Guest Post – The Future of Social Media
On the 29th January 2009 Internet World ran a one day conference hosted by the “social media elite”.
For those of us working within the social media sector the hot topic at the moment is how can we effectively measure and monitor the impact of specific social media campaigns? This is currently the sectors Achilles’
heel and I hoped that Vicky Brock the board director from the Web Analytics association would help shed some knowledge on social media best practises etc.
Initially I was a little disappointed that she did not delve into a list of tools that she currently uses to benchmark, monitor and track her own social media campaigns. However Vicky did pull a fluffy white rabbit out of her hat when she informed the floor that the World Bank had released its open source BuzzMonitor code on their CRS site. This was a subject that I knew nothing about. We at Nitro Mobile have since downloaded the code are looking to build upon its infrastructure in the next month or so (I will let London Bloggers know once the tool has been completed for you to have a play with).
Cesar Mascaraque the MD from Ask.com Europe brought some interesting key points to the conference. This includes stating that he sees a future in vertical search and that he is currently looking to purchase vertical search engines in key sectors.
All of the speakers without exception were excellent and many highlighted interesting points as they delved into their own compelling case studies. However many of the discussions were extremely basic and rather then looking at “the future of social media” we were often left reminiscing on what has already been. It also really grinds my gears when a speaker asks the floor to “put your hands up if you are on …….OK, OK….. put your hands up if you are tweeting now…”. Two separate speakers started their presentations with this statement!
In reflection, the event was informative and I think that everybody who attended came away with a better insight into how they can apply social media marketing more effectively. From a personal perspective a few key points aided my research and made the day well worth attending.
Written by James Norris, Strategist at Nitromobile Ltd
