they used to.
3) Which brings me to the third trend: the fact that event planners and agencies are now often the lead player in a marketing campaign. Traditionally the ad agency would lead, followed by the pr firm, followed by the event firm. Now, the event itself is often the lead element, and pr people are brought in to spin it. Event professionals now have greater opportunities to drive overall strategy than ever before.
4) With events now taking the spotlight comes greater scrutiny from higher up the food chain. The 4th and final trend is the need to demonstrate the value of our events, the ROI. We need to start talking more about what our events accomplished than what they looked like.
In short, it is a very exciting time in the events industry. At a time when many industries are dying, ours is moving center stage. But we need to up our game. We cannot remain static, or others will eat our lunch. Whether it’s a more aggressive newcomer to the industry who competes for a job, or an advertising agency that launches an in-house event services capacity, we are in the big leagues now, and all this increased opportunity comes with increased competition.
_____Whether you work for a growing nyc conference center or at a not-for-profit, your power as an employee has increased from a very unlikely source, social media. Once presumed to be a fad amongst Generation Y, social media has recently proven to be a powerful tool in capable hands. Examples are everywhere—from Spanish riots to the viral video that caused a 10% drop in Domino’s stock. Individuals are clearly leveraging the power of social media with astounding affects.
_____Forbes Magazine’s recent article titled “Social Power and the Coming Corporate Revolution” explains how individuals utilize social media to effectuate change on a global scale and explores the reasons why businesses have generally failed in their parallel efforts. For corporations, “the idea of a hierarchy that fundamentally empowers the few and dis-empowers the many,” has, “more or less,” died. Individual employees and consumers have embraced new social media far ahead of large business and accordingly have remained the dominant voice.
We hope that you enjoy this article as much as we have.
#Sentry
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_____No matter how grand and technologically advanced a conference venue is, the success of the meeting is largely dependent on how knowledgeable its assigned event planner may be. In order to better serve the wants, wishes, and needs of clients, a clear understanding as to what is expected of their clients is needed. Capitalizing on Complexity presents just that.
_____The fourth edition of IBM’s biennial Global CEO Study, Capitalizing on Complexity offers exclusive access to the minds of 1,500 of the most successful CEOs from around the globe. Their collective insights illustrate a changing world—where creativity is rapidly becoming the most sought after/pivotal trait in employees. Adding to their rich insights are ways in which these CEOs attempt to capitalize in the ever-growing complex world.
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