I am presenting at a Social Media workshop in Bracknell, Friday 18th February at the Blue Mountain Golf and Conference Centre. It is organised by Variety Events.

Click here for a link to the details and booking form.

The agenda looks good (and not because I am on it) as it covers most of the key Social Media topics that everyone would want to learn about.

It covers:

• YouTube
• Blogging
• Podcasting (yep – that’s Focus)
• The App Economy
• SEO
• Community Building

In the afternoon there are three seperate streams – Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

I am not sure which stream I will go to. Even though I have been using all these tools for a few years I always pick up some neat ideas.

The only topic missing is ‘Social Media Measurement Tools’. This is an area growing in importance as it not only can help identify and quantify Return On Investment but also provide valuable market and business intelligence and help manage an organisations online brand reputation. There are many free tools as well as paid for ones in the market place today.  With ever greater numbers of people being online and using social media to talk about brands and share their thoughts and feelings on sites such as TripAdvisor and other Forums it is critical companies use tools to monitor the publics sentiment and comments about them.

In the podcasting session I will be talking how the internet allows all SME’s and micro-businesses to compete on a level footing with the global brands as the internet provides a free media delivery service. I will be talking about how well prepared, presented and delivered audio and video content can help build an online audience at a fraction of the cost and effort of traditional TV or radio ads. Even better many companies have shown how they can use podcasts to develop and support subscribers and online communities. In the session I will be looking at some case studies that show what is possible and sharing our experiences of producing podcasts for a variety of clients.