How to influence the influencers and other titbits…

I managed to escape the office for a day a few weeks ago and attend the Social Shorts event held by Econsultancy in partnership with Manchester Digital at Peter House in Manchester.

It was quite an inspiring day with a good cast of speakers and panellists including ex-BBC social media product manager and senior content producer, Abigail Murphy, on using analytics for better social space management (interesting to see the different software she used to monitor engagement levels and success of campaigns) and Will Francis, one of the most influential Brits on Twitter and an engaging, highly-articulate speaker who gave good insight into the world of celebtwitter with some useful tips on how to influence the big bloggers based on his own experience at the hands of Samsung and Sony.

Technology guru, Will Grant talked about ‘The Internet of Things’ and presented his philosophical view on the future referencing the iOS 5 which lets you know when you’re near a petrol station to buy more fuel. Will opined that the future lies with devices that can communicate with each other, not just people, and so we’re a mere step away from the car telling the phone that its owner needs petrol.

The speaker that resonated the most with me – although they were all equally brilliant – was media strategist, Rob McNair. He talked about advertising in relation to Facebook and the recent changes that have been made to allow for a smarter way of targeting new customers. Any conversation on how brands can stay relevant on the social web pushes my buttons and it was good to hear someone who is at the top of his game lay down the latest strategic approaches using search and social media.

Having events like this in Manchester gives credence to the fact that there is an incredibly strong digital voice in the North West. Nice to see such a good turn out.