The theme for this year’s SMWF conference was “Engage with the world of Social Media Marketing.”
On Tuesday, November 1st, over 2,500 professionals in all things digital and social media filled the exhibit hall at New York City’s Javits Centre to attend two days of one of the most premiere interactive conferences, SMWF. New to this year's event were panel discussion formats, tweet up panels, on stage interviews, open 'Q&A' portions, audience sourcing debates and break-out group discussions enabling attendees to explore in-depth the key social media platforms, and how they can enhance marketing. 
There were over 100 leading social media speakers that read like a who’s who from all things digital marketers, social networks and brands providing a wealth of presentations about brand case studies with intensive workshops and plenty of networking among cutting edge players. The goal of the conference was to inform, interact, inspire and share how deeply social media can assist our businesses in connecting with and engaging customers. Mission accomplished!
"Track highlights included:
• Integrating social media into your marketing plan, and building your social media marketing toolbox
• How Social Media is being used for brand building
• How to engage with customers though Mobile Social Media and social media with mobile apps
• Building your Facebook, Linkedin, & Twitter marketing strategies
• Location based marketing
• Social Shopping - new influencers, voucher offers and real time social shopping
• B2B social media marketing
• Social TV – how social media is changing the way we interact with the TV
• Social CRM – internal social media, community building and management
• Top tips on selecting your Social Media Agency – the role of who does social media within your organisation
• Best practices for delivering PR campaigns across multiple Social Media platforms
• The new buzz word “Social Search”
• The Socialisation of the Internet with the impact of social credits and the open graph approach
• Social Gaming & Virtual Currencies
• Examining the differences between the Social Media market and other parts of the world
• Twitter applications and mash ups examined"
For many businesses, the trick is not just monitoring their social media conversations, but the ability to manage multiple social channels by combining elements of customer service, marketing and PR into a integrated customer and brand centric unit.
Among the booths I stopped by was Badgeville, an innovative social loyalty smart gamification platform. Using Badgeville, brands can reward users with real time achievements and reputation while at the same time driving user behavior, achieving business goals and measuring and optimizing user engagement. Badgeville looks like a fun way to keep customers connected to your brand.
Next up was a presentation by Jane Schactel, Director of Social Media for Bing and Matt Britton, founder and CEO of Mr. Youth.
Jane discussed the importance of two-way communications with users of products and the way users of social media tend to fall into four categories:
► Observers - not engaged but curious - like lurking;
► Fans who follow the brand and interact;
► Evangelists - people who actively post positive reviews/info about the brand, i.e., Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc.;
► Ambassadors - often celebrities or public figures and often paid for their endorsement.
The consumer-centric brand requires four things:.
1. Utility - meet a customer need;
2. Entertainment - publish content your users will enjoy but remember this is NOT a commercial;
3. Reward - reward users with coupons, contest prizes, etc.;
4. Recognition - give loyal users badges, a feature on the site, a special offer, etc.
Parting thoughts: Social media can give more relevance to search and search can give more credence to social media.
Lastly, I visited the Meltwater Buzz Booth, a social media monitoring platform. Melanie Zachariades explained how Meltwater Buzz can help you mine your social media mentions and gain insight from them.
So what do you think the long range effects of social media will be on brands? Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and a host of others are changing the ways businesses see and interact with their customers.
Many thanks to SMWF for continuing to provide such informative and exciting conferences!
by Carol Nissen
Writer, AllThingsDigitalMarketing.com
Digital Advertising and Marketing Director, Rhythm Dynamics
There were over 100 leading social media speakers that read like a who’s who from all things digital marketers, social networks and brands providing a wealth of presentations about brand case studies with intensive workshops and plenty of networking among cutting edge players. The goal of the conference was to inform, interact, inspire and share how deeply social media can assist our businesses in connecting with and engaging customers. Mission accomplished!
"Track highlights included:
• Integrating social media into your marketing plan, and building your social media marketing toolbox
• How Social Media is being used for brand building
• How to engage with customers though Mobile Social Media and social media with mobile apps
• Building your Facebook, Linkedin, & Twitter marketing strategies
• Location based marketing
• Social Shopping - new influencers, voucher offers and real time social shopping
• B2B social media marketing
• Social TV – how social media is changing the way we interact with the TV
• Social CRM – internal social media, community building and management
• Top tips on selecting your Social Media Agency – the role of who does social media within your organisation
• Best practices for delivering PR campaigns across multiple Social Media platforms
• The new buzz word “Social Search”
• The Socialisation of the Internet with the impact of social credits and the open graph approach
• Social Gaming & Virtual Currencies
• Examining the differences between the Social Media market and other parts of the world
• Twitter applications and mash ups examined"
Next up was a presentation by Jane Schactel, Director of Social Media for Bing and Matt Britton, founder and CEO of Mr. Youth.
Jane discussed the importance of two-way communications with users of products and the way users of social media tend to fall into four categories:
► Observers - not engaged but curious - like lurking;
► Fans who follow the brand and interact;
► Evangelists - people who actively post positive reviews/info about the brand, i.e., Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc.;
► Ambassadors - often celebrities or public figures and often paid for their endorsement.
The consumer-centric brand requires four things:.
1. Utility - meet a customer need;
2. Entertainment - publish content your users will enjoy but remember this is NOT a commercial;
3. Reward - reward users with coupons, contest prizes, etc.;
4. Recognition - give loyal users badges, a feature on the site, a special offer, etc.
Parting thoughts: Social media can give more relevance to search and search can give more credence to social media.
Lastly, I visited the Meltwater Buzz Booth, a social media monitoring platform. Melanie Zachariades explained how Meltwater Buzz can help you mine your social media mentions and gain insight from them.
So what do you think the long range effects of social media will be on brands? Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and a host of others are changing the ways businesses see and interact with their customers.
Many thanks to SMWF for continuing to provide such informative and exciting conferences!
by Carol Nissen
Writer, AllThingsDigitalMarketing.com
Digital Advertising and Marketing Director, Rhythm Dynamics
For more information visit: SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD FORUM
“Social Media World Forum is the leading social media marketing event that connects marketers, digital brand managers, agencies, monitoring, pr, gaming, tv, mobile and many other practioners and sectors embracing social media marketing. Running in London, New York, Cape Town, Dubai & Singapore, the SWMF event covers key areas such as building your social media marketing plan, social crm, social shopping, social search, monitoring & measurement, B2B social media, location based marketing, social tv, social reputation, community building, crisis management, gaming & virtual currencies, mobile social media and much more. Each social media series event will get right into the nitty gritty of these changes, giving delegates a way to learn, engage, debate and understand the latest in social media marketing. Our aim is to bring together the Social Media community worldwide to debate the hot topics, and network within a free to attend exhibition format. A fully packed agenda looking into how brands can use social media as a marketing tool, the latest tips and tricks, how brands are moderating and measuring their conversations and results, and how the major social networks are positioning themselves within the market.” For more information visit http://www.socialmedia-forum.com/
The way I feel about this is if your into digital marketing at all! you should have been there. I think going to this “Engage with the world of Social Media Marketing” makes it easy to interact with other people who are in this field!
ReplyDeleteThat many of Internet at home entrepreneurs have not even begun to consider Facebook as one of most important tools in their arsenal of online marketing.
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