Events are the original social media platform

Events are the original social media platform. They provide a forum for people to engage with one another to share ideas, create and participate in experiences and build relationships. True, social networking is pervasive, and many of the activities that normally take place face-to-face can be digitally mimicked, but no other marketing platform is more effective than events in accelerating the speed of the sales cycle, increasing account value or building long-term relationships.

All said, social networking plays an important role in event marketing. Here are five ways social media amplifies event experiences.

1. Engagement: Social networking allows brands to engage their audiences online, through mobile devices and through face-to-face experiences. This is a powerful model that allows for deeper and richer conversations which drive real relationships.

2. Interaction: Social media platforms and event marketing alike allow for one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many communications which can be synchronous or asynchronous. This creates communities based on the sharing of experiences and information for audiences and brands alike

3. Enhancement: In a word, participation. Audiences can become part of the experience by creating user generated content that can be used before, during or after the event. Brands can participate in user-driven content and adjust their message real-time to drive relevance throughout the community.

4. Internalization: If you want to learn, teach. Through the broadcast and rebroadcast of ideas and sharing of experiences, audiences internalize content which deepens understanding, and creates an intellectual bond between people and information.

5. Extension: Events take place at a singular point in time within a limited proximity. Social media platforms provide a forum to build excitement and generate audiences before and event, and extend the conversation through the sharing of content, ideas and experiences after the event. The scope is also extended well beyond the exhibit hall to anyone with a computer or mobile device anywhere around the world.

When faced with the decision of whether or not to participate in social networking as part of your event marketing program, the answer is easy. The greater challenge comes with determining the right strategy, and selecting the right tactics to meet that strategy. Establish objectives first, and build a well-researched plan of attack before participating in the great social experiment. Over time, you'll learn what works, what doesn't and what's right for your brand.

Top 10 best practices for hosting an event in a virtual space

1. Define and understand your target audience

The vast majority of organisers find it helpful to have information on attendees' and personas' profiles in advance so that the content of the event can be customised accordingly. This is an important, if not critical, best practice, since it allows content to be more closely matched to the specific needs of the audience, ensuring that the event is as relevant as possible for attendees.

2. Create compelling content

Start lining up compelling content early and ensure that it delivers value to your audience. Make the effort to find out what the hottest industry topics your audience will find most interesting and formulate your agenda appropriately. Engage a speaker, who is insightful and can relate to your audience's enquiries and experiences, to be present at the event.

3. Plan and promote ahead

Promote your event ideally three weeks in advance and do it diligently. Internal and external promotional methods such as email and viral marketing, company newsletters, banner advertisements, search engine optimisation, press releases and editorial submissions have been proved effective in generating interests and signups to an event. The rise of social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin also means that you can now communicate and promote your event with your target audience easily and effectively.

4. Rehearse, rehearse and rehearse

The rehearsal should be held at least one week prior so there is enough time to make adjustments. Hold it in the same room, with actual equipment, test attendee dial-in, run through the guest speaker's presentation and practice Q&A with the host. Get the rehearsal environment as close as possible to the live-event environment. And don't forget – always have a contingency in place. For instance, if your PC hangs, make sure you have the vendor's full support to help manoeuvre your presentation slides. Another trick that always works is to have someone dialled in and armed with a few questions to get the initial Q&A session rolling.

5. Monitor the conversation and online activity

Appoint a host to ensure that the conversation is kept lively and interactive. The host should be on alert at all times and monitor the online activity, such as the web console, during the actual session. Because nothing is worse than attending a virtual event or conference you are enthusiastic about and then feeling like you are talking in to a black hole because there is no one on the floor to acknowledge you or answer any of your questions.

6. Provide time for Q&A

During a virtual event, attendees can ask questions directly to the speaker or through a web console. However, do limit the number of questions asked so that they can all be answered thoroughly. If there is not enough time to address all of the questions, make sure that you do your follow ups diligently after the session is over.

7. Conduct polls during the event

Conducting polls is an important mechanism for soliciting feedback from virtual attendees, either to keep them engaged in the event or to tailor content to the specific needs of the audience 'on the fly'. Once the session has been completed, results of the poll provide valuable feedback, and even serve as a sales lead generation tools for marketers.

8. Conduct post-event surveys

These surveys are useful in gaining feedback on the event itself – what works and what did not work – and to justify the next virtual event you are going to be promoting. It is also a good exercise to provide additional information for follow up sales calls, and promotions of future events.

9. Record the event and make it available

Recording your actual virtual event is especially useful for those who could not it make it to the session. Organisers should upload a recording of the event and make it available online so it is easier for those who are going to listen from work or their mobile devices.

10. Follow up

Be sure to follow up with attendees within a week of the event. Send thank you emails and any white papers or useful reading items you offered to entice them to attend in the first place. In addition, don't forget to thank your guest speakers and team on their help throughout the planning process and on- site support during the event. If possible, send small gifts to show your appreciation.

BONUS: Make it fun!

A virtual event shouldn't be a boring affair, both for you and your attendees. Make it as fun and as interactive as possible. Inject some sparks in your target audience by having a contest, competition or even a lucky draw for selected sessions.

To sum it up, virtual events are a very effective and inexpensive method for imparting information, whether the goal is to market to prospective customers or to train employees. Any organisations that are considering implementing virtual events should apply these top 10 best practices pre, during and post the event. These, hopefully, can act as the benchmark, improve the effectiveness of virtual events and provide maximum return for minimum effort

    

Event Technology Now & Tomorrow

Event Organiser`s Technology

Society is making progress in this digital revolution to adopt technology:

• Most people in business in the industrialized world have broadband internet access, a website and an email address.
  
• The mail box has given way to the email box… the yellow pages have given way to web pages… classified ads have given way to Craig's List.
  
• Most people have text-enable mobile phone at the minimum and an increasing number (especially business travellers) have web-enabled "smart" phones.
  
• These smart phones are quickly morphing into "widgets" (wireless internet devices for geo-positioning, ecommerce and telecommunication) far more capable than mere "telephones."
  
• Computers have become much easier to use than just a few years ago. What once was "plug and pray" now truly has become "plug and play." Many applications are web-based and easier to use.
  
• Google is the first stop for research for many or most people in the industrialized world.
  
• More than 350 million people are using Facebook – if it were a country it would be the third largest country in the world behind India and ahead of the United States.
  
• Television has gone digital – one more step in the convergence of all data to IP (internet protocol) based systems.
  

In general, the technology infrastructure (broadband, the web, computers, mobile phones) has been built. Applications have become easy enough that most people can use them and society is adopting quickly many of these new technologies.

Event Professionals' Adoption

The meetings industry has not been especially known for its early adoption of technology. However, things are changing rapidly.

Here is where we are now:

• Online registration has become commonplace.
  
• Online housing is common for meetings, especially for large, multi-property room blocks events.
  
• Speaker management tools are used by many associations for their large, multi-session conferences.
  
• Exhibition management and show floor plan applications are widely used – especially for the larger tradeshows.
  
• Web-based video and web conferencing tools have become easy to use, inexpensive and reliable adding virtual meetings as another tool in the meeting planner's tool chest.
  
• There are hundreds of applications to help manage web sites, scheduling, banquet seating, event logistics, procurement, site selection, surveys/audience polling, travel and more. Increasingly these are being incorporated into the business process of running events.
  
• Hundreds, if not thousands, of mobile phone applications are emerging to make meetings more efficient for planners, suppliers and attendees.
  
• Event organisers are beginning to use social media tools to connect with suppliers, attendees, exhibitor and others to manage, market and improve events.
  

Where do meeting professionals still need to go with technology adoption?

Despite these advances, we still have a way to go. Here are some key steps that must be done for this technology revolution to be fully implemented.

• Eliminate nearly all paper in your office: One of the quickest ways to identify organisational inefficiencies it to look for the paper, and work out digital methods to manage these data. Paper (and flat files such as Word/Excel) are still central to many event organisers processes: especially for event logistics and supplier procurement. Paper and Word docs are terrible ways of storing, using and sharing event logistics data! Alternatively, web-based processes for planning tasks can put everyone one the same page.
  
• Eliminate nearly all paper at your events: Meetings and tradeshows have historically been awash with paper onsite as well (for programs, exhibit guides, exhibit brochures, course notes, and others). Technology can provide more efficient ways of accessing and transporting these data, it will help reduce the environmental footprint as well.
  
• Eliminate email as a significant logistics communication tool for events: Invented 40 years ago, email is interruptive, non-threaded, and inefficient – especially for tracking the thousands of details surrounding events. Wikis (online, collaborative websites) and new collaboration tools such as Google Wave can provide all documentation sequentially in the same place and are much richer and more efficient ways to sharing meeting data.
  
• Meetings technology companies should step up to the plate and incorporate APEX standards for meetings logistics: Millions of pounds have been spent and tens of thousands of people have met in working groups to develop meeting industry standards. Yet, APEX (Accepted Practices Exchange from the Convention Industry Council) standards are not fully implemented (especially in the very time-consuming process of exchanging event logistics data). The meetings technology companies must step up to the plate to provide the connecting tools to make this happen. The CIC should not be the technology developer or provider and should emphasize the open nature of standards allowing all technology companies to participate. Both planners and suppliers need to push for standards with their technology suppliers.
  
• Figure out social media and use them to engage attendees and improve event content: Meeting professionals are just getting their toes wet with social media. There are huge opportunities for meetings to use the wide range so social media tools (social networking, video sharing, slide sharing, blogs, podcasts, social review sites, social calendaring, social bookmarks sites and more) to engage prospective attendees before/during/after an event. They can be used to market, design and manage events. They can be used to make better purchasing decisions. This drastic change from business as usual will feel uncomfortable to many, but, like it or not, this is the direction things are going.
  
• Transform your event website (and other sites) from Web 1.0 (static) to Web 2.0 (interactive): Meeting attendees and association members will increasingly expect the ability to interact with you online… to respond to blog posts, to make suggestions for meeting content, to engage with speakers, to consume a variety of content, on their terms when and how they want it. Associations are among the original means of networking. Meetings are the original social media. Social media tools at your website are a natural fit.
  
• Embrace mobile technology: Mobile devices, a huge emerging force for meeting technology change, will be used for registration, micropayments, lead exchange, way-finding, surveys, ticketing, networking, audience polling, and more. Move your company toward the adoption of these tools for events
  

The benefits of this technology revolution include more efficient and less expensive meetings with greater impact. As we move into a decade where technology infrastructure has been built and technology is easy enough to use that your grandmother can do it, we need to take these final steps to fully digitize our business processes. Digital Darwinism is alive and well and the "race" for meetings and tradeshow business will often go to those who use technology to be nimble, reduce cost and provide superior customer service. We're not quite there in terms of full digital adoption, but we are making progress.

How to Use Social Media to Market Major Events

Case Study One: How A Facebook Group Drove 15,000 People To An Event

The 1st Annual Singapore Tattoo Show was held January 9-11, 2009, and included Show Ambassador Chris Garver of Miami Ink. The goal was to get 5,000 visitors to the show where over 120 artists from around the globe representing all the various modern tattoo styles ticked away with their machines.

Normally the marketing of an event is much the same

• Telemarketing
  
• Buy Email lists
  
• Email marketing campaign
  
• Buy a postal mailing list
  
• Send out snail mail to the bought list
  
• Build a Good Website
  
• Optimize The Website for Search Engines (SEO)
  
• Posters
  
• Niche Magazine Print Advertising
  

Andrew Peters the brains behind the social media promotions leading up to the Singapore Tattoo Show decided to do something a bit different. He created the Facebook group called Tattoo Artistry that was started three months prior to the event. This is important for all show organisers to study.

Andrew used Facebook as a way for people to connect well before the physical event and the Tattoo Artistry Facebook Group quickly gained 3,000 members, securing a place as the centre of this artwork for the region. In a sense, the physical show started with a virtual group. This is "new marketing" for conferences and events.

The passion of the members of the Tattoo Artistry Facebook group for "their event" meant promoting to their friends. The online community included people eager to attend the live event. Instead of relying on buying expensive advertising, Andrew built a community of passionate fans who built anticipation and buzz for the event.

With more than 15,000 people attending, the event brought three times the expected number of attendees!

Note:This will work if your target market were users of Facebook such as Generation I (Those who have always had the Internet as part of their daily lives ) 20-somethings. If you were marketing say an investment show geared towards boomers, a Facebook promo might not be nearly so effective.

Case Study Two: A Presidential Event

Arguably the most effective online social media web campaign event in history to date, Senator Barack Obama's Presidential Campaign:

The Social Media Campaign Numbers:

• Over 3 million individual donors were mobilised through social media
  
• Motivated over 2 million social networking participants
  
• Created and promoted more than 200,000 offline events across the country
  
• Total of 6.5 million donations online
  
• $500 million in donations online
  
• More than 13 million people provided their email addresses to the campaign website over the course of the campaign, aides sent more than 7,000 types of  messages
  
• In total, more than 2 billion e-mails landed in inboxes
  
• The campaign website helped create over 2 million user profiles
  
• There were over 400,000 blog entries
  
• People spent more than 14 million hours watching over 1,000 Obama campaign-related videos on YouTube
  
• There were more than 50 million views of Obama Campaign YouTube Videos
  
• 1.2 billion minutes of YouTube view time.
  

Note: The numbers are almost numbing in their scale but it gives you an idea of how effective a well organised social media focussed campaign can be.

Case Study Three: The  2009 Senior PGA Championship – Cleveland, USA

This case study is from the public relations company  "PR 20/20" who in 2008 were selected to manage the local media relations for the 2009 Senior PGA Championship in Cleveland. This is their story.

To support our event marketing plan, we recommended launching a social media campaign to help generate awareness and build excitement by giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at a major golf championship., it was announced that the May 18-24.

We got approval in mid January and launched the campaign on February 2, three months and 16 days before the event. We included the following social media tools:

• Twitter — @SeniorPGA2009
  
• Blog — www.SeniorPGA2009.WordPress.com
  
• Flickr — www.flickr.com/photos/seniorpga2009 (Flickr was used for only part of the campaign, as event photos were eventually posted to the event Website. Most Twitter pictures were added to our yfrog account.)
  

This opportunity afforded us the chance to test some industry best practices for successfully launching and building a social media campaign centered on an event. Based off this experience, we recommend keeping the following in mind when launching your own event-based social media campaign.

1. Take the Integrated Approach

The old saying a rising tide lifts all boats is an apt one, especially for social media activities. At every opportunity we tried to integrate our Twitter account with the blog and vice versa. Blog articles served as source material for tweets and in turn, Twitter was the second highest driver of traffic to the blog, behind only the event Website.

2. Link from the Event Website

Ideally, we would have hosted the blog on the event Website's domain, but do to circumstances out of our control, we had to resort to hosting it on WordPress.com.

If you have to use WordPress or Typepad, we can't over stress the importance of including a link from the event Website to the blog, as well as all other social media activities. It was not until the event site linked to the blog in early May that we really started to see traffic jump, from both the event site as well as search engines. The link gave the blog credibility in the eyes of search engines, and consequently it started to rank much higher for a number of keywords.

3. Take a Natural/Organic Approach to Building Followers

The most efficient way to build followers is to monitor others' Tweets and participate in the conversation. With every retweet, it was like we were being featured in front of that person's fan base.

However, since our timeframe was small, we needed to actively reach out to other Twitter users to gain a good following. We set a goal of 500 followers by the start of Championship week.

We used several online tools, including TwitterGrader.com's search function and search.twitter.com. One thing we kept in mind is that users are more inclined to follow you if there is not a huge discrepancy between those you are following and those following you. We spread out our pushes to gain followers, and made sure we were within at least 200 the entire time.

Over the three months leading up to the tournament, we (in order of occurrence):

• Researched and followed Clevelanders who listed golf in their profiles (Twitter Grader) — Least Successful
  
• Researched and followed Ohioans who listed golf in their profiles (Twitter Grader)
  
• Researched and followed Ohio and Cleveland sport fans (Twitter Grader)
  
• Researched and followed golf Twitterers with the best Twitter Grades (Twitter Grader)
  
• Started following all professional golf tournaments
  
• Monitored and followed all Twitterers discussing "golf," "PGA," "Senior PGA," and various player names. (search.twitter.com) — Most Successful
  
• Reviewed the followers of other professional golf tournaments and started following them
  

We were able to attract 908 followers in a three month window.

4. Show and Tell

In order to gauge what our Twitter followers wanted to see from our event coverage, we posted a tweet asking them. The overwhelming answer was pictures — images they can't see on TV or in the newspapers. This was consistent with the answers another Champions Tour event (@RegionsCharity) got when they asked their followers the same question.

Leading up to the event, we posted pictures of clubhouse and course construction, media day, practice rounds and player arrivals. During the event, we showed pictures of players, the course, media interviews, putting green, driving range and fans getting autographs. Each picture we posted to Twitter would get between 20 to 30 views, with player photos generating the most traffic.

On Flickr, the most popular photo album was from media day, which involved a press conference, golf, a chipping contest on Progressive Field and the returning champion throwing out the first pitch.

5. There's no "I" in Blog

During the early months, you may only need one person managing the social media campaign, since there is only so much to discuss. However, as the event nears, the more responsibilities you'll have, thus the less time to monitor, participate and publish. Unfortunately, this coincides with the time people really take an active interest in the event.

Our recommendation is to team up and assign specific topics to each member. Someone can be responsible for interview quotes (also a big draw), another for event recaps and another for interesting facts and figures. By teaming up, everyone knows their responsibility and can focus on one area instead of spreading one person too thin.

6. Start Early

Launch your campaign as early as possible. We launched ours three months and 16 days from the start of Championship week. This is a very small window to develop strategies, generate followers and build relationships.

As with anything, there is a learning curve — time needed to figure out and form relationships with the influentials, determine what topics resonate best with audiences and define posting and updating strategies and processes.

7. Get Creative and Bookmark It

One of our most successful blog posts was also the most fun to write. The 2009 Senior PGA Championship was hosted at Canterbury Golf Club, which shares its name with Geoffrey Chaucer's epic poem — The Canterbury Tales.

His work begins with a prologue introducing all the characters and explaining why they are headed to Canterbury. We decided to write our own prologue, and the resulting monstrosity (The Canterbury Tale: Senior PGA Prologue) stretched the term "poetry" to its absolute limits. However, it was Stumbled and ended up generating the highest one-day blog traffic total up to that point.

30 Top Objections to Social Media and How to Respond

Getting involved in social media allows you to be more engaged with your current and potential clients.  The word "transparency" was probably 2009's most cliched word used to describe social media, but it's true.  Social media allows companies to have a voice and to show the public that your company is willing to listen and garner unsolicited feedback.  Social media also allows your company to provide that extra customer service option outside of the traditional email and phone outlets.

Fear of change; I'm going to stick to what works for our business; we've been fine without it

I won't quote the 100's of statistics and studies that prove social media isn't just a fad.  Instead, the best way to argue against this is to consider it.  If you don't give social media a chance, aren't you afraid of the missed opportunity in lead generation or cost savings social media can offer?  The business/marketing world continues to evolve and many companies are re-inventing themselves as innovative by their usage of social media.  Think Ford.  The fact that fortune 50 companies are embracing social media should be enough to warrant consideration.

It costs too much

Contrary to popular belief, social media is NOT free.  There is time investment involved and you will not see the impact social media will have on your company right away.  However, it's important to consider that revenue should be viewed as equally as cost savings.  It can save a company money by reducing customer service outlets as well as reducing the cost of marketing campaigns.  For those relying heavily on direct mail, try testing a social media campaign where you only invest time/money spreading the word online.

I'm in no hurry

Fair enough, but maybe your competitors are.  It's about missed opportunities.  Look at all the Fortune 500 companies (Walmart, Dell, Bank of America, General Motors, to name a few) that lost out on their name on Twitter before it exploded into a phenomenon.

I have no desire

No one is forcing anyone to use social media, but there are very convincing reasons why businesses should use social media.

It will require too many resources within our company

Just like any other marketing campaign, social media will require resources.  In order to debunk this objection, you have to look at the reasons why social media benefits your company – missed opportunity, cost savings, lead generation, etc.  Focus your social media strategy on what you want to accomplish through goals, objectives, and success metrics.

I'm worried about the legal ramifications/regulatory issues

This objection can be overcome by drafting a social media policy that clearly outlines the responsibility of using social media as it relates to legal and regulatory issues.

It's too risky; we're better off doing nothing

The only risk that I see is the risk of doing nothing.  Do you really want to risk letting your competitors take over the opportunities you are missing?  Do you not care what customers (and competitors) are saying about you online?  Monitor and engage to offset that risk.

You can't measure it; social media results are not easily visible to non-users

We all love the term ROI.  Social media ROI involves more in depth analysis than traditional stats.  Presentations of social media ROI – Basics of Social Media ROI and Social Media ROI by Socialnomics

We give up too much to the customer; privacy issues

This is a valid objection as I understand that in some industries, there are client privileges or at least want to avoid showing favouritism.  The key point to remember is that you are voluntarily participating in social media meaning you can control what you put out to the public.   If you are in the position where revealing certain aspects of your company is against the rules, then develop a social media policy.  Clearly state the roles and responsibilities for those participating in social media on behalf AND outside of the company.  The latter is extremely important because it requires a level of trust with your employees.

We won't make any money/no ROI potential; it will take too long to pay off

I'll be the first to say, from personal experience, that social media will not have an immediate financial impact, but it will have an immediate impact on brand recognition.  Social media takes time and energy, but what successful venture doesn't require time and energy?  Don't just think about the revenue that is generated, but also the cost savings involved.  Look at the traffic your website is getting due to your social media efforts.  Are you noticing more positive mentions?  It's all part of the benefits of social media.

We can't control the message

Social media is the voice of the customer and a channel that is influenced by the customer.  By taking part in social media, you can start to monitor conversations about your brand and competitors.  People will say whatever they want about your company whether you like it or not, but isn't it better to know what they are saying rather than standing on the sidelines and not knowing?  It feels like a common sense business practice to monitor, engage, and understand the situation.  In reality, social media actually gives you MORE control over the message.  An example: a customer starts badmouthing your company because of outdated pricing information on a website.  [Scenario 1]-not participating in social media results in you never knowing so this bad testimonial spreads (which you don't know about).  [Scenario 2]-by participating in social media, you can reach out to the dissatisfied customer, ask where they got the information, correct the issue with IT due to this customer's feedback, and explain the situation to the customer.  More likely than not, that customer will thank you for the correction, correcting any negative misconceptions about the company.

We want to control the message

What you can control is your engagement with the public and how you respond to comments.  What you can't control is what is being said about your company.  Participating in social media gives you more control.

It will take too long to implement

Social media does not take long to implement, however, it's important to spend time creating a social media strategy to understand goals, objectives, success metrics, and plan of action.  Social media is a time investment and you will not see results overnight.  It takes time and commitment.  If you tackle social media half-assed, you are wasting your time.

It's just a blog, Twitter and Facebook- What's that going to do?

Social media does the following: SEO, increase in traffic, lead generation, increased customer service satisfaction, brand management, customer engagement, acts as a focus group, cost savings, on and on and on and on…

Our customers are not on social networks/don't use social media; Not our target market

This is just a bad excuse.  You will be surprised to see how many of your customers and potential customers are using social media.  You know what they say about assumptions right?  The most useful social networking sites are meant for the general audience.

It's too complicated; we don't know the first thing about social media

There are many tutorials available on the web that will help you get started in the world of social media.  For PR and marketing professionals, check out Marketwire's Social Media Fitness Program.  I am also here to help answer any online marketing questions

We can't control our employees using it

Believe it or not, your employees are using social media.  So no, you can't control whether your employees use it outside of work.  What you can control, however, is allowing your employees to use social media in the workplace and setting strict guidelines for writing about the company's products, service, clients, etc.  If you are concerned about employee usage, I recommend that you develop a social media policy that outlines usage terms and responsibilities of using social media.

We're B2B so there is no reason for us to engage consumers

The great thing about social media?  It doesn't discriminate.  Social media works just as great for B2B as it does for B2c.  In some cases, B2B is all the more reason to participate in social media.  Read Brian Solis' post on B2B and B2C Engagement by the Numbers.

Don't want to acknowledge negatives

With the global acceptance of social media across all types of businesses and industries, negative comments will happen whether you want it to or not.  The power of social media is in the public, i.e., the users.  It gives your customers and potential customers a voice they didn't have before.  Negative comments is inevitable so instead of ignoring it, embrace this opportunity to reach out as needed.  The missed opportunity is to let it happen behind your back.  You will be surprised to find out that many negative comments are based on inaccurate information.  In addition this type of feedback can lead to improved business processes or product/service enhancements.  The power to influence is extremely powerful.  You don't have to respond to every negative mention, but at least follow the conversation.

Don't have time to adapt to the technology

If you don't adapt to new technology, you will become obsolete or fall behind your competitors to the point of extinction.  Embracing social media is viewed as an innovative new approach to marketing, PR, customer service, R&D, etc.  If you hear this particular objection, perhaps it's time to start thinking about joining a new company.

There is too much meaningless discussions online; no trust

Very true, but luckily there is a filter for all that noise.  You can monitor from whom you want to listen and what you want to listen to whether it is your brand, related keywords, competitors or a select group of followers.  The great thing about social media is the ability to engage with your audience.  Spark a conversation by asking a simple question or join a Twitter chat where other users tweet about similar tastes.  If you are reactive to the conversations that are happening online, you will only see meaningless tweets.  Instead, be proactive and spark those conversations.  There are more than enough users willing to discuss subjects that matter to you.

Lack of expertise

Social media continues to develop and everyone is still learning.   My advice is to experience social media yourself because nothing beats experience.  You can read all the articles you want and listen to all these "experts" talk about social media, but these should be used as guidelines only.  Your own experience will determine how you use and benefit from social media, no one else.

We already do social networking, we have a facebook fan page.

That's a great 5th step, but what are you doing with that fan page?  Social media not just about setting up a fan page or setting up an account; it is so much more than that.  Develop a social media strategy to understand your goals, objectives, and how you are going to measure your success.  You can't just create a fan page or Twitter account, snap your fingers, and poof, you do social networking.   In order to really "do social networking", provide useful links to industry related articles, don't sell your product/service, engage and participate in conversations, don't sell, offer any help whether they are your current clients or prospects, and listen.

We're waiting for it to mature

If you want to risk doing nothing and waiting for your competitors to jump ahead, fair enough.  How do you define a site being "mature" anyway?  Check out these social media statistics.

We tried it and it didn't work.

Trying is good until I ask these type of questions:  how long did you "try" social media?  Did you have a strategy in place?  What did the strategy consist of?  How did you measure success? What were your goals and objectives?  What gave you the conclusion that social media did not work?  What results from social media would you have considered a success?  What process did you go through when participating in social media?

It doesn't fit the company's brand.

The most useful social networking sites are meant for the general public with no preference to any type of brand or industry.  Social media is not a fad and is starting to become a best practice for PR, marketing, customer service, business development etc.   What is important to consider is your company culture.  I truly believe that your company culture is reflected in whatever social media participation you do.  Whether you're in a bland industry or not, your brand will come out shining.

We can't convince upper management/management doesn't support it

If it comes time to present your case to upper management, you will likely encounter more than a couple of these objections.  You may also want to take a look at my post about how to convince and sell social media to your boss.

I suffer from information overload so I don't need anymore.

Social media can certainly be overwhelming at first especially if you believe in any of these objections.  Don't just jump into social media and think you are ready.  Take it in stride.  Set goals and monthly expectations.  Information overload will only continue to grow and you do not want to fall behind.  It's also inevitable.  Technology continues to change and improve the way we obtain information.

We'll stick with traditional media

Traditional media outlets are also using social media.  In early 2009, CNN purchased a Twitter account that had nearly 1MM followers at that time (it now has almost tripled that amount of followers).

10 Social Media Metrics to Monitor

1. Social media leads. Track web traffic breakdowns from all social media sources, and chart the top few sources over time. If members of your social media networks are sending referrals, consider measuring this data as well.
   
2. Engagement duration. For some companies, engagement duration is more important than page views. For example, if you have a Facebook application, how much time are social network members spending using it? Is per-member usage increasing over time? Alternately, if people visit your your company websites from SM (Social Media) sites, how long are they spending? (Also consider tracking which pages they visit.)
   
3. Bounce rate. Are visitors coming to your site from SM sites but quickly leaving? Maybe your landing page needs better, more relevant copy. Maybe the information they're seeking isn't easily found.
   
4. Membership increase and active network size. This is the portion of your company's social networks (e.g., Twitter, Facebook) that actively engages with your social media content (e.g., Twitter, Facebook Pages, etc.) Is your collective members, followers, fans network growing, and is there interaction with your content?
   
5. Activity ratio. How active is your company's collective social network? Compare the ratio of active members vs total members, and chart this over time. There'll always be some social network members who are inactive, but if you initiate a campaign to increase interaction, you should also measure the resulting data. Activity can be measured in a variety of ways, including usage of social applications.
   
6. Conversions. You want social network members to convert: into subscriptions, sales (direct or through affiliates), Facebook application use, or whatever other offerings you have in your overall sales funnel and that can somehow be directly or indirectly monetized. (E.g., subscription to a weekly e-newsletter can be monetized by giving other companies access to your list in the form of advertising.) Measure all types of conversions and chart them over time.
   
7. Brand mentions in social media. So, you have a highly active social network and members are talking about your company or the company's brands. Measure and track both positive and negative mentions, and their quantities.
   
8. Loyalty. Are social members interacting in the network repeatedly, sharing content and links, mentioning your brands, evangelizing? How many members reshare? How often do they reshare?
   
9. Virality. Social members might be sharing Twitter tweets and Facebook updates relevant to your company, but is this info being reshared by their networks? How soon afterwards are they resharing? How many FoaFs (Friends of Friends) are resharing your links and content?
   
10. Blog interaction. This is actually more than one metric lumped together. Blogs ARE part of an SMM (Social Media Marketing) toolkit, but only if you allow comments and interact with readers by responding. If you're doing this, encourage responses either directly in the comments section of blog posts, or via Twitter. (Use a blog widget that allows this.) If your blog's content is suitable for social voting (Digg, Propeller, Mixx, etc.) or social bookmarking (Delicious, Stumbleupon) sites, install a blog plugin that displays the necessary sharing "buttons", then track referrals back from those sites.