At the Unicom conference 'Web 2 and Beyond', Joyce Lewis of the University of Southampton talked about their findings that video content is a powerful way to engage with an audience through emotional depth and colour. The ECS (School of Electronics and Computer Science) are now producing video podcasts for internal and external communication.

The day before Joyce spoke Nielsen released its latest findings on the state of social media in the UK.

They found that YouTube had now displaced Wikipedia as the top social media site visited.

Other highlights:

• 63% of all UK people online visited at least one social media site in 2007
• Friends Reunited dropped out of the Top 10
• Half of the Top 10 Fastest Growing sites are video based

To quote Alex Burmaster, Internet Analyst, Nielsen Online in their press release:

I spoke yesterday at the Unicom Social Media conference called 'Web 2.0 and Beyond: Applying Social and Collaborative Tools to Business'.

Due to a prior business commitment I was unable to attend Day 1 on Wednesday. The good news is that all the presentations have been audio taped and are already available from a website. In fact they were uploaded with 15 minutes of each presenter ending their speach.

At the last count at 5pm on Friday 178 people had visited the pages and 20% had played an audio file.

Last years conference was also audio recorded for podcasting. Over 2k people listened to the podcasts. All through word-of-mouth marketing.

(Disclosure: I work for Focus who produce the podcasts for Unicom)

I spoke yesterday at the Unicom Social Media conference called 'Web 2.0 and Beyond: Applying Social and Collaborative Tools to Business'.

Due to a prior business commitment I was unable to attend Day 1 on Wednesday. The good news is that all the presentations have been audio taped and are already available from a website. In fact they were uploaded with 15 minutes of each presenter ending their speach.

At the last count at 5pm on Friday 178 people had visited the pages and 20% had played an audio file.

Last years conference was also audio recorded foe podcasting. Over 2k people listened to the podcasts. All through word-of-mouth marketing.

(Disclosure: I work for Focus who produce the podcasts for Unicom)

I spoke yesterday at the Unicom Social Media conference called 'Web 2.0 and Beyond: Applying Social and Collaborative Tools to Business'.

Due to a prior business commitment I was unable to attend Day 1 on Wednesday. The good news is that all the presentations have been audio taped and are already available from a website. In fact they were uploaded with 15 minutes of each presenter ending their speach.

At the last count at 5pm on Friday 178 people had visited the pages and 20% had played an audio file.

Last years conference was also audio recorded foe podcasting. Over 2k people listened to the podcasts. All through word-of-mouth marketing.

(Disclosure: I work for Focus who produce the podcasts for Unicom)

The Unicom conference on 'Web 2.0 and Beyond: Applying Social and Collaberative Tools to Business' is happening next week in London on 5th and 6th March.

Over 2 days a number of speakers will talk about their experiences of using social media. I will be presenting a case study on Poundland (a UK retailer with 164 stores) on behalf of their PR agency, BOTTLE, and the ongoing project using blogs, social networking and Forums to help retail sales volumes.

The speakers are:

• Lee Bryant - Headshift
• John Davis - BT
• Will Wynne - Arena Flowers
• Ed Michell - iShed
• Claire Reddington - iShed
• Crispin O'Brien - KPMG
• Ian Hughes - IBM
• Joyce Lewis - Southampton University
• Tom Ilube - Garlik
• Ian McNairn - IBM

The conference is chaired by Dave Gurteen of Gurteen and Associates.

All the speakers have given interviews on what their presentations on Web 2.0 and/or social media will cover.

All presentations at the conferences will be recorded and made available shortly after it ends.

To listen to last years conference visit this page

Focus Business Communications have recorded all the pre-interviews and will also record all the conference presentations as they did last year.

(Disclosure: I work for BOTTLE PR and Focus)

Unicom are holding a conference in London on March 5th and 6th. It is called 'Web 2.0 and Beyond: Applying Social and Collaborative Tools to Business Problems.' They have a great line up of speakers. 

Focus Business Communications are again recording all the presenters for later podcasting. They have also interviewed a number of the speakers before the event and asked them what they would be presenting.

(Disclosure: I am speaking at the conference. I will be presenting a case study of a B2C blog/social networking communication campaign for UK High Street retailer. I have a financial interest in FBC)