This week we wanted to put the spotlight on the Mobile Marketing track taking place on day 2 of this year’s SMWF Europe (27th-28th March, Olympia London). According to a recent report by Berg Insight, the mobile advertising market is growing by over a third year-on-year, and is expected to be worth EUR 17.2billion by 2016.

The growth in this market is due to the surge in smart phone ownership, which has also led to a knock on popularity for location based services; creating a new frontier for consumer marketing. We caught up with Omid Ashtari, SMWF speaker and Director of Business Development for one of the trend’s leading services, Foursquare. (more…)

We’ve teamed up with Vitrue to celebrate Social Media Week next week with a Social Soiree at the Hospital Club in Covent Garden on Thursday 16th February between 5 and 9pm. Come and join us and get involved over some networking drinks with social media enthusiasts and friends.

The event is free to attend and promises to be a fun filled evening and a chance to catch up before SMWF at the end of March. We’ve got lots of entertainment planned for the evening including an iPad DJ, Facebook games and the chance to win a piece of LiveArt crafted at the event representing a pictorial view of social media.

We’d love to see you there, so register to attend here, but be quick places are limited!

Let us know you’re coming – tweet us using the hashtag #SMW_Soiree

By Lance Concannon, UK social media lead at Text 100

Speak to any senior corporate comms exec about the barriers that prevent them from using social media more in their organisation, and I guarantee that the issue of ‘risk’ will usually come close to the top of the list. This raises a couple of questions; what exactly are the risks posed by social media, and how can we negate, or at least mitigate, them?

What if people say bad things about our brand?

People often think that creating social media channels for the brand will add fuel to the fire of criticism, but that really doesn’t make any sense. Almost all brands have detractors, and social media makes it easier than ever for those detractors to share their opinions online and there’s not a lot you can do to stop that. (more…)

The SMWF team are excited to announce that the fourth annual SMWF Europe event will be taking place on 27^th and 28^th March at Olympia in London. This year’s show is your chance to experience a packed agenda of interactive workshops, combined with unique networking opportunities, a bustling exhibition space and much more…

New for 2012 we have introduced an updated show format, delivering 6 individual conference tracks, each examining the latest strategies and cutting edge technologies across specifically focussed areas of social media marketing. (more…)

We are pleased to have partnered with both the K West & The Hilton London Olympia to offer all SMWF visitors a discounted room rate for the 26th, 27th & 28th March 2012.

Only a limited number of rooms are available at each hotel, and the rate is only available until 24th February so book today to make sure you have somewhere to stay! (more…)

By Christer Holloman author of ‘The Social Media MBA’ 

For how much longer will we call ‘smartphones’ just that and not simply ‘phones’? ‘Smart phones’ will be the de facto standard in a not too distance future (it’s already the case in certain clusters), the long name will eventually be made redundant. The same will now happen to the words ‘Social Media’. (more…)

Following a landmark year for location based services, mobile marketers are looking towards 2012 as the year when location based technology will pervade many of the services available on users’ handsets.

Last year Foursquare reported that over 15 million users and 600,000 businesses had joined the platform, resulting in over a billion check-ins. Location technology is firmly on the radar for many leading brands, and makes up a key part of the agenda at SMWF Europe in London in March. (more…)

A big thank you to those that attended the Social Media World Forum in New York.

Also a special thank you to all the speakers, sponsors, exhibitors & media partners we enjoyed working with you and look forward to meeting you all again next year!

Greg Cargill kicks off the Social Media Hub with the Fundamentals of Social Media.

Panel Discussion: Examining strategies for using social media for business to business marketing

Chairman/Moderator: Joshua March, Co-Founder,  Conversocial 

 Linette Gomez, Senior Director, Internet Marketing – Social Media,CA Technologies
Jeannine D’Allegro, Marketing Director, Social & Digital Engagement Strategy, Dun & Bradstreet
Price B. Floyd, Vice President of External Engagement and Digital Strategy, BAE Systems

Keynote Panel Discussion: What is Social Reputation and why this should matter for your business

Chairman/Moderator: Joshua March, Co-Founder,  Conversocial 

 Garth Holsinger, VP of Sales and Business Development,Klout 
Ted Rubin, Social Marketing Strategist & Brand Evangelist & Chief Social Marketing Officer,Collective Bias
Paul Papadimitriou, VP + Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Jason Wellcome,  Head of Digital Group, Weber Shandwick

Networking bar

Social Media Hub chair Greg Cargill introduces Adam Singer from Lewis PR

Exhibition

For all those driving to the event next week here is a list of all the car parking facilities near the Javits Centre in New York. There is no parking at the Javits Center.  However, there are a variety of lots open nearby, ranging from 24-hour, 7-days a week, to more limited service.

Advance 249 West 43rd Street, 212.221.8902
Astor Parking Corporation 1515 Broadway at 44th Street, 212.869.3543

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