Content Marketing

While agencies and brands have been embracing the power of content for several years, SME’s are just realising the value of sharing high quality content via social networks. The playing field has genuinely been levelled between the David’s and Goliaths of business, so expect to see the long tail of viral marketing extending during 2010/11 with some great hand-held videos, slide ware and doctored images designed to please the average Facebooker or Twitterer.

Being Everywhere

While businesses were quick to pick up on the million-niches offered by search marketing (SEO and SEM), they haven’t been as quick to adopt multiple channels in the sense of blogs, videos, bookmarks, articles, presentations, podcasts etc. As I said to a lawyer in a seminar on Friday, “How many people do you think blog about UK charity law?” I might equally have asked, how many UK charity lawyers post videos on YouTube each month? Or add presentations to Slideshare? All that’s going to change in the next couple of years.

Geo-location Viral Marketing

Unlike normal social networks, the real-world dimension of services like Foursquare and Gowalla greatly enhances the potential for sales, especially for shops, restaurants and event-based businesses. They won’t appeal to everyone, but even small numbers, when concentrated (flash-mob style), can be a great marketing stunt. There’s still lots of room for creativity here, so expect regular press coverage of these services – including some privacy scare stories.

Integrated Marketing Campaigns

This is already happening, but it’s going to happen more. The “be everywhere” mantra of my earlier point applies to offline media too. As companies embrace user engagement, viral marketing and recommendations over traditional advertising, we can expect to see campaigns coming at us from all directions – including our friends.

Social Media Listening

I think it’s safe to say the web analytics gold rush of ten years ago is now happening in social media. There are over 200 suppliers vying to provide the best quality data, accurate sentiment detection, influencer analysis and (crucially) an easy-to-use interface. For marketing agencies and brands it’s a confusing market – but the potential benefits are terrific. With real-time customer feedback, you can hone campaigns on the fly. It’s a marketing dream.

Well, there are 5 suggestions… but perhaps these are rather general and obvious trends? I’d be interested to hear your feedback, especially any specific changes you see on the near horizon. The next Twitter? A privacy backlash for Facebook? The arrival of the long-promised mobile social media revolution? You tell me.

Given it a catchy 2.0-social-media-140 title, line up the same old speakers, offer a bunch of over-priced tickets and, hey presto, you’ve got a hit on your hands!

With this concept firmly shelved, we decided that Social Media Marketing 2010 (taking place in London on 17th June) should say clearly what it’s about in the title, only involve genuinely innovative speakers – even if some aren’t that well known – that we’d stick to a specific theme (Harnessing the Viral Power of Social Networks) and that we’d vet the presenters and presentations so tightly they’d squeak. The result, I’m pleased to say, is shaping up quite well.

We’ve got several bags of innovation, including a hot-off-the-streets case study using Foursquare, insights from the world’s most successful viral marketing agency,  a guide to writing effective Tweets and a session on “how to use social networking theory to improve your marketing” which, I’m told, includes complex mathematics.  #SMMUK10 will also be the first UK event to feature both  Brian Solis and Chris Brogan - two of the most influential figures in online marketing globally – who will be contributing their insights via video. We’ve also got Richard Sedley (cScape), Philip Sheldrake (Influence Crowd), Mat Morrison (former Global Digital Planning Director at Porter Novelli), Murray Newlands and yours truly, among other speakers.

This isn’t going to be just another social media conference. If you aren’t 100% delighted by it, I’ll eat my hat.

For tickets and more info visit: www.socialmediamarketing.co.uk

The criticism of search is pretty valid. Facebook has just surpassed Google in traffic rankings in the US – possibly evidence that, even though Google has revolutionised how we find information, it cannot hope to be as accurate as a recommendation from a friend or peer. Even Google’s personalised search can’t help you find a book you’ll enjoy. For that you need like-minded others. If you’ve signed up to “follow” a book reader who’s views you respect, getting a message to tell you what book they’ve just bought might meet this need.

But socially driven recommendations have their limits. What percentage of your Google searches fall outside your normal buying patterns or interests? We all buy presents, look up random facts, figures, places and people. I would suggest that at least half of my online activity is not predictable or connected to my typical interests. Were this information to be included as “recommendations” to my friends, it’s likely to confuse rather than help.

Geo-location, it is suggested, will provide yet more options for location-based recommendations. While this is probably true, having worked on mobile social networks – for which having an effective location dimension is the Holy Grail – I’m very aware that geo-location has consistently failed to live up to it’s promise. Let’s see if Foursquare and it’s competitors can prove me wrong.