June 30th was Mashable’s international social media day. Celebrated internationally with events taking place in cities across the world, the day is a chance to celebrate the rise of social media and network with other online aficionados.
The Toronto event happened at the Tattoo Rock Parlor and featured talks from Casie Stewert, Rob Kozinets and Michael O’Connor Clarke. But I wasn’t in Toronto – I was lucky enough to be spending time in Greece, and so I attended Social Media Day in Athens!
Despite nearby riots the day before, the event went ahead as planned. It was a lively, interactive session with a speaker who presented a case study for Algida Ice Cream. They used Twitter and Facebook to promote a contest and saw some excellent results. The audience weren’t shy about speaking up if they had questions or observations.
There was also time to network. Language proved to be a bit of a barrier – although I can speak Greek it’s much trickier when formal business language is being used. However, the impression I went away with is that they face the same challenges with social media as we do here, and there are clear parallels between how businesses are using social media to promote themselves. However, because of the recent financial crisis prices are much lower there than in Canada.
Attending events like Social Media Day, wherever in the world you are, is often an eye-opening experience. By engaging with people that are passionate about social media you’ll usually come away with a few nuggets of valuable information.
Happy Social Media Day everyone!
