Bigmouthmedia is to warn online retailers that they must prepare to meet the challenge of the most competitive market conditions the sector has ever faced.

Bigmouthmedia senior retail strategist Finlay Clark will tell an invited audience of senior executives at the 2nd Annual bigmouthmedia Retail Summit this month that UK retailers are set to face fresh challenges as ecommerce consumer habits keep evolving rapidly. According to Clark, retailers face multiple opportunities and challenges posed by a shifting approach to the market, a raft of new technological developments and the entry of new players from overseas will have a major impact upon the sector in the coming months.

"With increased competition coming from various angles, retailers are about to face some of the biggest challenges in their history. Big overseas competitors are coming to the UK knowing consumers are sophisticated online shoppers, and the likes of Best Buy will be aiming to make its mark on an increasingly competitive consumer electronics market in 2010. Similarly, in fashion we have seen a shift with the likes of Ebay become clothes shopping destinations in their own right, whilst Amazon has allowed big high street brands to retail on their own platform," said Clark.

"Nowadays independent fashion designers are launching exclusive collections on Ebay - far removed from the second hand and grey market sales that they made their name on - and in many ways they’re now a direct competitor to the retailers themselves."

Clark will be joined by a panel of industry-leading online retail experts speaking on a range of themes including current consumer trends, cross channel shopping habits, the shape of UK internet advertising and the impact of social technologies upon web retailing.

Taking the podium at the Bigmouthmedia Retail Summit will be Benjamin Ensor, VP research director at Forrester Research, Google Retail Industry Leader Peter Fitzgerald and Tony Stockil, CEO of Javelin Group. Hitwise research director Robin Goad and Enders Analysis Founder Claire Enders will also join Clark on the rostrum.

In a presentation designed to identify the 10 key events set to hit Ecommerce over the course of the next two years, Clark will also highlight the challenge presented by the growth of online applications. Although a relatively new phenomenon, he predicts that retailers will be forced to place increasing focus upon keeping up with rapidly developing new marketing technologies.

"Some of the best content in the future will be delivered through applications like those found in Apple's iPhone Apps Store. Retailers are only beginning to get to grips with the value of applications at the moment, and ensuring that theirs stands out and can be found easily by consumers will be a crucial challenge over the next few years," said Clark.

"We'll also see a lot more made of mobile marketing, which is only just beginning to make an impact upon retail, and expect there to be much greater correlation with the way retailers are able to market to consumers based on location-aware technology. Operators like Debenhams are already experimenting with such systems, but we are likely to see rapid developments in the field over the next 24 months."

The bigmouthmedia Retail Summit takes place in London on March 25th and is a free event aimed at senior marketing and ecommerce executives. Places are limited, but those wishing to attend can register at http://www.bigmouthmedia.com/signup for an invitation.

Leading Surrey corporate events venue, Farnham Castle, has today announced visitor numbers to its website have grown by a third since first taking advantage of social networking sites such as Twitter, in summer 2009.

Farnham Castle, which is due to be the venue for the forthcoming, social networking festival, Twestival, on 25 March, has up until now, seen around 10% of its total web traffic come through Twitter, “but this is rapidly increasing,” explains Jeff Toms, director of marketing and client services at Farnham Castle. “We are now using Twitter to promote our intercultural and language training courses and even availability for wedding dates at the Castle, from which we have received numerous enquiries.

“Social networking is a great promotional opportunity for all sorts of organisations, because it is free and requires minimal effort,” continues Toms. “The global reach of sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Linked-in will ensure their popularity continues to grow significantly over the next few years and we would encourage other businesses to learn how social networking can help them communicate with customers and prospects. The Twestival is an opportunity for local people to find out about this exciting new medium of communication and promotion.”

The Twestival will be celebrated at the same time in cities across the world and the Farnham event is being organised by Surrey based PR agency thebluedoor and supported by sponsor iBundle. Tickets for Farnham’s Twestival range from a minimum donation of £10 up to a maximum donation of £30, with all proceeds going to the international educational charity, Concern Worldwide. Tickets are available from the Farnham Twestival website.

For more information on Farnham Castle please call 01252 721194 or visit www.farnhamcastle.com

Hallam Communications today announced that The Internet Conference will take place in Nottingham on 14 May 2010. The one day Internet marketing conference and exhibition will be held at the East Midlands Conference Centre.

The Internet Conference offers business owners and marketing professionals a packed agenda covering the latest tools and techniques for harnessing the power of Internet marketing. It will also provide delegate with a unique forum for networking with other businesses and to rub shoulders with and gain tips and strategies from expert practitioners in the web marketing industry.

The conference features a number of workshops designed for delegates at all levels, whether new to web marketing or skilled Internet marketers with years of experience. The agenda is organised to give delegates the option to attend either Essentials workshops covering the fundamentals, or the Leadership sessions covering more advanced topics.

Conference host Susan Hallam has handpicked some of the UK's leading Internet Marketing experts to deliver sessions covering Search Engine Optimisation, Social Media Marketing, Google Analytics, Ecommerce User Experience, and Internet Copywriting.

Susan Hallam, Managing Director of Hallam Communications said "I'm delighted to be hosting this new conference. Hallam has been providing Internet marketing training and consultancy services for more than 10 years, and this conference is an innovative way of sharing our knowledge and experience with businesses across the UK.

"The explosive growth of the Internet as a marketing channel is having a massive impact on businesses of all shapes and sizes. I'm looking forward to this educational and networking event as an innovative way of helping businesses to gain competitive advantage by harnessing the latest Internet marketing tools and techniques."

A bigmouthmedia survey has identified the UK Finance sector's biggest users of online social networking tools and confounded many expectations by revealing that the Finance sector has embraced the social media phenomenon more readily than those in other established industries. Some 74% of the leading executives surveyed regularly engage in the use of tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, a statistic which demonstrates the extent to which a normally conservative sector has adopted the latest working trends.

Their performance compares extremely favourably with that of leading executives in the FTSE 100. In a bigmouthmedia survey earlier this year, of the FTSE executives sampled only 25% actively engaged in social networking, compared to 85% of business leaders representing companies from the Sunday Times Fast Track 100.

"The evidence clearly shows that the Britain's financial businesses are rapidly coming to terms with the social media revolution. However, there is still over a 10% gap between the use of social media by finance execs and those in Fast Track companies," said Chris Cathcart, Senior Finance Strategist at bigmouthmedia.

"I believe it is key for finance execs with a focus on digital marketing to understand the social sphere more. A targeted and strategic social media campaign can not only help build better brand relations with customers, but can also highlight easily fixed customer based issues and create greater brand loyalty, not to mention a beneficial impact on organic search results."

While the social media has been one of 2009's most hyped phenomena, little evidence exists as to what extent businesses are deriving benefits from the plethora of available services. However, bigmouthmedia's survey indicates that leading industry players are increasingly using social networking as part of the essential business toolkit.

The research revealed that former Lloyds TSB Head of Innovation James Gardner is the finance sector executive who has most readily adopted social networking as a means to communicate with colleagues and the public. Gardner, who recently moved to the Department for Work and Pensions, uses LinkedIN, Twitter, Facebook, Plaxo and a blog to reach out to past, present and future customers.

Gardner emerged as eventual winner in front of a field that included Martin Peterlechner at Tesco Personal Finance, HBOS head of banking Mike Regnier and Stephan Daquaire of Swiftcover.com.

LinkedIn emerged as the finance executive's networking tool of choice, with 76% of those surveyed using the service.

Linus Gregoriadis, research director at internet marketing research and training company Econsultancy, said: "It's great to see financial services company executives really involved with social media. This sector has historically been quite slow to engage in new digital channels but, in recent months, there are some great examples of financial services brands who have been really dynamic.

"An example which springs to mind is First Direct, which showcases customer opinions and sentiment about its brand and has created a great multichannel campaign around this. Engagement through social media has been a way for banks to differentiate themselves, but is now fast becoming something which is essential rather than a 'nice-to-have'. You need to have a presence where your customers are, and this applies to all business sectors.

"There is no set formula around what works with social media so companies need to experiment and see what works for them. Whether the objectives are around hard financial targets or softer, brand-building goals, companies need to have metrics in place which help them to measure their success and build the business case for further investment."

On April 15, 2010, the Social Media 201 Conference will be hosted at Microsoft’s Conference Center in Redmond, Washington. Social Media 201 is designed to help organizations take their social media strategy, tactics, and implementation to the next level of customer engagement, profitability, and ROI. This one day event features powerful keynote presentations, insightful lightning talks, a collaborative round table working session, and a panel discussion from recognized experts in business strategy, customer-relationship building and monetization of social media. These industry experts include:

Eric Weaver – Account Director and Strategist at Tribal DDB Worldwide Dave Hanley – CEO & Principal at Banyan Branch Daniel Rasmus – Author of “Listening to the Future” Kristen Ruby – CEO, Ruby Media Group Dr. Udi Schlessinger – Managing Partner, U Labs Darren Williger – President & CEO, Regillo Consulting Group Bille Baty – COO & Managing Partner, Phi Concepts Jeff Dance – Founder, Fresh Consulting Joe Kennedy – Founder of Eastside Entrepreneurs and AKA “The Connector”

Social Media 201 is sponsored by the Microsoft Local Engagement Team and Comcast Business Class. Supporting organizations for Social Media 201 include Fresh Consulting, Eastside Entrepreneurs Social Network, Ruby Media Group, Banyan Branch, Regillo Consulting Group and Tribal DDB Worldwide.

 

Mike Whitmore, President of Fresh Consulting from Bellevue, Washington explains, "The concept for Social Media 201 stemmed from the Social Media 101 Conference the Eastside Entrepreneurs and Joe Kennedy hosted last September at Microsoft. The 101 Conference helped educate business owners about what social media is and why companies should participate. The new Social Media 201 Conference is designed for those businesses that have begun to delve into social media and want to take it to the next level, find a path to profitability and measure return on investment.”

Registration for the event is available at www.SocialMedia201.com with an early adopter discount available through March 15, 2010. Additional discount codes are available though the sponsoring organizations.

Twitter feeds on the event are available from Twitter.com/SM201CONF and you can follow the event tweets via the hashtag #SM201

The Microsoft Conference Center provides free wireless Internet connectivity. A complimentary lunch is provided for attendees thanks to Comcast Business Class.

For More Information Please Contact:
www.SocialMedia201.com