Below is an abstract of my discussion and a video:

Ash Ali, the director of video sharing site, Videojug, started by saying that he did in fact become distracted by social networks and spent time catching up with his friends when actually intending to prepare for this debate. This led him to question why he was spending so much time on the likes of Facebook, and in answering the question he led in to his main point in the debate: The key thing is human stories and how we connect with them. Furthermore, that the humanization of content is vital to social media marketeers to create a positive distraction.

Ash quoted some impressive stats which said that there are over 500 million people worldwide who have a Facebook account, including over half the population in the UK, proving that social media has a definite power, available to brands. Ash went on to say that although social networks are in their toddler years with regard to marketeer’s usage of them, they open the door to many worthwhile aspects that the marketeers can tap in to, including customer service and product development. Ash concluded that while he welcomes the distraction of social media, its future for the marketeer is in engaging with fans by providing engaging content which entertains and educates. In doing so, brands can access people they would not usually reach and in turn find real worthwhile value in social networks.

One of my lucky colleagues; Eimer from Dublin had the chance to visit and meet Matt Cutts Google Head and she asked one of my questions about universal search. Thank you Eimer for doing this. Eimer is online marketing manager at www.just-eat.ie

Dr Dave Chaffey did a keynote at the 2010 Technology for Marketing and Advertising event and covered these topics in his presentation. (I love Dave’s work, as its always cutting edge and gives me new ideas to test!)

1. The UK Digital Landscape in 2010
2. Do we REALLY understand our customers?
3. How much budget should we invest in digital?
4. What should our online mix look like?
5. What’s hot? What does everyone want to do?
6. What’s not? But should be?!
7. Key campaign ingredients
8. Summary

I could’nt make it to the event, but got hold of his presentation below, Enjoy!