LikeMind's Social Media Conference - Exeter

A week ago I attended the LikeMinds Social Media conference in Exeter. Not knowing what to expect and not knowing anyone there I went with an open mind.

I picked up on the conference on Twitter. For the last few months I’ve followed the twitter of comments online about social media, marketing and pr. I read the blogs of various Exeter and Devon based opinion leaders and slowly became more and more curious about this new form of communication. I say communication at this point and not conversation because I was not really contributing to the proceedings. I instinctively didn’t want to add more noise to the world until I had a purpose and something to say. So I watched the debate develop. When the opportunity to turn my voyeurism into reality with the LikeMinds’s conference I took it and this is what I found;

Firstly, I was impressed with the number and diversity of the crowd that gathered outside The Exeter Conference Centre. I was then shocked to find one or two people I knew inside. After catching up and a cup of coffee I was genuinely excited to hear the speakers – there was a real buzz in the air. I had no idea what to expect and I certainly had paid no attention to the conference title about Return on Investment (more on that later). As the speakers did their stuff on stage and the audience were entertained by the Twitterfall back of stage I was filled with a strange mix of feelings. It was exciting to feel part of something new and cutting edge, yet also the debate about social groups, conversations, building communities felt old – as old as humanity itself – the need for us to be social. It all seemed so common sense (in a good way) that businesses and organisations need to have a two-way conversation with their publics and here was an efficient and cheap set of tools and technologies to facilitate that.

I particularly enjoyed Trey’s and Oliver’s talks – those American accents I think gave the conference a real international – global feel. But all the speakers spoke with real personal insight on Social Media.

The questions asked by the audience brought a focus to the conference from the more general ideological presentations to ‘what is Social Media worth’ and ‘what’s the ROI’. The debate that raged on Twitter after the conference over the following days also bore down on this point. As I’ve already said I didn’t go with an eye to discovering this but more to learn more about, what is to me a new medium. It occurs to me that – like many have blogged about – Social Media is new and unproven, but so was the World Wide Web in the nineties and that to ask for specific proof that Social Media has a profitable ROI is premature. History is still in the making. Maybe it is all a fad, maybe its a fundamental shift in the way we do business and if you don’t get onboard you’ll be left behind – maybe you just have to make a choice on what you believe and deal with the consequences.

I also think that – again as many have said – that the real ROI is not about the numbers its more fuzzy than that. As LikeMind’s organiser, Scott, says – look around you for my ROI, meaning here are hundreds of people engaging in conversation, brought together as a community purely using Social Media tools. And that’s me, because I am a return on the investment of the organisers. Why? Because;

1. I am engaging in the process – by writing this blog and Tweeting about it.
2. I am discovering a voice and seeking a purpose that will develop my brand and start a ROI of my own.
3. I will be part of the conversation and be part of a virtual and real world community, I will make contacts and hopefully friends.
4. I can bring my skills, my talents to a wider audience – that helps me and those around me.

The actual ROI that I bring? Who knows yet but maybe you are reading this and I can bring something that you need to a project, solve a problem or generally be an asset to your business or organisation that you would not of had with out the LikeMinds’s connection.

Social Media, bring it on! Lets have a conversation, lets work together, lets share information and lets connect – I need the work! The company and the stimulation of working with other like-minded people.

Thank-you for reading and – Hello my name is Rob Glover, nice to meet you.

@robglover_uk