Posted by
Barry Siskind
Community Manager
A recent poll from Effie Worldwide and Mashable found that next year social media will take up 11.9% of the overall corporate marketing budget compared with 13% for television.
The focus of that spending, according to this same survey, will go to finding new fans and followers and the second most important goal will be “to increase our presence on mobile.”
http://mashable.com/social-media/
You really have to take a moment and marvel at the speed that social media has impacted on marketing and will undoubtedly be felt by the exhibition industry.
In 1983 when I started in this industry as an organiser, the debate was between Trade Magazine and Direct Mail as to the best form of advertising to attract buyers to a show. Then along came Fax Stream, followed by Internet & Websites, followed by Mobile Phone and Apps. We still use most of these tools.
All the forms of social media will be important to ensure our industry stays In-Touch with the emerging/younger decision makers. Visit any business hub, airport or shopping centre and observe how many people are communicating via mobile devices. Let’s embrace it and renew interest in trade shows, attract the under 30’s, show them we are very relevant today as we were when they were born.
They will thank you for it and attend your shows.