This week they let me out of the office and loose in good old London Town for a spot of schmoozing, networking and spying on our competitors and associates in the world of web design. Yes, that’s right boys and girls I was at Earls Court for Technology for Marketing & Advertising on 24-25th February.
I arrived bright and early on Tuesday morning and made my way straight to the Google Seminar for an introduction to Google Analytics. Luckily I arrived half an hour before the start of the talk as the large Keynote Theatre was soon full to the brim with eager marketers and web folk who were champing at the bit to get a little more insight into the excellent tool brought to us by the Internet search engine giants.
To be frank (and Frank’s a good bloke), I didn’t learn oodles, it was more of a refresher, as I’ve been swotting for my Google Adwords Professional exam for a few weeks now. But I did come away feeling more confident about using the Analytics tool and with a few Google goodies in my swag bag.
At lunch time I grabbed an opportunity to have a nose around the exhibition area where I caught up with some fellow SEO experts, copywriters and Social Media enthusiasts. I also got myself scanned Men in Black style to have my details entered into a few prize draws (your lucky I can remember this!) I tucked into my lunch, which I took it with me as I wasn’t prepared to pay venue prices, and prepared myself for afternoon dedicated to queuing, listening and intense note taking.
I attended several of the free seminar sessions held in the Online Advertising theatre, and learnt new tricks on everything from Behavioural Targeting and Online Branding to SEO and Social Media. The first day was rounded off with another keynote session from LinkedIn, Managing Director Europe, Kevin Eyres. I was getting a bit drowsy by this time (4.45pm), having spent the day intaking muschos info but I was roused by a few tips on how to best create brand engagement with professional audiences, including an invaluable list of hot tips which I will be putting to practice right away.
Keen for even more industry knowledge, I was back again bright and early on the Wednesday (well not quite so bright and early, I managed to miss the bus and then the train connection –you know how the London commute can be). It was another morning appointment with Google for me, but this time I got an Introduction to Website Optimiser, not such an engaging session as the previous day and it was obvious that a few of the natives were getting restless but again I came away with a few gems and a rather nifty How-to Guide for Online Conversions- Ben is now hoarding this on his desk and reading psalms to us from it each morning!
Next on my agenda was a rather informative taster session from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) called SEM: Profitable Paid Search in the “Credit Crunch”, where I picked up a few tips on how we can improve PPC campaigns for our customers during these troubled times. I later attended Social Media: Six of the best (excellent) and Winners and Losers in a Troubled Economy, which for a gloomy topic was surprisingly entertaining and I even bagged myself a Credit Crunchie (i’m easily pleased by chocolate, but especially in recession related talks).
The highlight of my second day at TFM&A was most definitely the live Social Media debate, hosted by Danny Meadows-Klue from the Digital Training Academy and panelled by representatives from Facebook, YouTube, the BBC and Thomson Reuters. I was fortunate to witness this as there was an overall capacity coping problem at the venue and while many delegates were turned away from the full smaller seminars, this social media sensation was streamed from the big Keynote Theatre to smaller seminar rooms so that poor souls like me could get in on the action.
It was great to hear from the guys behind the scenes on topics such as coping with an uncontrolled world of online content, what’s driving the success of Facebook and what makes for a good YouTube entry. They finished off with what they think the changes for the future will be and as well as mentioning how ad formats are going to transform in order to be able to offer more to brands, and spotify has been tipped as the new hot spot in terms of music sharing social media.
I came back to the Chichester Design Office a new woman- informed and enthused about our future in digital marketing and, in particular, social media consultancy. One thing that TFM&A has confirmed for me is that social media is here to stay and it’s the future in marketing.
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