9th and 10th March 09 - Olympia Conference Centre, London
The Social Networking World Forum is the perfect event for professionals to learn and discuss the future development of social media.
Social media today is being more and more important for all manner of people and businesses, including and especially, it would appear, NGOs and charitable organization of another nature.
The various kinds of social media applications, whether Facebook, Twitter, or others, and the growth of those, is something that is also an extremely useful (and this is definitely and understatement) tool for causes of a variety of different kinds, from green issues to other more direct community issues.
This was shown the was Facebook has been used for this and we have recently seen the tenth anniversary of this application that was originally designed for just on-campus use, on the Intranet, of a university in the USA. We have really come a long way since.
According to a research by Juniper, revenues from social networking, dating and personal content delivery services will increase from $572m in 2007 to more than $5.7bn in 2012, with social networking accounting for 50% of the total by the end of the forecast period.
Communicating via social networks is becoming a way of life for many of us, whether we are using them to chat to our friends, progress our careers or to discuss our hobbies, it is clear that social networking is challenging face-to-face is communication.
Virtual communities for business allow individuals to be accessible. Networks improve the ability for people to advance professionally, by finding, connecting and networking with others. Social networks present an enormous opportunity. For firms with little money to spend, the web sites can be a cheap, efficient marketing tool.
Todays climate of online interactivity offers businesses an opportunity to supplement traditional, above the line marketing methods with tactical, targeted messaging aimed at influencing customer buying decisions.
By tapping into a culture of advice, relating good and bad experiences and relaying the latest news, brands can take advantage of the huge numbers of people using these sites. This promotes their product, and keeps readers informed of developments, launches and special promotions.
Users of social network sites won't shy away from letting people know about their positive buying experiences, and with the sheer number of people in the community, 'word of mouse' promotion has never had such reach.
Brands willing to dip their toe in, have found success by playing on specific themes which tap into popular culture. If executed well, brand positioning on social networking can reap similar rewards and help SMEs to achieve sales growth, increased brand awareness and most importantly, endorsement amongst their target audience.
However, there are warnings to heed. If too little respect is paid to the conventions of the community, where quality content is essential for success, then the users of social networking sites can just as easily deliver a knockout blow to a business as they can champion it.
The two day conference and exhibition will provide a focused platform for the global social media industry. The conference aims to address core issues such as monetization, future technologies/services, engaging social groups with brands and how businesses can get the most out of social and business networks.
Speakers at the conference include:
- Anthony Lukom Managing Director, MySpace UK
- Kate Burns, Managing Director & Vice President, Europe for Bebo & People Networks
- Gerrit Mueller, Senior Director of Mobile Products, Connected Life, Yahoo! Europe
- Mark Watts-Jones, Head of Development and Innovation, Orange UK
- Sean Kane, Head of Mobile, Bebo
- Henry Clifford-Jones, Director of Media Sales Europe, Linkedin
- Natalie Johnson, Manager Social Media Communications, General Motors
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