What's the first thing that springs to mind when someone mentions "Austin" to you?
You’d have to have been on a desert island to not be aware of the state of our economy and the predictions that 2009 are going to be worse than this year. With redundancies on the rise and the economy shrinking it is easy to feel incredibly pessimistic about the future. I would be very surprised to hear of any company that isn’t looking closely at their budgets, tightening their belts and having to make some difficult decisions. I am not going to ta
Returning to its usual home in the 'glamorous' basement of The Slug & Lettuce in London's Soho, the 22nd Chinwag Live examined the impact and rise of social networking on the mobile world.
PRESS RELEASE: London, UK, Monday 10th November 2008
Digital SMEs will get a timely export boost courtesy of the Digital Mission to South by South West interactive taking place in March 2009 in Austin, Texas.
Following the success of the Digital Mission to New York in September 2008, this second venture – also organised by Chinwag for UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) will assist firms to develop new business channels, partnerships, investment and detailed knowledge of the local market.
Following successful outings at Internet World and ad:tech London earlier this year, Chinwag Live went on tour again in October, this time to the Ecommerce Expo at London's Olympia.
The session itself was rammed to the gills, with some of the more enterprising attendees sneaking in round the back. The panel tackled the practical side of realising ROI from social media, a topic which clearly resonated with the show's audience.
The panel chaired by digital strategy consultant and former Revolution editor, Philip Buxton featured Alex Burmaster, European Internet Analyst from Nielsen Online, Robin Grant, Founder & Managing Director from We Are Social, Ankur Shah, Co-founder from Techlightenment, Stuart Bruce, Founder & Managing Director from Wolfstar and Helen Lawrence, Social Media Planner from Dare.
This Tuesday, the Chinwag Live went 'on tour' to the E-commerce Expo at Olympia. In a packed session - sorry to those who didn't make it in - the debate ranged from metrics to the human side of social media. Philip Buxton chaired the panel and wrote up his thoughts on what transpired.
Chairing Chinwag Live’s Social Media ROI panel debate at E-commerce Expo
last week was fascinating for a number of reasons – not least for the
amount of people trying to pack themselves into a small space.
The debate featured some social media luminaries: Robin Grant from We Are Social; Stuart Bruce from Wolfstar; Helen Lawrence, social media planner at Dare; and Alex Burmaster at Nielsen Online. But the driver of the conversation (the influencer if you will) turned out to be Ankur Shah, founder of Techlightenment, who, as Robin described, was coming at things from a direct response-focused angle.
The great thing about Ankur’s input was that it
dragged conversation about social media out of (again, as Robin put it)
‘fluffy’ objectives and into its value in terms of hard,
lead-generation targets.
While we all see that connecting with customers
‘at their place’ – their social online networks – is a great thing to
be doing, measuring the value of these kinds of things is nigh on
impossible. iCrossing as it happens is doing the best job I’ve seen of
seeking to ‘measure ‘engagement’
and thus place a benchmark on the ‘success’ that investment in social
media is having. But, as we enter recession, there’s no doubt there’s a
new sense of urgency about how we can get social media to deliver on
lead-gen objectives.
In these crunch-ridden times, a special offer is always welcome. And the generous folks at Search Marketing Expo have stepped up to the plate, with a handy 15% discount for the Expo in London on 4th and 5th of November.
To take advantage of this offer, use the discount code CHIN15 when registering.
Congratulations to David and the guys from Slicethepie, a financing engine and market insight business for the music industry. As a result of contacts made during the Digital Mission to New York in September, they have been selected to appear at the next Hatchery event in New York on 5th November.
The clock's ticking, but the nice folks at e-consultancy have slowed it down a touch, allowing an extra week for entries to the Innovation Awards 2008. The deadline's been extended to next Fri, 31st Oct.
