#smc_mcr Five take-outs from last night’s Social Media Cafe

The latest Social Media Cafe turned out to be a feast of digital know-how. Splitting the event into an unconference style happening resulted in sessions with five top speakers. There was a lot learned and an awful lot shared.
I treated it as a bit of a smorgasbord and grazed around all the sessions. These are my personal picks but I shall also do a blog round-up of other’s posts just as soon as the bleary eyes have cleared and everyone else has posted. (Please feel free to drop me a link either via the comments or through the contacts page of this blog).
1. Consider ad positions on blogs carefully. A known successful formula is to think of the “hot spots” on the page where people’s yes dwell as being an “F” shape. (from Craig McGinty’s talk).
2. It’s not all fun and games. Tim Difford’s session considered how social media poses a lot of challenges for organisations. Could employees’ social media commitments turn into the new “coat left on the chair” as workers feel pressured to participate?
3. Geo-location technologies are developing at a rapid pace – in fact Julian Tait’s talk on the topic was so fast-moving one participant reported that it blew their mind!
4. One of Sam Easterby-Smith’s mash ups to create this gigometer service has led to a drug company employee developing one which tracks the cheapest available source of pharmaceuticals. A considerable achievement of collaboration from blogger to business!
5. Here in Manchester we do it differently and, of course, better. While London and Birmingham social media cafe’s take place in office hours over cups of tea, our event rocks!

Finally, I captured some rough and ready Qiks from every one of the sessions. Check out the clips here to get a flavour but remember – if you want the full experience, you need to join us in the real. Details at the official wiki.