Adweek Interactive Marketing Virtual Conference and Trade Show

I was given the opportunity to listen to three extremely important people in the internet world through a virtual conference that Adweek Media held. I listened to a lecture called "Embrace Social Networking And Extend Brand Awareness". It was a great learning experience, especially in relation to what my entire blog is about...social networking! Alan Schanzer, managing partner of MEC Interaction, Todd Wasserman, editor of BrandWeek and Barton Goldenberg, President of ISM Inc., all gave their insight on social networking, and a number of other topics surrounding it, such as its remarkabley fast growth, the future for these sites and how businesses have begun taking advantage of all that social networking has to offer.



Personally, I found one part in particular extremely interesting. I really liked listening Alan Schanzer on consumer opinions and how to utilize them. Social networking is such a great tool for collecting consumer insight on the most frequenctly discussed topics. Listening to what customers are saying not only helps marketers realize what people are talking about, but also the volume, sentiment, tonality, and reach of the discussions. This information can in turn help marketers promote their product or service more effectively, and help them understand what their consumers' wants and needs are.

I think that I found this part of the lecture so interesting because it is taking advantage of the tons and tons of great data and information that social networking sites help provide. It means that social networking is more than just a place for people to just post pictures and make friends. Businesses have finally started to realize that social networking is a tool that can be put to good use.