8 Key Insights on Event Social Media Adoption and Strategy

July 13, 2010

How are events using social media?  What levels of adoption should events expect?  What are the common strategies and best practices?

To answer these questions, we recently conducted extensive event industry research.  We gathered data from more than 600 event professionals and hundreds of events – both large and small.  Thanks to all of those who shared their experience and insights!

Here are the top 8 key insights from the research:

1.  Social Media has gone mainstream – 80% of events utilize some form of social media.

2. Social Media is not just for tech geeks.  All types of industries and market segments – from association and medical to communications and industrial machinery events – are figuring out how to best use social media for their events.

3. Social Media Strategy is all over the map – common strategies range from Community Building to Marketing to Experimentation to No Strategy.

4. Facebook and Twitter are the leading public platforms – 54% of events utilize both Facebook and Twitter.  Despite it’s business-orientation, LinkedIn surprisingly trails  the more consumer-focused alternatives.

5. Mobile is key – Event attendees show higher mobile adoption than the general population

6.  It’s easy to get started – Most common posting frequency is 2-3 times per week or weekly for public social media.

7.  Most common content areas – Event, industry and exhibitor/sponsor news as well as registration-related posts.

8.  Most significant needs – 70%+ events want better attendee/exhibitor search/browse tools; 50%+ want advance meeting scheduling tools.

Additional data and insights are available here:

Click here to download the detailed report on Event Social Media Adoption and Strategies.

Your thoughts?  Are you surprised by any of the findings?  Is there something that you would like to know more about?

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Posted by John Kanarowski

How we really use our cell phones

June 21, 2010



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Posted by John Kanarowski

Social Media Adoption – Current Facts & Stats

June 2, 2010


We are often asked by customers about social media adoption.  Many use social media themselves – often extensively – but they wonder whether members of their organizations, groups or events will adopt social media.

How many people really use social networks?   What is the actual state of mainstream social media adoption?  How does adoption break down along generational lines?

We’ve spent some time researching these questions, and are pulling together the best data that we can find in several posts.  We’re going to start at the population-wide level, then drill into more specifics in the next posts.

1.  Let’s start at the general level. What percentage of US adults use social media?  According to eMarketer, 57.5% of US Internet users use a social network at least once a month in 2010.   Bottom line – more than half of adults use social networks now.  Not bad.

2. Let’s drill into those numbers a bit.  How does this adoption break down by generation?  Is this predominantly younger people thus pulling up the overall average?  Again, eMarketer has some solid directional numbers.   Honing on the 2010 numbers, we see that 60% of users 35 to 44 years-old and 50% of users 45 to 54 years-old are on social nets.  Even seniors (65+ years old) are already at 20% adoption (apparently my mom, in her early seventies and on Facebook, isn’t the only one of her peers).

Two Thirds of Web Users to Visit Social Networks in 2014

3.  In the ’90s, we saw the rapid growth of email as the primary medium of electronic communication.   In recent years, however, a significant shift has taken place.  According to research by Morgan Stanley, social networking has already surpassed email as the the number one way to communicate electronically.    Not only are there more social networking users than email users (wow!), but people also spend more time on social networks than on email.

Summary:

1.  More than half of the US adult population uses social networks at least once a month.

2.  Adoption is strong across generational lines – 60% of users 35 to 44 years-old and more than 50% of users 45 to 54 years old are now using social nets.

3.  Social networking now exceeds email as the dominant form of electronic communication.

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Posted by John Kanarowski

Event Social Media – Several Great Blogs That Focus On Event Social Media

May 21, 2010

There are a lot of great event social media blogs on the web – with many new ones seemingly popping up every day.  Lots of really smart people are sharing their ideas and perspectives on how social media is changing the event experience and, in the process, the event industry. Here are some of the event social media blogs we find ourselves reading frequently:

Midcourse Corrections – Jeff Hurt seems to pump out great stuff on the role of social media at events on an almost daily basis.

Fork in the road – Social Media and Face-to-Face Meetings – If you’re interested in in-depth explorations at the intersection of social media, virtual events, and meetings, Michelle Bruno’s posts are a great source.

Interactive Meeting Technology – Sam Smith has built up a successful following with his witty deep dives on the latest in event technology, in particular social media tools.

Chris Brogan – General social media blog but often with a focus on event social media.

McCurry’s Corner – Storytelling is always important and Mike’s posts have a personal touch as they explore the world of event social media.

The tough thing about lists is that you always have to leave somebody off or forget one of your favorites.  Do you read any of these blogs?  Which do you like?  Who did we miss?

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Posted by John Kanarowski

Twitter – Social News Medium or Social Network?

May 6, 2010

Is twitter evolved into a social news medium?  That is what a recently released research report indicates.

In one of the largest twitter research projects to date, a team of researchers recently analyzed a massive data set of more than 40 million users, 1.4 billion social connections, 100 million tweets, and 4,000 trending topics.   Their study indicated a number of insights:

1.) Twitter now shows reciprocity of roughly 20%, meaning that only 20% of people mutually follow each-other. Reciprocity is mutual social acknowledgment, and is an indicator of bi-directional social relations.  Most social networks are in the 50%-90% range indicating that most people mutually friend (or know?) each-other.  Following somebody on twitter means something different – less mutual, more one-directional, more online.

2.) More than 50% of topics are headline driven, and another 30% of topics are ephemeral in nature, like events.  Only 7% of topics are persistent.  Taken together, this means that more than 80% of trending topics have a very short shelf life.

3.) Retweeting is the key social activity in Twitter, but 96% of retweets are only “one hop.”  While most retweeting happens within the network of the writer/tweeter, retweeting can exponentially and rapidly grow the readership of a news item.   The slide presentation has some killer visual representations of the importance of retweeting.

In sum, the data indicates that twitter has evolved to become more of a social news medium.  A place where we get the latest news in real-time and then vote on it instantly by retweeting.

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Posted by John Kanarowski

Zerista Raises Financing to Accelerate Bringing Mobile Communities To Market

April 21, 2010

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We are pleased to announce that Zerista recently completed a round of funding led by Kickstart Seed Fund. Read more about the funding on Venture Beat and on PEHub.

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Posted by John Kanarowski

5 Reasons Why Zerista is a Great Ning Alternative

April 17, 2010


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Many ning owners are looking for a new home.  We’re biased, of course, but here are 5 reasons why we think Zerista is a great ning alternative.

5. Easy set-up - Zerista’s simple set-up process enables you to build a mobile application and publish it to any web-enabled phone and desktop in minutes.

4. Transaction-enabled – Zerista lets you quickly and easily conduct a broad range of transactions within your network.  You can collect funds for dues, subscriptions, tickets, and many other types of transaction.

3. Mobile management - Manage schedules, send invites, approve members and perform other management tasks on the go from your phone.

2. Location features - Zerista offers check in, custom maps, location-awareness and more. This enables your group to connect in real-time, on-the-go and from anywhere.

1. Your members love mobile social apps – Recent surveys indicate that mobile social usage is skyrocketing.  Twitter announced just last week that close to 40% of its activity occurs on phones.  You need to go where your users are – which is increasingly on their phones.

Sign for our limited FREE beta here: http://www.zerista.com

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Posted by John Kanarowski

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