Social Media Research Summit

09.45

Opening comments from the Chair

Richard Young, Journalist & Editor

09.55

An asymmetry of information? Social data and consumer expectations for transparency

Social media has brought consumers ever closer together and many describe it as something that they could not live without. But as social media becomes ever more integrated with other sites and services, and with the first insurance product which determines risk, and pricing, based on social data brought to market earlier this year, so consumers understand the implications of sharing this data? This presentation will bring together qualitative and quantitative data to examine consumer attitudes to potential - and current - innovations in the use of social data, and their implications for expectations around transparency and informed consent.

Cordelia Hay, Research Director, BritainThinks

10.25

Social media influence: what this really looks like across the platforms, and how brands can leverage it

‘Influence’ cannot be reduced to ‘reach’, but relies on context, relevance, and inspired trust, none of which can be measured using data alone. Using a forensic approach, Flamingo has critically analysed four major social media platforms – Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter – to understand how influence plays out differently across each of them. Through this understanding, they discuss how brands can most effectively leverage the individual strengths of each platform.

Anna Wilmot, Research Executive, Flamingo
Lucas Galan, Head of Digital Forensics, Flamingo

10.55

Morning refreshments & networking

11.15

Agelessness – how social media is bridging age divides

Social media is often described as the new bus stop or park bench: a space for teenagers to hang out with each away from their parents. However, Matilda will be proposing that because of its diversity, social media can also be important for bridging gaps between generations, bringing them closer together. Her insight is grounded in demographic trends, which show the gap between young and old decrease as Gen Z grows up faster, Millennials delay adulthood and Gen X and Boomers live in very different ways to their parents.

Matilda Andersson, Head of Insight and Innovation, Crowd DNA

11.45

Putting your money where their mouth is: from social media insight to activation

Social media is increasingly accepted as a powerful source of insight. But how much would you back it as an engine for marketing activation? Will Goodhand, Global Insight Partnership Director at Kantar, shares case studies of deploying advertising to audiences directly defined by social media insights. How is it done? Why? And what's the impact?

Will Goodhand, Global Insights Partnership Director, Kantar TNS

12.15

When fake is real & real is fake: whatever happened to authenticity in social media communications?

For teenagers, your main, "real" Instagram is where you show off the Photoshopped, highly curated version of your life - and your "Finsta" (fake Instagram) is where you get real with friends. Photo-editing is de rigeur, and everything from Snapchat filters to your Samsung phone will even out your skin, narrow your jaw, widen your eyes. Meanwhile, older Millennials are trying to #liveauthentic with perfectly-curated and posed shots of perfect landscapes, and lattes, and rough wood tables on which stand artisanal avocado toasts... and their younger siblings are just meming and ironic about everything from pop culture to mental health. Is anything real any more, and what are brands supposed to do about it?

Jess Owens, Research Director, Pulsar

12.45

Lunch & networking

14.00

Will they like it?

This presentation will take a look at how socially influenced our consumer decision making is becoming on so many levels. How our desire to impress our friends on social media is shaping our consumer choices, how we are cross influencing our friend with our opinions on social media how we are more relying on popularity heuristics to make consumer decisions. It will examine the new things researchers need measure and think about to help brands to become more socially desirable.

Jon Puleston, VP of Innovation, Lightspeed

14.30

Overheard on the Internet; culture, context and conversations

There’s no denying that the internet is an amazing place, filled with a wealth of naturally occurring consumer conversations that ought to be of interest to researchers. Ever-advancing social listening tools enable us to scrape, code and quantify this conversation and we’re rightly excited at the prospects for research. Yet as with any other big data source, it’s just information. The key to using social scraping in the research context is not one of finding the right tool, they all have their limitations, but in the application of what ethnographers call ‘thick data’. That is the culture, context and human understanding that enable us to ask the right questions and interpret and explain what we are seeing. Otherwise digital listening will remain conversations overheard and not understood.

Kelly McKnight, Head of Culture & Trends, Join the Dots

15.00

Afternoon refreshments & networking

15.30

The Divided Self

Our immersion in social media creates a data set that records and defines us with incredible accuracy. However, this definition is not a singularity and is composed of different aspects captured and expressed on different platforms. Understanding this complex composite is the key for brands and insight professionals who are hoping to make the most of the opportunities created by the emergence of the digital self.

Bob Cook, Board Director, Firefish

16.00

Debate: The client reaction

In this final session of the day, representatives from leading brands reveal the challenges they have faced in proving the value of social insight and how they have been overcome. And we hear their responses to the challenges and assertions made through the day.

Chair: Fran Cassidy, Founder, Cassidy Media Partnership and Project Lead, 
Liza Madrigal, Marketing Director UK & Global Travel Retail, Freixenet UK
Steven Gutierrez, Digital Comms Manager, TfL

16.30

Closing remarks

16.45

End of conference