Last week was Social Media Week, when a lot of people got together to talk about social media; some even used social media to do it. Anyway, there was a lot of words (big and small) and some nodding in agreement. We produced a guide for the week, which may be useful for any social media discussion

1. Twankers Guide to Social Media Week Feb 2010
Intro: The first week in Feb 2010 is Social Media Week. This short guide is aimed at helping individuals
who may be attending the various events in London. Please keep in mind the various seminars,
roundtables and evening events have been organised by social media agencies and gurus. They will be
talking about social media - some will be better than others.
Keeping up to date: Ensure you follow @smwldn on Twitter and also follow this hash tag #smwldn. This
will keep you up to date and you can also download the “Sched” iPhone app to your iPhone. Our advice,
filter the nonsense (there’ll be quite a bit) and get along to some of the events if you can.
During Seminars, Roundtables and Meetings: We expect that these will vary in quality and it will be
fairly evident from the outset which ones will be good and which ones won’t. Here are some tips:-
If it’s a good one:
•Stick around
•Be prepared for people to ask questions so they can hear their own voice
•At times the speaker may say something which generates a ripple of laughter and most people will be
accompanying their amusement with nodding and “knowing” looks of recogniton. Two things:
•Most of them won’t have the foggiest idea of what is funny
•If you don’t understand either, join in the laughter anyway. You’ve nothing to lose.
•As well as offering good information, the speaker is also looking to boost their own following on Twitter. If
you follow, you may not get followed back, unless they are genuinely there to help.
If it’s a bad one:
•Get up and walk out. Don’t let the amateurs get away with it, and you’ve most probably got better things
to do.
Questions to Ask: You will most probably have some of your own questions, but just in case you need a
little help, here is a list of what to ask and what not to.
Good Questions:
•Have you any real life examples of where this has worked? (Get the details)
•How did you measure the effectiveness of the engagement through social media?
•What was and is the continuing ROI?
•How did the organisation manage the change to integrate social media into their consumer
communications?
Not so good questions:
•Is Twitter good?
•I like Facebook, do you?
•How many blogs do I need?
•YouTube. That’s a bit like the telly but on the web isn’t it?
Evening Events: There are plenty of formal and informal evening events to attend, a lot of these will be
frequented by people offering subliminal sales sessions (watch out for the Rohypnol). These will also be
filled by normal people and by Twankers (people who use social media to talk about social media). You may
get cornered by one...watch out! You may even become one. Again...watch out! A good hash tag to follow is
#Geekdrinks
The key tip here is to have fun, enjoy the discussion, ideally learn something, but don’t catch chlamydia.
Feedback:
We’ll be floating around at some of the various events, although you won’t spot us. But we’d like to hear
from you. If you feel the need, and we hope you do, please add your feedback on:
Our website http://twankers.co.uk/its-social-media-week-woo-get-down-everybody/
Or become a fan of our Facebook Fan Page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Twankers/270629612598
And remember. We all know a Twanker!
http://twankers.co.uk