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 Thank you so much for coming along to the 'The Business Value of Socal Media' event which we co-hosted with Intellect - there was a really good turnout and we even had to squeeze in a few extra chairs to accommodate everyone.
I would like to pass on our thanks to our keynote speakers Eileen Brown and Euan Semple who shared their views on social media and how it can be of value to your business, both internally and externally.
Eileen spoke about the impact of social media on individuals and business and how important is it to effectively manage your online presence. Brand is no longer solely in the hands of the business owner as user generated content such as blogging in not controllable. She discussed how the growth of 'micro-blogging' sites such as Twitter have made news and bad customer experience (e.g. the problems with Eurostar in December 2009) instantly available to everyone and by January 2010 she noted that tweets were reaching 50 million per day! If you would like to read Eileen's white paper on connecting your customers with social media please click here.
Euan looked at the fundamental change that is taking place in how we work and how we do business. Examining tools like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter he explained how the way we communicate with each other and our customers is changing as well as how we organise ourselves internally within a business. Euan discussed what these changes mean for business and how they represent exciting opportunities to ensure that business is never the same again.
The Q&A covered a multitude of social-media related queries from "how can I get more people to follow our news on Twitter? - be interesting!" to "how can an organisation incorporate social media content into an enterprise content management strategy" and "how realistic is social media in the world of investment banking with regards to legal auditing and confidentiality". It was a fascinating discussion and we hope the audience came away with some useful advice on further implementing social media into their business.
If you are on Twitter and are interested in following
@euan
@eileenb
@intellectuk
@womenintech
@womenintechjobs (if you're a job seeker)
We would also like to thank Claire Bradbury and Carrie Hartnell from Intellect for their help and input in bringing last night's event together. Intellect's mission is to use their expertise and knowledge to provide the highest quality of service and intelligence to their members in the technology industry, helping them to make the right business decisions to deliver commercial solutions and achieve growth and profitability. For more info, get in touch at communications@intellectuk.org or on 020 7331 2000. For more information please go to www.intellectuk.org.
Final thanks go to everyone who attended and who continue to support womenintechnology.co.uk. We would very much like to hear your feedback from last night so we would really appreciate it if you could take the time to fill in our short feedback survey so we can improve on future events and use your suggestions to put together some fantastic events for 2010. Profiles of the speakers
Eileen Brown, CEO of Amastra - amastra.co.uk
Amastra is a company which helps you achieve your aspirations using offline and online social methods. Eileen is an accomplished and well-known international speaker and expert on social media, online branding, unified communications and systems architecture, looking at how Web 2.0 technology is changing the world we live in and seeing ways to simplify work and make you more productive. Eileen is a member of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT and sits on their Strategic Panel for Women in IT and she is also the Chair of Intellect's Women in Technology group.
Euan Semple, Social Media Consultant - euansemple.com
Whilst at the BBC, Euan pioneered the use of weblogs, wikis and online forums to enable staff to work more collaboratively across the organisation. Euan also worked on the BBC’s award winning leadership programme, gaining experience in how to engage and inspire people with the possibilities of social computing as a business tool. He is now independent advisor on social computing for business and a well known writer, thinker and public speaker. His unique experience enables him to provide inspiration on this wired-up world of work and strategies for how business can prepare themselves for the challenges and opportunities presented by new technologies. |
