With the amount of industry users growing, the usefulness can't help but increase. (that's my short answer)
But I invite you to read on and see if my full assessment jives with what you are seeing as well.
It would be easy for some of us to say that social networking was a great success this year at ASIS. But, it would also be easy for some to look at meet-up attendance levels and overall "group" participation and argue against that fact. The difficult thing to define here is the "success" or "irrelevance" of the overall social networking activity - and how you measure that is fairly subjective.
That's because the users of social networking fall into three distinctly different groups. Probably more than that - but for the most part, I pigeon-hole everyone into three:
The Marketing or PR Pro / Provider: This game has been revolutionized in recent years by social networking, media and similar tools that have shifted the focus off of traditional marketing avenues. So it's no surprise that security equipment and service companies have started to get on board. The reasons for it's popularity have a lot to do with opening communication channels and new dimensions of information flow and monitoring (if properly used and planned out). How well does all this relate in the physical security industry? Not nearly as well as the rest of the world but there is definitely some positive growth. It's hard to argue with the success of marketing and customer service through this method, especially when you see what some of the larger providers do with it. It's refreshing to see @firetide, @HIDGlobal, @exacq, @DMP_ALARMS, @chelsiewoods, @ProtectionOne, @pprobinson, @ProvidentMike, @RhiannaDaniels, @Futureshield_CW, @Todd_Morris, @3VR, @stevesurf and BoschSecurityUS bringing that kind of enhanced service to their customers. It's a shame, but some of the larger manufacturers/providers are running social networking accounts with little to no value whatsoever. (not listed for obvious reasons)
The News Pro:
Call it New Media, Citizen Journalism or whatever you'd like - but things are different in the world of news. Social networking has given a press pass to just about anyone who wants one. I think this is a great leveling agent in many ways, and it can sure make things interesting.
The industry is already covered well by both print and online media, and the news industry in general is embracing social networking and media as a way to connect with users and enhance the relationship all around. I've watched with great interest as editors/reporters like @Sam_Pfeifle, @BrentDirks, @Security_Mag, @Leischen and @info4security have used social networking as a powerful tool.
The End Users, Consultants and Practitioners:
This group includes not only the end users, but just about everyone else that isn't selling a product, service or reporting on it. The motivation to use social networking is more clear with the marketing and news people, but there are more reasons and a wider set of goals with this group. Since goals very greatly among users in this group, it's difficult to measure success
In conclusion, I feel that most security professionals who are using social networking for non-sales and non-news reporting reasons are starting to see value. That's because the amount of valuable resources available varies directly with the amount of other industry people out there, using the same tools. One of the key benefits of social networking is the accessibility to others in the industry at all levels. This dynamic was slowly developing over the last few years, but the conference was a shot in the arm, boosting numbers of users and everyone's effectiveness. Thanks to everyone who participated in the conversations, and helped to further this developing medium!
