Absolutely one great arena for social media is 3D Virtual and immersive worlds. As a platform for media and video and as a way to generate branded content, this will grow.
Commercial as well as Societal enterprise grows here. Plus it is very green.
Recently the Copenhagen UN conference was streamed live into Second Life affording all kinds of feedback as well as global awareness of issues as Second Life is a global online comunity. And last summer the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life, of which I was silent auction chair raised over $270,000 USD. This is a valuable and engaging area for social media. Knowing how to navigate it is critical for success, defing goals also crucial. This is good advice always.
On my year end blog, I discuss the return on Human Investment - ROHI & then below 5 reasons to use Second Life as a Media Platform

AVATAR The Movie breaking all kinds of records includin most downloaded trialer in iTunes history. Cost was $400 million USD. I can do AVATAR The Series for a lot less, and enable a chat bridge between the virtual reality and your PC to allow dynamic real time engagement.

Stephen, nice post! I think you hit the main 5 solutions. The other buzz that I'm hearing is the White Label Event Solutions offered by providers like Pathable, The Social Collective, Zerista and Crowdvine. These solutions often integrate a number of the primary 5 platforms.

Both IAEE and PCMA used these for their annual meeting. So far, the adoption has been less than stellar which makes you wonder:

Are these solutions ahead of their time and attendees/exhibitors just don't get it?

Are these event communities not managed well enough to want people to invest time before the show?

Is social media really being embraced (used daily) by enough of an event’s participants to make it worth the time and expense?

I don’t have the answers, but agree that most event organizers need to have a presence on all of the platforms. I’m pretty sold on the fact that a great blog needs to be at the center of the strategy. Participants want very interesting content where they can learn not just from the organizations, but also from their peers through comments. Most of the blogs that I read regularly are ones that I subscribe to via email. The ones that I read occasionally come from random links from trusted connections on FB, LI or Twitter.

Moral to the story, the blog or event website needs to be at the center (Home Base). All other Social Media apps help drive traffic to your home base by casting a wider net. Social media solutions are very helpful for improving an event organizer’s SEO. Links are votes…social media helps create lots of links. Google likes to serve up blended content – i.e. links to videos and photos. The more you embrace Social Media, the easier it is for new people to find you on Google.

Great subject and one dear to my heart. The common 'objections' I am hearing on social media are:

1) "I want to do it right and therefore going to stay in the shadows until I figure it out rather than embark upon it the wrong way";

2) "I want to remain in control of the community and the message, and the 'rules' social media declare that I need to 'let it go'. Therefore I will make it look like I am doing social media, without truly doing it";

3) "There is no ROI case for social media. If I am going to invest money and effort and opportunity cost in social media, I want a cast iron statement of the revenues I am going to get for my investment";

4) "I don't know where to start, and until I figure that out, I'm not going to do anything"


In my opinion, objections 1+4 require either someone or something to provide a roadmap to understand what needs to be done;

Objection 2 relates to a clash between a business philosophy vs. the social media rules where the business philosophy needs to change in order for a social media strategy to work;

Objection 3 is one for the industry to have to figure out, but it will come. In terms of increased lead flow, google ranking, subscribers etc, the results are positive, but the direct connection to revenue is still to be directly established and is the 'battlefield' of the future.

I agree with Dave that content which addresses the target market pain points need to be the driver of any social media effort.

The comments for this article actually more insightful than the original post. I believe what we're all trying to say is "Twitter is boring and people aren't interested." Really unique point of view. So if Twitter is old news, whats new news on the social media landscape? What are the hottest social media sites for the future?

Kristen

I am not sure that we are even far enough down the road of social media to be measuring it's effectiveness. What we do know is that the younger members who are part of the "generations" to follow communicate differently than the majority of the members of most organizations. Those professionals that are involved in these new methods of communication are the early adopters of these technologies and they are laying down the foundational seeds for the future of many organizations' communication channel.
What's important is that organizations need to communicate to their members in several different ways. This is not the time to be abandoning old methods for new. This is the time to add additional communication channels through social media, to enhance and support the core communication methods of the past. To achieve this, goals should be outlined as to "who" an organization is looking to reach, prior to just setting out and seeking new members. Once these "New prospects" are defined, an organization can start to plot a strategy as to how to engage these new prospects through a variety of communication channels.
It seems to me that at the core of all of these comments lies the educational and insightful content that the organization has the ability to create. Yet, most organizations continue to huddle around their content and protect the access to it to a small group. The exact opposite approach is one that I believe organizations need to enbrace. This is at the core of what we offer at Digitell. Engaging, online delivery mechanisms, whether live or archived, should be the base of any organizational strategy. Bring the content to the user and deliver it in an engaging environment.
I would agree with Pooky's comments above. 3D virtual environments are certainly going to be one of the engaging methods of delivery. Why? Because, it provides a level of engagement that allows for the user to become "skilled" at the use of this technology. It is this different "skills" level that allows the user to distinctively seperate themselves from other users.
We saw this during a recent 3 day Oracle Virtual event that was held in our platform. By the 3rd day, the Oracle executives were much more skilled in our platform and conducting simple nuances with their avatars that added greatly to the experience. This is where the future lies, and organizations need to embrace these technologies and provide their members with alternative ways of accessing their content. Social media, as Dave states, will act as the marketing tools to inform people of your event or content, but in the end, if the experience doesn't excite the user, the relationship will end, and many will look back and think that social media failed, when in fact, it wasn't the social media that was the weak link, but the end experience.

Kristen,
Thanks for the candid feedback - I actually agree, the comments provide a lot more insight than my original post.

I would actually go beyond the statement "Twitter is boring and people aren't interested." From several recent conversations and discussions, I wonder if we are really over social media and now it is time to conduct business.

So rather determine what are the hottest social media sites for the future, I am interested in hearing what are the smartest applications of social media that will change our future. Might make a better blog post also.

- stephen

Stephen, the corporate event producers I know are using social media (twitter, youtube, and facebook) as an outpost for content and announcements primarily. SMS is being accepted more as a means to capture feedback and outbound one to many communication. Acceptance is slowly increasing but stlll smaller then traditional marketing solutions. I would say that you are missing SMS as a platform as well.

Dave, I'd be really curious to hear an empirical representation of "less than stellar" ;-) Would love to know the numbers...

I'd also hesitate to say that Twitter is boring and people aren't interested. As an early adapter, I am slightly losing interest, but that's just me. According to emarketing.com, the number of Twitter users in 2009 jumped to 18 million and is predicted to grow to 26 million in 2010.

Also, it should be noted that Michael McCurry used Google Wave to engage our social community and create an ongoing conversation on the topic. It was definitely a fun and convenient way to have an online dialogue!