By Dan Baxter, Managing Director, Text 100 

Text 100 is sponsoring Social Media World Forum in London next week. We’re doing this not just because we fundamentally believe in the power of social but also because we feel we are at a crucial point in its maturity.

Social media has experienced its own coming-of-age over the last couple of years. It has moved from playing a cameo in daily business life, to being a central character receiving both commercial and critical plaudits.

To finish the movie analogy (not before time), even just 12 months ago it was easy to find those that viewed social media as the folly of the few which would soon be ‘found-out’ to be the magician’s latest trick. However, this has all changed.

Today, it is practically impossible to find any brand, irrespective of size and sector, which isn’t embracing social media and grappling with how digital thinking can make the biggest impact. When your local Indian take-away is building a substantial Facebook and Twitter following, you know the mainstream is on-board.

The conversation has largely moved on too, however we’re definitely not there yet. With maturity comes a different set of challenges. Challenges that can be harder to overcome and that need passionate, inspirational people to come together and share experiences, perspectives and vision.

Whereas debate has raged long and hard about measurement, infrastructure and ownership, the quality of both technology and thinking means these obstacles no longer feel insurmountable. The emphasis now needs to lie in helping brands identify how to gain greater impact for their business, moving communications into areas such as customer relationship management, new product development, responsive marketing and ultimately sales. It’s about behaviour change.

Social needs to move from being solely looked after by the communications team, and is now changing the face of industries such as retail, broadcasting, marketing and b2b business. Industries which are all going to be represented by expert from companies like Ford, Facebook, LinkedIn, IBM and Nokia that are all leading this change.

This is why we are proud to be attending Social Media World Forum and sponsoring the TweetWall next week in London.
For all of the value in bringing people together, attending debates, networking and learning from peers, we are in no doubt that it will be the social discussion online that will both help inform and drive the debate, as well as connect with other similar-minded folk. And is much more inclusive than limiting the discussion to that which takes place in the four very big walls in Kensington Olympia.

The quality of speakers is inspiring, and we’re looking forward to both participating in workshops and panels and sharing research in how social media is impacting how journalists work which we are really excited about.

The Tweetwall is just by the bar in the main exhibition space. We’ll be there, so swing by and have a chat. And if you can’t be there, then don’t forget to tweet (#smwf).

About the Author
Dan is managing director of Text 100 London and brings over a decade’s experience in driving corporate and technology campaigns for some of the world’s most exciting technology brands.

With a passion for storytelling, and understanding what makes audiences tick, Dan has run award-winning international and UK PR programmes for companies including IBM, Intel, AMD and Nokia, as well as a range of innovative start-ups.

Dan will be speaking on “The changing role of PR in the social media environment” at 5pm on Day 1. You can follow him on Twitter here.

Dan contributes to the Text 100 UK Blog

Text100 UK are official sponsors of the Twitterwall at SMWF Europe taking place on the 27th – 28th March at the Olympia, London. To confirm you place and hear more from Text100 please click here.