When I first attended IMS in 1995 in Orlando, my wife was pregnant with our first child and complained about the heat all week.  I was 29 years old and slaved at a small ad firm with a couple of microwave accounts, but thought I was so cool with my permanent “car phone” after ditching my pager, and was one of the first AE’s to have their own web site, having spent nights learning HTML from Laura Lemay’s book, “Teach yourself Web Publishing in a Week”.   I was also the first person in the office to use email, only because my client ROGERS CORP invited me in on this new way to communicate, which they probably regret to this day.   I was pretty high tech, so I thought.

Twenty years later, I’m now a slave to email and my iPhone but I love it.  I love to walk the show floor, and see our clients using social media, e-blasts, blogs, and other digital forms of marketing.  It really allows us both to change on a dime, measure what’s working, learn what can be improved, and engage with so many folks in only three or four days.   We used to measure success by leads, and god knows that is key and why we exhibit, but with the new technologies we can forge relationships quicker and, beyond the time allotted at the show, we can keep in touch.  The new digital media also allows us to “set the table” prior to the show, engage with prospects, invite them to visit, and tailor our messages to be more streamlined in our connections.

How far have we come in this new media in just a few years?  Well, one example is SLN and Microwave Journal conducting a research survey every year to measure the interest and usage of social and digital media across the industry.  In three short years the needle moved from low to extremely high, to where we no longer run the study, it’s so very clear. Although we thought social media was a consumer thing that showed cats on fire on YouTube, our neighbor’s resume on Linked In, and our niece’s graduation picture on My Space. How quickly we all sipped the social media Kool Aid when we realized for our businesses that we could keep in touch, engage with new prospects, and use LI and YT to improve our jobs and careers – and it tasted pretty good!

A recent study by ADWEEK showed that over 80% of Marketers say Social Media is the most effective channel for the B2B. The survey polled 2000 senior business marketers about their objectives, budgets, activities and challenges and found that while just 15 percent of marketing budgets are spent on social media, 80 percent of respondents said that it was THE most effective digital channel.  Accordingly, 38 percent of marketers would spend more on social media if they had extra budget.

Social media for business has come a long way in a very short time, and this research demonstrates that the B2B community has embraced what used to be seen as a consumer media to the full extent.  Digital, Content Marketing and Social Media changes everything, so we need to learn and implement new skill sets, resources and how we approach ROI.   Our seven microwave clients exhibiting at the show this year, and participating in the annual PASSPORT TO IMS promotion, are undoubtedly up for the challenge.   This year marks the five-year anniversary of founding the SLN Social Media department, and to see every SLN client onboard and have three full time employees dedicated to supporting those clients even shocks me some days.   We still need print, PR and traditional marketing, and we still need to go golfing and have lunch and get in that face time with our clients and prospects. Social media tools empower us to accelerate networking, make higher-quality connections, and feel less awkward in the process.

Let’s embrace the virtual and its benefits, but let’s take the week together in Phoenix to shake hands, look each other in the eye, catch up, have a toast or two at the different events. I promise I won’t text or check my messages when I see you – that’s what the men’s room is for.

Safe travels!