Social Media Reporters vs. Press
At a large conference made up of my industry peers (Meeting
Professionals International’s World Education Congress), I was invited to
attend as a social media reporter. There were no obligations; however I was
invited to all of the press conferences and a couple of breakfasts for press only.
As far as I could tell, the social media reporters were invited to everything
that the press was invited to with the exception of one dinner hosted by
Disney.
I had never seen the meetings and events industry press in
action at one of our large conferences. I knew they typically get free passes
to attend all kinds of industry events but my perception was they would attend
the conference like anyone else and then write about it for their publication.
Since all of the press conferences were scheduled at the same time as education
sessions, I found it very difficult to do both. I had also committed to
recording a podcast with Meetings Podcast and because all of our schedules were
so full, we ended up doing that during education sessions as well. Whether you
are press or a social media reporter, it is hard to capture the experience from
the viewpoint of an attendee.
What I found interesting was the bigger picture of old media
vs. new media. The press structure of submitting articles makes the idea of
breaking news a joke. Typically, a conference like this doesn’t have “breaking
news” however at this particular event, we did. Although, the way the press
conferences were set up, MPI tried to create a sense of urgency for the
organizations making announcements. Of the press conferences I attended, there
were very few members of the press in attendance. I never saw the ConventionNews Television folks. Even though it is great to get video interviews and their
production quality is top notch, it isn’t live.
So, the few of us who showed up are sitting in the same
press conference, receiving the same information that allegedly had not been
released anywhere else. Someone from an established magazine would diligently
take notes, ask good questions and then go about writing an article that I
assume would then be edited and published either online or in print form. Whereas,
I could have done a blog post on any one of these topics and sent it out
through my channels. Granted, I don’t have the same number of subscribers as an
established news organization, but tweets sent out with the conference hashtag
while the event is happening have a much higher impression rate than tweets
sent out at any other time. The key, then, is not to announce something at an event, but to create a strategy around
getting your news shared
during an event.
During one of the press conferences, I was able to find a
news article that had already been written and tweet it out. This was even
easier, because I didn’t have to write it! Why re-invent the wheel? I guess the
difference between reporting and blogging is that you might expect me to insert
my opinions in my blog, whereas, if I am simply reporting the facts, it is a
waste of my time to report the same story that has already been written. Today,
it matters less where you get your news and matters more who is the first to
report it. When sharing content via social media, most people won’t share a
story that is already a day old because they assume everyone has already read
it.
How does your company / association deal with press at your
event? Are you including social media reporters? What does that program look
like?
Hi Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteVery good post, and thank you for attending WEC.
I was part of the team that made sure there was no separation between social media and traditional print press members. I believe that journalists who report on an event are press no matter the medium.
For clarification, was your experience as a social media reporter a good one? If so, how? If not, how?
We'd like to know how we can be better in the future when it comes to the press. The scheduling of press conferences is one way. Any others?
Thank you,
Jason
Thanks, Jason. My experience was a very good one. This post was meant to point out the differences between new and old media in a very general sense, based on my experience at WEC.
ReplyDeleteWhat I really meant to say was, What is the point of traditional (print) magazines when most people consume their content via the internet?