The advent of social media has changed the music industry for good. With fans able to source and share music using Spotify, Facebook and YouTube, it’s never been more important for record labels to become digitally aware. But what challenges does this bring for the music industry? The Drum caught up with Aaron Bogucki, senior digital campaign manager at Polydor Ltd, to find out how the company is responding to digital challenges – from its relationship with Spotify to the gamification of the music fan experience.

From illegal file-sharing to the by-passing of A&R men and record companies, to downloads outstripping CD sales; it seemed for a while that technology was striking fear into the music business. Has the industry got its head round modern developments in music consumption?
We were the first media industry to be truly disrupted by digital distribution; something that the film and publishing industry is now experiencing in a big way. The music industry stumbled at the first hurdle around Napster, but it’s forced us to become early adopters, always finding new means of connecting our artists with their fans. iTunes and MySpace in the mid-2000s were assets that no other media industry really utilised to market and retail their products as effectively as the music industry has. (more…)

By Nico Jacquart, Director, Digital Blighty

No matter what your business, you can use guest blogging to build brand awareness and grow your customer base. Guest blogging provides a way for you to reach readers through an established platform. A guest blog post is one made by someone other than the blog’s primary owner or writer; guest blogs are used by other bloggers or professionals in the field to provide in-depth information to the blog readers. (more…)

The Social Media World Forum Europe 2012 is kicking off next week on 27-28^th March at the Olympia 2 in London. The event boasts a packed agenda with over 150 speakers, delivering top notch insigh and discussion on the social media trends.

We’ve created a speaker index that allows you to see, at a glance who you can expect to hear from at the year’s event and find out a bit more about them.

Leading the stellar line-up of speakers is industry thought leader Chris Brogan, Bruce Daisley, UK Sales Director of Twitter, Scorr Monty, Global Digital Manager for Ford Motor company and Global Marketing Director for LinkedIn, Joshua Graff. (more…)

A feature that is hard to miss and central to the SMWF networking hub within the expo area is the Tweet Wall, an innovation by our partners ultraknowledge.

The SMWF Tweet Wall will be back and this year we have teamed up with Text 100, an award winning public relations consultancy, to bring you the biggest one yet. The twist this year is we have introdudced a number of cool event stats to help your show experience, and find out who you’d like to engage with at the event. You can check out all the Top SMWF Tweeters stats here!

The stats have some functions you’d expect such as top tweeters at the event, most active tweeters, those with the most followers, and some more interesting areas such as ‘The Wheel’ showing you how top tweeters relate to each other.

 There is also  ‘Suggest’  a  function that giving you suggestions of who to connect with at the event. Last years there were some 10,000 + tweets , so being able to look aback over the show ‘conversation’ is an important part of connecting with the event, and the last function shows all event tweets.

To see your tweets broadcast on our big screens and be in with a chance of becoming the top tweeter at the event don’t forget to include the #SMWF hashtag in all your tweets! View the SMWF Tweet Wall live here:

You can also check out all the Top SMWF Tweeters statistics here!

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Taking place on the evening of 27th March, day one of SMWF, the official Social Soirée is set to descend on the The JuJu, Chelsea

Kicking off from 7:30pm, this is going to be the social media networking knees-up of the year; including a complimentary bar, DJ, dance floor and a top-notch crowd of movers, shakers and deal-makers from around the social media world.

The JuJu Chelsea is a multi award winning bar, having just been named “Best Bar” at the London Club and Bar Awards 2011 and previously awarded “Outstanding Mixology and Best New Bar”. Located in the heart of Chelsea on the King’s Road, they serve the finest cocktails mixed by some of London’s best bartenders.

The venue is a 8 min taxi ride from Olympia & The Hilton Olympia Hotel, a 10 min taxi ride from the K-West Hotel and 15 mins from South Kensington Tube Station. (more…)

The SMWF Connect Live networking sessions will be taking place at SMWF on both days of the event for paid delegates, speakers, sponsors & exhibitors. SMWF Connect Live will take the format of speed networking providing a structured, yet informal environment, to meet and connect with fellow SMWF folk.

There are a limited number of spaces available on both days and they are going quick!  Registration is crucial to secure a spot & will be allocated on a first come basis.

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by Margaret Donnelly, Director of Marketing, Meltwater Buzz

For all the thought leadership, case studies, and best practices guides available today, many businesses are still having a hard time applying those principles and practices to their own unique circumstances. At every social media conference I attend, I overhear the same type of comments by puzzled or frustrated marketers.

For instance, I recently overheard this comment while I was waiting in the queue for the shuttle bus: “The Dell Outlet success story is very inspiring. But I really don’t know how that success story relates to my chain of senior residential communities.”So what’s the “average” brand or business to do? How do they translate the “steps” to building a social business to their particular circumstances? Let’s take the example of the chain of senior residential communities and see how best practices principles apply.

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By Ed Hadley, Senior Marketing Manager at Neolane 

Imagine  world where the email that hit your spam filter actually came from the people and brands you know and trust, via your social networking news feed updates. We can become so bombarded with status updates, new “likes” and “shares”, and sponsored stories, it feels like it will only be a matter of time before this happens.

Would you still trust your social network? What if you missed the important updates, the real life events of your friends and family, or even the important promotions and actions of the organizations you actually wanted to see, because “Cousin Ed” took only “six weeks to get that diploma” or every other update was about the “free iPad” you could win when filling out that survey. (more…)

We are pleased to announce the launch of SMWF Connect our brand new networking service for 2012!

SMWF Connect provides the opportunity for all workshop delegates, speakers, exhibitor & sponsors to connect pre-event, share knowledge, engage in discussions & pre plan meetings with key folk they are looking to connect with during the show.

How does SMWF Connect work?

Pre-event 

• All sponsors, exhibitors (one per company), speakers and delegates will be sent an invitation with a unique username & password to create a profile within the SMWF connect system
• Once logged into the tool users can connect with each other, start conversations, share announcements and send meeting invites
• Pre arrange your onsite schedule by selecting your chosen workshops

During the event

• Access your individual show schedule which includes all confirmed meetings & selected session on the mobile platform

Benefits of SMWF connect 

• Opportunity to set up 1-1 face time with fellow industry folk
• Increased opportunities to meet prospective clients and suppliers
• A chance to share your experience and knowledge
• Engage with session speakers pre event, create thought provoking discussions & questions
• Increase your social connections

To be able to take advantage of the SMWF Connect service register for your paid workshop pass here.

If you have already registered for a workshop pass you will be receiving your invitation to join this week. If you have any problems using the tool or have any questions please contact rachel@sixdegs.com.

We look forward to connecting with you!

The SMWF Team

By Kiron Mair, UK Community Manager for Synthesio

It’s no big secret that in 2012 social media is driving most of the world’s conversations about anything and everything. But it’s only been in the last three or four years that brands have cottoned on to the idea of social networks being places where their customers are gathering and sharing their opinions about products and services.

With this realisation came a need to listen and understand what these people are saying, and then to work out how to engage with them – otherwise known as Social CRM. This is where social media monitoring tools enter the fold; applications that scour the public spaces of the web to find where the conversations about given topics are happening, what they are about, and who is having them. (more…)