Speakers: Lance Fensterman, Vice President, Reed Exhibitions; Eric Wahl, Group Marketing Director, Advanstar Communications; Margaret Core, Director, Sales and Marketing, Conventions and Conferences, Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO)

The Skinny: Three organizers who have been there and done that took attendees through their social networking strategies at their shows, explaining what worked, what didn’t and why.

THE TAKEAWAYS

See what sticks. The upside to the newness of social media as a marketing strategy is that organizers can engage in some experimentation without worrying about long-term detrimental effects. “Use the spaghetti method to see what sticks,” Fensterman says. “There’s a large margin for error in social media. No one knows everything yet.”

Set a goal. Start early, and like every other marketing strategy, set a goal. For social media, one goal could be converting a certain percentage of your audience base to those tools, Wahl says.

Understand the nuances of each tool. Facebook users typically trend young, Wahl notes, and tend to stick to the site, so attempting to drive them elsewhere might be a futile exercise. Instead, consider strategies that push users to a Facebook fan page or group instead of away from the site. Twitter, on the other hand, is a great way to drive traffic elsewhere. Users often post and check out links to media and news stories on the site, so a pushing strategy will be a more organic fit with Twitter.

The media is using social networking in a big way. Even though the number of media representatives at the BIO show dropped from 435 in 2008 to 340 in 2009, the number of media impressions and clips increased. Core attributes the uptick in coverage to the organization’s use of social media tools to connect with reporters covering the show from afar. “The media definitely uses social media tools as a way to get a heads up on story ideas,” Core says. “Don’t overlook the fact that media are early adopters of social media and you can get the word out by using social media proactively.”

Back in December I was invited as a panelist to discuss social media best practices vis-a-vis event marketing. This was a great session; Lance and Margaret had great ideas to share.