The latest data from comScore has confirmed that it is Britain which is leading the way in internet use in Europe. According to their research, the average Briton spends 34.4 hours per month surfing: looking for information, engaging in social media and shopping online. The usual british ‘have a go’ spirit is completely in evidence in the cyberspace mediums! Coming second to the UK is Sweden with 31.7 hours per month, followed by Espagne at sound 30.6 hours per month. Would that be, perhaps, due the not unsubstantial number of Brits who reside in Spain - would that be helping the Spanish figures, one wonders?

The ‘highest percentage of people online award’ goes to the Netherlands, which has 83% of its population online, whilst Germany has the most users - at a staggering 32.5 million during may alone.

With 122 million Europeans online every day, spending on average 24.1 hours online every month, the internet has to be the main part of any marketing campaign for any serious online business.

ComScore’s Bob Ivins states that the correlation between broadband “roll-out” and internet useage is incontravertable: the more widespread broadband becomes, the greater the number of internet users (and regular internet users).

I was delighted to attend the pricegrabber birthday party at the penthouse at One Leicester Square. A fabulous venue (and scene of the MTV Show, One Leicester square, we were delighted to go up to the top floor at this very cool location to join the guys of Pricegrabber.

Upon arriving on the top of the world, we were warmly greated by Pricegrabber PR Guru, Michele, and PRBite who had helped put the bash together before a great waiter with something that included blueberry and vodka came directly over to help us to unwind after a long day in the smoke!
It was fantastic to see our host, the gorgeous Ben Hadley, and catch up with him this side of the Atlantic and to meet Paul, Jeff, Warren and Sean from DMG Media, amongst others.

Guests included the lovely Annabel Carmel, recently returned from high profile interviews in the states, product owners, online stores and various publications.

Pricegrabber really looked after us with great cocktails and excellent canapes before the CEO thanked clients for their support over the previous year and looked towards the future synergism of Pricegrabber with its customers and to a future laden with mutual benefits and profit! The DJ then let the music hit the decks and the party rocked on…

Not the glitz and glamour of SMX or SES, but a truly interesting and informative day nonetheless! UK companies and government agencies (even the MOD! - Ministry of Defence) plus educational and journalistic organisations attended the forum to learn more and to assess their progress with Blogs and Social Media. Chaired by Euen Semple, the conference kicked off with an introduction to the key players for the day, including Adriana Lukas of Big Blog Company and Ben Edwards from Economist.com.

Sound advice came from all avenues, including from CMS vendors Jadu, Motor Addicts, Headshift, Sun Microsystems and Bupa, the healthcare provider. One overall message which came from a number of speakers to the companies and associations in the audience was to be brave: relinquish control and hand over your social media to your home and outside community. Gone are the days of controlled press releases being the only avenue for information leakage, your company’s networks and community groups are the way forward in developing value, both internally and externally. Internal value is created through strengthening bonds, a greater degree of trust and responsibility, valuing contributions and individuals, organic and viral information sharing and, of course, building natural communities - especially in larger organisations. The external value of Social Media is generated through customer interations with each other and with the company, through potential clients approaching in a more informal way, whether as a ‘lurker’ (someone who reads but does not participate) or as a fully fledged community member. Sun Microsystem’s Mink Dimension, aka Simon Phillips, discussed how CEO Jonathon’s blog interaction with staff, customers and regulatory bodies(!) has created a marked increase on the company’s bottom line.

In addition to the speed networking hosted enthusiastically by LLoyd Davis of Perfect Path Consulting, the open session was a great way for the audience to mingle, network and mull over social media topics of interest. Based around subjects that were of concern for individuals, attendees offered to ‘host’ these sessions. Participants then had an ‘open foot’ policy whereby they could sit and contribute to the whole discussion or could get up and walk over to adjoining conversations.

Monetising Social Media

This worked extremely well for both those with a particular motivation - whether the dark side of Social Media, Monetizing SM (note: not S & M), Real World Social Media or Moderating posts or dealing with spam - and for those who just wanted to get the aroma of the conversations, pause for a deep inhalation or just merely whaft off to join another group (to use olfactory terminology).

Looking at Moderating Blogging & SM: pre moderation, post moderation and the implications for each method plus looking at CMS systems in tandem with blogging and social media.

The Dark Side of Social Media focused on the potenital for misuse of information. It referred to the information-gathering underworld who could employ too much data to ill intent, whether personally or professionally. Discussion also included concerns about children and their activity on the various social media forums from facebook to myspace to bebo; the recent prevention of the police by Google to use fake profiles to try to catch paedophiles and the danger that this impediment could place upon our law force; Googling potential and current employees (a phenomenon only just catching on in the UK - I think we have yet to start googling potential dates, like the US regularly do!) and how a compromising picture of a government servant / traditional organisation employee appearing could result in firing of that same individual. Also covered was how social media could be used to ‘brand’ individuals but, as someone pointed out, a facade could only be held for so long before the words belied the true persona!

All in all, a very positive day with an excellent host in the form of Euen Semple, quality attendees, great information sharing and a truly superb buffet lunch (SES take notes!) from the Marriott Grosvenor Square.

Despite missing SMX in Seattle, I am greatly looking forward to the UK Blogs & Social Media Forum 2 taking place on 5th June. With some top UK based companies contributing to the panels and the case study sessions, it should be a good one.