socialmedia

I don't know about you, but I can't believe it's pretty much the end of August already. This year seems to have passed very quickly in a bit of a blur, and that's just 8 months. So what about 10 years?

In 2002 I was still in secondary school, I remember waiting patiently at grey desktop PC's watching the little egg-timer tick over as internet pages took forever to load and being introduced to the magically efficient shiny new Google. How times have changed, as bestedsites.com's infographic looking at how the internet has changed over the past decade shows.

Nate Elliott at Forrester published an interesting post last year about the Interactive Brand Ecosystem. Essentially he is asking whether it is time that we abandoned a TV-centric planning model and worked instead on the premise that the website sits at the heart of the marketing process.

Social networks existed long before Facebook and Twitter. Originally it was just as the organic ties between organisations or individuals; today it’s the same structure, the same dynamics but super-charged by virtue of the digital technology now available!

What Messrs. Zuckerberg & Co. brought to the party are the tools, metrics and case studies necessary to understand how social leaders influence each other within these social and professional networks, and how these relationships can be used to disrupt conventional attitudes and behaviour.

So, all of our wonderful Hub spaces have been announced, all represented on the above map (which you can view on Google Maps here). But what event topics will be based where? And what events go into a Hub?

The SMWLDN Hub Schedules will be carefully curated to include some of the week's best events. We'll be working with sponsors and partners for some events, and other Hub spaces are open for your own inclusion! If you'd like your event to be featured in a Hub, please check out this blog post to find out how to apply.

The SMWLDN Hub Schedules will be announced soon, in the mean time, check out what you can expect to find in each SMWLDN Hub below.

We said there were more to come, and as promised, here they are!

In this second announcement, we have another three SMWLDN Sept '12 Hub to introduce you to, on top of our previous announcement of ExHoSo House, Google Campus, The Hub Westminster, O2 Workshop and Unruly Media - giving us a total of 8 SMWLDN Sept '12 Hubs for the week.

As explained in the last announcement, each SMWLDN Sept '12 Hubs will have a topic area, and events taking place in the Hub will focus and/or relate to that particular Hub's topic area. Each Hub's schedule is being carefully curated, Hub events will highlight and showcase some of the best SMWLDN events taking place this September. Also, with London being a bit of a beast with events taking place all over the city, we hope that this will make SMWLDN easier to navigate, both physically and on the online schedule.

For fifteen years I’ve provided research, evidence and carefully chosen words to anyone who would listen to describe the benefits of allowing interpersonal communication within a brand-space. We used to call that "social network theory" or "social engine theory". Over time, the 'social media' industry grew up around our voices (not loud enough to dominate it but still we prattled away).

Today, my agency and team operate as a very tiny part of a £Billion business based on the very same ideas; that conversations are a form of marketing, that the customer can be an ambassador and that brand choices are part of expressible identity.

The questions I’m asked each day remain essentially the same, although the vocabulary has changed a little. Ten years ago a major sports brand asked me "What will I do if the public are critical of our product in a forum we put our brand on", today they ask "What are the costs and risks of page moderation".

Are you planning an event during Social Media Week London this September (24th - 28th)?  Have you submitted it to the schedule yet? You need to make it quick, the event submission deadline is 21st August, just two weeks away!

Also, the SMWLDN Sept '12 Schedule goes live tonight, with our official London schedule launch tomorrow morning. 

Not to worry, we have all you need to know to submit your event below.