A recent IMEX survey of more than 830 international hosted buyers revealed increasing use of social media in the meetings industry.
Facebook is the most popular platform. Social media, blogs and new technologies are issues of growing interest to the meetings industry. The findings of an IMEX post-show exit survey in Frankfurt/Main conducted in May among 830 hosted buyers on their attitude towards these new tools suggest that the uptake of social media for professional use has accelerated significantly compared to last year.
Among the respondents, Facebook has risen in popularity with 71 percent of hosted buyers now using it either for networking or business promotion purposes, rising from 60 percent in 2010. Twitter is also making greater inroads, with 41 percent of respondents now using it regularly, compared to 27 percent in 2010. Not surprisingly given its professional authority, LinkedIn is used by 69 percent of the buyers surveyed, whilst YouTube is used by 25 percent, demonstrating its growing role as a credible and viable channel for corporate marketing and communications within the international meetings industry.
Despite the proliferation and increasing influence of blogs within the international meetings industry, surprisingly the number of respondents who say they do not regularly read one has increased slightly on 2010 - from 83 percent to 86 percent this year. Given the clear rise and popularity of short, sharp opportunities to grab and share information on social media, it is possible that longer blog formats are proving more challenging for meetings industry professionals to squeeze into a busy working day. The exhibition organisers also quizzed hosted buyers on their use of the IMEX App, a brand new introduction for 2011 developed by Meeting Professionals International (MPI) and QuickMobile and sponsored by the Switzerland Convention & Incentive Bureau).
Of the 838 buyers who responded, 61 percent revealed they were aware of it, and of those who downloaded the new IMEX App 80 percent were iPhone users. In terms of hosted buyer awareness of the various different App features, 91 percent were most aware of the ‘Tell a Friend’ function although the ‘My Schedule’ feature was the most frequently used. When it came to the App features deemed most useful, the top three were ‘My Schedule’, the ‘Floorplan’ and the ‘Venue’ features respectively. 52 percent of respondents used the free IMEX WIFI provided for all hosted buyers courtesy of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main region, and results once again confirmed the popularity of the iPhone, with 72 percent utilising the free WIFI via an iPhone compared to 23 percent via an iPad.
In comparison, only nine percent accessed it via a Blackberry, which contrasts with last year’s results where Blackberry was the Smartphone of choice in the meetings industry. Of those respondents in 2010, 47 percent used Blackberries as opposed to 31 percent who used iPhones. This year’s results may suggest that the iPhone has now forged a stronger position as a business device or simply that iPhone users are more ‘App’ aware and more willing to download them than Blackberry owners.
Quick Response QR codes (a two-dimensional barcode) are increasingly being used by corporations. 26 percent of respondents stated that they did notice the QR codes being used prior to and at the show, although 29 percent did not. Only 16 percent of hosted buyers confirmed that they used their mobile phone to scan an IMEX QR code, demonstrating that there is huge scope for further adoption of this technology and education about it.
Commenting on the findings, Carina Bauer, CEO of the IMEX Group, says: “It is interesting to observe the continued rapid growth of marketing channels such as Twitter and also to see that Facebook has maintained its position as the most commonly used social media platform among hosted buyers. New technologies are being introduced all the time and are fundamentally changing the way we work, communicate and do business. QR codes, for example, are a relatively new innovation but are already being widely used by many organisations in other business sectors, so we expect to see their use increase significantly across the international meetings industry in the next year. Recent changes across the sector also suggest that mobile payment systems, environmental monitoring and even intelligent sensors embedded into mobiles are the next areas to watch within the industry. I am delighted that the launch of the IMEX App was well received. Our aim now is to apply some of this important feedback to develop this convenient and intuitive management tool further for IMEX America this October in Las Vegas.”
