Rebecca Rosman's blog

How has social media changed the way brands approach CSR and sustainability initiatives? What challenges and opportunities do they face when using them?

That was the agenda for Sustainable Brands Doing Good by Doing Well in Social, a forum for comment and insight from brand marketers.

Oversharing or Misunderstood? Automatic Sharing in Social was hosted by Betapond on Thursday 27th September 2012 at the Advertising & Marketing Hub at Facebook.

When Facebook unveiled Open Graph and made it possible for apps such as Spotify, Netflix or social readers for the Guardian, Independent or Washington Post to share automatically, it divided opinion. “Frictionless sharing” is a great way to discover new stuff from friends but some think it’s Too Much Information.

Wrapping up SMW London, on Friday, September 28 2012, was our Tech 4 Good Showcase.

It featured social innovators showcasing their startups as part of our Disruptive Social Innovation Day, exploring how social media platforms, tools and technologies can be used to create social good.

Contributors included FairPhone, the world’s first ethically made mobile handset; #wewillgather, an initiative to get people together to do good things, as inspired by the upsurge of ad-hoc volunteering in response to the London riots, and DrDoctor, a start-up changing the way hospitals and patients communicate using mobile technology.

In this session, Ross Nichols of The Daily Mail Group, Adam Stewart of Play.com, Carie Lewis of The Humane Society of the United States, Craig Hepburn from Nokia, and Richard Jones, CEO of EngageSciences, discussed how social marketing is changing, and the processes organisations need to put in place to generate real world value.

Communicating with markets has never been easier. But those who have the skills to create direct and compelling dialogue are in a tiny minority.

This session takes you on a tour of Share This - the best-selling social media handbook for PR professionals from Chartered Institute of Public Relations, tackling topics including:

Hosted at Hub Westminster on Wednesday, 26 September 2012, the SMW session Social CRM- A Practical Look at What it is and How to Get Started, explored the big questions:

• What it Social CRM? 
• What are the benefits?
• What are the barriers? 
• Is anyone using it? 
• How do I get started?

Sponsored by NixonMcInnes, the social business and digital innovation consultancy group, the session focused on the realities brands face when thinking about social CRM.

Fashion conscious consumers know what they want, when they want it, be it high street or haute couture. Social Media has facilitated fashionista's with a hub for conversations now its up to the brand to listen. The question is who to listen to? Who has real influence?

Is it the obvious: editors, fashion bloggers and trendsetters or are there different tribes? Can new influence tools like PeerIndex, Klout or KRED unlock these groups or is it a case of knowing ‘who to know’?

Monday's talk, Inside the Firewall Revisited, was a follow-up to our February session which looked at the future of the modern workplace. What happens when the behaviours and technologies of the social web start to permeate the insides of our organisations?

Whether you call it social business or Enterprise 2.0, the changes inside the firewall provide some of the biggest opportunities for organisations, and some of the trickiest challenges.

The enormous growth of the social web has led many companies to embrace it as part of their marketing communications activity.

Far fewer have recognised the threats and embraced the opportunities it provides for corporate relations and public affairs.

Asking yourself, “how did they do that” or “wonder if that campaign worked”? Us, too.

In the Social Marketing Detectives, hosted at Facebook, experts played detective and used great case studies on social media management and measurement from the leading players to build up our understanding of the ‘case’.

Ever wondered why social media never returns as much benefit as you would like? Want to figure out how to get more people to buy in to social? In this session, hosted at Facebook, Chris Heffer from SAP takes a look at social from a different perspective and gives some ideas how to make social more successful in your business.

Back in February, as part of Social Media Week, Synergy and Jam co-hosted the first Socialympics, a panel debate on the implications of London 2012 being the first social media Olympic and Paralympic games.

It was such a success, that by popular demand, we staged Socialympics 2, once again bringing together key players in the London Socialympics to review what was a historic moment in sport and sports marketing.

In Facebook Marketing ROI, Panelists from Nokia, The Social Partners, Play.com, The Humane Society of the United States and EngageSciences discussed how social marketing is changing and the processes organisations need to put in place to generate real world value. The social media managers of today could be the CMOs of tomorrow if they are able to help their organisations leverage the opportunity that marketing on Facebook represents to the bottom line. Tune into the livestream to see some of the strategies that leading brands are implementing and the results they are getting.

The impact of social technology is only just being felt, as the full repercussions of a world where frictionless sharing is the norm, but this is just the start. As social technologies expand into the offline world, creating links between the retail experience and the online world, the possibilities are endless.

Monday's talk at the Business & Enterprise Hub at Hub Westminster started with a keynote from Peace One Day founder, Jeremy Gilley, followed by Frontline SMS founder Ken Banks, in which they explored the people and organisations that are harnessing the opportunity the technology provides to overcome social challenges, the heroes of social innovation.

The rise of social media and social technology has demonstrated its power to revolutionise industries, change governments and empower social movements. In a very literal sense, the power to connect and collaborate is quite literally changing the world. Mobile technology and social networks enable groups to self-organise and campaigns to gain worldwide momentum.