Internet World 2007

As Score’s newest team member, I was asked to go down to Earls Court this week and take a look around at Internet World 2007, the UK’s biggest Internet exhibition with speakers and presentations from many of the industry’s main players.

Below is a summary of the top 3 sessions I attended covering social media, online marketing and web 2.0:

1 – Understanding The Long Tail
David Soskin, CEO Cheap Flights

The Long Tail is a concept coined by Chris Anderson in his book of the same name, in which he describes the effects of the long tail on current and future business models. In short it
shows that the future of business does not lie in hits – the high-volume end of a traditional demand curve – but in what used to be regarded as misses – the endlessly long tail of that same curve. Examples of this are the effect that Amazon has had on the book industry and the way the record business has been transformed by iTunes and Rhapsody. Anderson suggests that a similar transformation is coming to just about every industry imaginable. This is a favourite read of ours here at ScoreComms and the reason that I found this particular workshop of great interest.

In this session, David Soskin used this concept to describe how the Internet has opened up a growth of new online businesses. His description of a “Long Tail” website was one that “makes everything available and helps the user find exactly what they want.”

This was an insightful look into a few services that have and will continue to enhance the way we use the internet. The question that most members of the audience wanted an answer to was how these services would make money in the future and whether a new kind of internet hierarchy would emerge.

2 – The Social Media Phenomenon
Steven Taylor, Managing Director - Yahoo! UK

This was an interesting talk focussing on what Social Media is, how crucial it is for search and what it means for marketing. Yahoo Answers was profiled as a good example of a social media focused site and Taylor explained that Yahoo were watching very carefully to see how it evolves. In bringing search algorithms and peoples knowledge together, he suggested that the user would be in a better position to find out exactly what they are looking for. Although this turned into somewhat of a sales pitch/advertising session for Yahoo Answers, there can be no question that this tool could have a major benefit for companies that wish to focus on 1-to-1 marketing.

3 – Social Networking for grownups
Liz O’Donnell, Director, LinkedIn

Another session covering Social Networking, what they are and how they can best benefit business? The speaker explained how user interaction in Social Networking will evolve and only get bigger. Her main tips and recommendations were for the user to be careful about publishing their profile or indeed their comments as these will be archived on the web long-term. Also as a business you need to respond to press whether it is good or bad as more and more people are growing in confidence and will offer the comments on your brand. All fairly obvious stuff but worth re-itterating.