Eventia speakers urge industry to embrace the 'changing world' of social networking

Tom Hall, 07 July 2009

Eventia speakers have urged the event industry to embrace social networking sites such as Twitter in order to present a better brand image and win business.

Mike Fletcher, freelance writer, journalist and editor; Simon Burton, MD of Exposure Communications and Rob Shimmin, MD of Shimmin.biz, talked-up the benefits of social networking to businesses.

"Businesses need to develop a voice," said Fletcher. "Failure to do so will result in missed market opportunities [...] Twitter should be seen as a research and awareness tool."

Burton said that a business he knew won a £250,000 catering contract through smart searching on Twitter.

"No generation has had to cope with the technological change to business that we have [the boundary between] our social and work lives have become distorted," he commented.

Shimmin warned the audience at the Holiday Inn, Brighton Seafront, that quality is important too, and people should not get too carried away with the free web services.

"I fear we will see more of the edgier comments made by companies censored by PRs," he added.

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