Cover Story
SECRETS
Martin Fullard explores how events
organisations, mostly venues, can really make a
difference with social media
Social media: has anything ever
been so misunderstood and
misused? Nothing makes you cringe
quite like spotting your
over-confident mum or dad
muscling in with the comments on
Facebook, complete with spelling
errors and liberal use of
exclamation marks.
Even in the world of work, social
media is hit and miss, and I’m sad
to report that the events industry is
home to many social criminals.
However, it is not our job to mock
your use of ‘Great Gatsby’ or
‘Carlton Dance’ gifs; we must help
you use your social media channels
correctly so that you can grow your
businesses.
At Conference News’ Academic
Venue Conference, 22 November,
Matt Beech, marketing director at
Patch Media, presented a session
on using social media effectively
– and that’s the key word.
“Like your home, your website is
quite static, it represents who you
are and is visited by those who care
about you most,” says Beech. “Your
social media, however, is like your
personality, and because it’s mobile
it can move around. It represents
who you are, but it is dynamic and
out in the open and can be seen by
people without them proactively
going out of their way to see you.
“You can tell a lot about someone
by visiting their home, but to really
get to know them you watch how
they behave in society and get to
know their personality. When
people buy venue space, they look
at the website, and for a live view of
what the venue represents they go
to social media. This is why social
media appears frequently as a
middle interaction in multi-channel
goal conversion paths.”
OF SOCIAL
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