Social media can be a powerful tool for connecting with attendees — if it's used the right way, suggests a new survey of 381 event attendees from Event Survey Group, a Los Angeles-based market research firm that specializes in meetings and events.
Released yesterday, the survey, titled "Attendee Acquisition and Outlook 2012," found that only 11 percent of event-goers would seek out engagement and discussion when following an event's social networking site. Instead, most event-goers said they follow events' social networking sites for general show information and updates.
"Event-goers are looking for place, date, and description of event with examples of what they will find," said Event Survey Group Lead Strategist Douglas Boone. "Show producers can provide examples by showcasing sessions, vendors and new products, but they should stay clear of disguised product ads. Also, show producers should limit show hype and too much chatter; social networking sites are not connecting with event-goers as a platform for engagement and discussion yet."
Based on its findings — which show that only 10 percent, 6 percent, 2 percent and 1 percent of event-goers, respectively, use Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter to stay informed about events they have already attended — Event Survey Group concluded that having a presence across social media is important, "but the study results indicate that event-specific social networking sites have limited reach among event-goers."