Social media often gets a bad rap. It can be addictive, full of trolls or negatively distracting. But, social media is uniquely powerful because it is global, inclusive and instantaneous. Social Media Week London 2017 aims to celebrate this across every platform to Reimagine Human Connectivity, with the focus this year being on Language and the Machine. Hosted at the BFI Southbank, the talks centred around the algorithmic power that brands can wield if they harness social media in the right way.

There was a lively discussion hosted by the communications agency Village about the prevalence of emojis in the future of language, which included insights from the world’s first emoji translator. LADbible discussed recognising that its social reach brings with it a degree of social responsibility - they have 60 million followers and get around five billion video views and around 40 million unique page views every single month. And BuzzFeed discussed how their test and learn philosophy helped them to create various online networks, the food network Tasty for example, that provide the content they know people will want to watch.

While there was continuous discussion about the reach of social, there was also a greater focus on AI and bots, and the doors that they can open but also the dangers they pose. Google and Facebook focused on this development and walked us through the use of metrics, looking at the degree to which science needs to work alongside art and culture to produce the most successful and relevant outcome.

Below we've picked out a few highlights from the talks.

LADbible With social power comes social responsibility

Speaker: Arian Kalantari, Co-Founder, LADbible
Moderator: Toby Daniels, Founder & Executive Director, Social Media Week

• LADbible, as a social-first publisher, has fashioned a two-way dialogue with its audience, allowing them to create content that satisfies the masses.
• The barrier to entry for making a difference is much lower now. But LADbible is the gateway to a conversation. The platform provides an entry point and facilitates a discussion, whether that’s around mental health (with their campaign U OK M8?), politics or the environment (with their latest project Trash Isles).
• The RNLI approached them about working together to reduce the number of deaths by drowning of men between the ages of 18 and 30, LADbible’s primary audience demographic. LADbible created three short documentaries designed to raise awareness of the dangers and to teach people to respect the water.

Pinterest How to use visual discovery to inspire consumers to act

Speaker: Eric Edge, Head of Global Marketing, Communications & Industry Relations, Pinterest

• Discovery is tricky and creates a challenge for marketers because it’s so fragmented. People now discover through friends, different platforms and the general online space. Creating personalised discovery is essential.
• Users now have an expectation that their experience on mobile should be the same as it is in real life; they don’t want to be restrained by screen size.
• Feeds allow you to have a personalised discovery moment. What is essential is that Pinterest makes time spent on the platform, time well spent.
• Good ideas should always be visually arresting, inspiring and most importantly, actionable.

Hootsuite Powering the human connection

Speaker: Adrian Cockle, Industry Principle EMEA, Hootsuite

• Referred to the Uncanny Valley: when things are slightly human but not quite enough, we reject them. Technology is not at the core of success, humans are.
• There are four rules to simplify your marketing strategy. Put humans first, always; humanity isn’t a trend; social belonging and community; and fall in love with customer problems, not tech.
• Customers want to talk to people not brands and, while the technology will come and go, human needs and motivations – empathy, relationships and trust – stay the same. Humans have trust issues – governments/brands/politicians – so brands need to build communities and employee advocacy, as well as listening and talking to their customer in real time.

SOCIAL MEDIA WEEK

Visit Social Media Week's website to find out more.