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Some thoughts on Media Pro 2010

Business

At Sine Qua Non, we have a good grasp of Communications and Social Media but are always looking to bolster our own knowledge bank, so we wasted no time jumping on a train to Central London for the opening day of MediaPro 2010 at Kensington’s Olympia yesterday.

Running under the umbrella theme of ‘The Future of Integrated Communications’, the range of seminars was, as you might expect, quite broad, but there was a distinct focus on social media, a theme that cropped up frequently.

It was, by and large, an introduction or re-appraisal of what social media is, isn’t, should and most certainly should not be about, but there were a number of helpful hints from the likes of Waggener Edstrom’s Jon Silk and Matt Rhodes of Fresh Networks.

Matt’s ‘How to Implement a Social Media Strategy’ seminar came with the opening caveat that ‘social media is not rocket science’, a seemingly throwaway and almost blasé rule of thumb but one which has at its roots the essence of social media success.

Delivering his seminar with a takeout coffee in one hand and walking up and down the stage like Social’s equivalent of Michael McIntyre, Matt’s presentation wrapped up social media strategy succinctly and makes me wonder why so many brands struggle to grasp the concept.

Matt shed light on the importance of emerging location-based services (‘the most exciting development in marketing today’), the role that product reviews play in brand reputation management (‘83% of people switch allegiance based on personal recommendation’) and the key difference between social networking (‘It’s all about Me’) and online communities (‘It’s all about Us’).

Rocket science it may not be, but Matt’s explanation of social media gave even seasoned users a refreshing and timely reminder of the basics, following a four-point checklist:

- What are people saying about your brand online?

- What are you trying to achieve with social media?

- Experiment with social media in a sustainable way

- Ruthlessly track and measure impact

But perhaps the best quote of the half-hour presentation was Matt’s in-a-nutshell description of social media being ‘People doing Stuff with Stuff’.

Anyone want to build a rocket?

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