Have you ever heard about Social Media Week?

Social Media Week is a week long conference that provides the ideas, trends, insights and inspiration to help people and businesses understand how to achieve more in a hyper-connected world. The event features a central stage for keynotes and panels, multiple rooms for workshops, masterclasses and presentations, and an area dedicated to co-working, networking and interactive installations.

Social Media Week provides engaging, entertaining, educational, diverse content and experiences that helps us to think differently about human connectivity and our shifting relationship to technology. By showcasing provocative speakers, innovators and thought leaders, we examine how the ways we live, work and create can lead to meaningful change and a more productive life.           

September 22nd 2014 sees another Social Media Week kick off around the world both on and offline. With events taking place in 12 major cities worldwide the week brings together some of the most innovative and brightest minds in digital marketing.The London event, a yearly get together of brands and agencies discussing how to best “do social”, came to an end last Friday.       
Here are a few lessons we can learn from this year’s sessions.
- The ever increasing popularity of video: 
VP of Community and Customer Experience at HootSuite, Jeanette Gibson, predicted earlier this year, ‘because short, shared, online video is so popular amongst younger generations, many brands are also embracing it as a powerful marketing tool’. Most millennials grew up with online video and they have certainly started a major trend in video sharing on social media. The growth of Vine and the recent introduction of Instagram’s Hyperlapse show just how important video is to major communication platforms. 

- Never neglect your community: 

Chicco says: “The SMW event happens once per year, per city but you need to keep your community active and interested in what you’re doing throughout the year. Otherwise, it’s very difficult, in a very short period of time, to remind people why you are relevant and move them to action.”SMW London achieves this through a range of digital and social media competitions and activity throughout the year. For example, the #SMWCreative contest sponsored by Microsoft encouraged the community to create an original short video using Nokia Lumia 930 smartphones. In itself, this is a great example of content marketing.

                                     

- Shareable Content:

Reaching people on a personal level is the key to success in social media, according to Andy Wiedland, Buzzfeed’s chief revenue officer. In a session titled Creating Content for How It’s Consumed, Wiedland emphasized the importance of generating content that users want to share. Instead of focusing on content that will reach the masses, he recommends going local with content. One of Buzzfeed’s most popular posts at the moment centered on issues specific to short girls. This small group is more likely to relate to the post so much that they’ll share it with others, Wiedland said.

-The impact of Gen Z: 

Is the email dead? Daily social media habits are changing and considering Facebook is the new email for ‘screenagers’  the big question is just how much longer the good old email will be in use for. Granted, it’s a vital cog of most businesses but even now some businesses have turned to services like Huddle to engage and communicate. The huge growth in Gen Z, or #GenMobile, means the way we communicate in tomorrow’s society will look quite a bit different.

Social Media Week itself aims to capture, curate and share the most meaningful ideas, best practices and trends with regards to social media. However I also see Social Media Week as the perfect example of how digital has connected us. Whether it’s as customers, brands, partners or stakeholders, Social Media Week 2014 has connected, enhanced and encouraged collaboration in this increasingly globalised society.