Social media has given event & meeting planners some very effective tools for communication and promotion.

The best part is that many are available at little to no cost. Working as an association planner with non-profits this is a huge plus!

Thanks so much, Jodi!

I'd love to connect with you at the show. I'm not exhibiting, just attending. I'll send you an email through your blog with my cell and you can give me a call.

We'll definitely chat. I got your email message and I have a few thoughts for you.

All my best,

Lara

Lara;
Thank you so much for your insightful words. You just may have proven me wrong! I'm really looking forward to a week in San Diego to think about and evaluate social media and how it's going to impact my business in the future. But I have to be honest, at this point in the game, I don't know where I'd find the time for Twitter and Facebook and so on.

As you well know, there's a lot of pressure when you're working with high-end clients and managing $500,000+ budgets. It's a whole different ballgame than DOC'ing on Saturdays and spending the week researching and writing great stuff. {Can you tell it makes me nuts that I don't even have the time to make my blog fabulous? It's a business goal of '09!}

I would absolutely LOVE to meet up with you to talk more about your experience with this and how you feel it's been beneficial for you. Are you exhibiting? If so, I'll be sure to introduce myself to you!

Thanks again!
Jodi

Le'Trice - this is precisely one of the things I enjoy about social networking...the ability to create a vast network of connections (the key here is RELEVANT connections), build brand awareness and build dialogue. I'm so happy we have connected.

Jodi - Unfortunately I was on my honeymoon when the call for speakers went out from SE 2009, so I won't be speaking there. But I will keep you abreast of the shows I will be speaking at. I will be attending the show in San Diego, so perhaps we'll have an opportunity to meet.

You've provided a fantastic perspective...and one that isn't far off from my business situation. My business' core target is high end North American corporate event planners. As I'm sure you can guess, most of them don't seek their business partners on Facebook and don't spend their time tweeting (for the most part). However, this is changing. The use of social media has grown with this market - and, we've seen social networking sites target themselves to B2B special event professionals (EventPeeps) or allow for segementation (LinkedIn).

My single-minded goal when creating the blog (as well as other SM initiatives) was to build my brand. Augmenting this, I was also looking for ways to build the industry through education (more on this later), dialogue with others to better understand other aspects of the industry and connect & network.

Social networking has been an invaluable tool for me and my business. It has connected me with incredible individuals around the world I would have never otherwise met, it has led to phenomenal business opportunities and has also resulted to sales within our core target market (this came as a surprise - as you can see it wasn't even one of my goals).

The key lessons that most people should take away from your comments are:
- have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve from social media before you begin
- uncover where your target market lives (within Social Media)
- focus on a core message that will connect, engage and be relevant to your target market... then live it and breathe it in everything you do.

Thank you both for your thoughts & keep them coming.

Lara

This very topic has been on my mind a lot lately. And I believe I registered for your class at The Special Event in San Diego!

Though I have a blog and throughly enjoy the response it gets, my target audience does not follow blogs, Twitter, Facebook or the like.

That's because my company deals strictly in the high-end social market and these clients are far too busy to follow such things. It's so rare that I'm even handed wedding magazine tear-outs at consultations because they just don't purchase wedding magazines...except for the occasional copy of Grace Ormonde Wedding Style.

There are many wedding planners in my area who blog, Twitter, Facebook and everything else under the sun. But it's something that you'll see me do. Maintaining a fabulous website with great portfolio photos is all a potential client of mine needs in order to hire me. And in fact, when my clients do read my blog posts and leave a comment, they make-up a name or just leave intials so as to not identify themselves to other readers for security purposes.

This is probably a completely different perspective than what you'll get from other planners, but it's what I've experienced and believe to be true for my company. If I did have the time to maintain all of these social networks - which I simply do not - I know it would only be followed by my vendors, staff and fellow planners. Though I love them all dearly, these are not people that will hire me.

Can't wait for your lecture in San Diego!

~Jodi

Hi there, this is funny because we actually just started following each other on Twitter! I recently joined twitter a few months ago and i'm addicted already. I have met a lot of great wedding professionals who I have actually done business with already. I have also recently gained a new client from one of their referrals. So far social networking (blogging, twitter, iWed) is really helping me grow my business both educationally and getting our business name out there more on a national level. Can't wait to see where it all takes us!

Best of luck at your speaking engagement and I look forward to "following" along with you!

Le'Trice :: LePenn Designs Custom Stationery Studio