If you’ve been paying attention over the past few months, there has been a lot of conversation about the monetization of social networks and a discussion about lack of revenue. I figured that this would provide a great opportunity to put together a conference strictly on this topic. We will seek answers to important questions that media buyers and social technology executives face on a daily basis.

We will also work to help define how these parties can work together to develop more mutually beneficial relationships which will help drive the industry forward. We have already begun planning and have lined up some excellent speakers which we will begin announcing in the next week or so. The event is currently planned for September 15th in New York City.

We picked New York City since it is the center of global advertising and following discussions with some of our sponsors we determined that this would be the best place. This event is invite only so if you are looking to attend but have not received an invite, please let us know of your interest by filling out the invite request form.

Also, to keep up to date on what is taking place related to the summit visit the Social Ad Summit website. Over the coming weeks we will begin making some exciting announcements about speakers and sponsors. If there is a speaker that you’d like to see please send an email to socialadsummit@gmail.com.

Peter Corbett of iStrategyLabs was live on the scene at last week’s event with Robert Scoble and Gary Vaynerchuk. He was doing interviews with a number of attendees to get their take on the event as well as technology’s role in politics. Over the weekend he posted a video on his blog and I’ve included it below. Big thanks to Peter for helping out!

Last night’s D.C. bash with Gary Vaynerchuk and Robert Scoble went off successfully. Unfortunately I was not able to stay through the entire event because I had another event to attend as well. By the time I left though, the venue was packed and people were busy networking. iStrategyLabs was doing interviews and just about everybody involved in D.C. technology and new media was at the event.

I put together the following compilation of the event and have also posted the photos on the Social Times Facebook Page. I will be tagging photos and Frank Gruber will be uploading and tagging photos on Flickr. Thank you to everyone that made it out last night and thank you to the event sponsors for making it possible to capture the moment and provide the free wine.

We will be hosting more events in the near future so stay tuned and we’ll be sure to update you on the happenings in D.C.

The D.C. bash with Robert Scoble and Gary Vaynerchuk that I mentioned last week filled up in under 24 hours. There are now 500 people registered for the event so it’s sure to be a blast. If you were not able to get in, don’t worry, we plan on putting together more events in the near future. There are a couple spots that have opened up over the past few hours so if you really want to go, go check out the registration page periodically.

Gary Vaynerchuk has sent over wine and the team at MCCXXII has been working overtime to make sure this event goes off without a hitch. Unfortunately I’ll only be able to make it for the first hour or so but the event will be from 6:00 - 9:30 PM. If you can’t make it please be sure to let us know so we can give your spot to others.

Thanks to all of the event sponsors for making it possible to make this event free. Here are all the event sponsors:

Event Sponsors

Photography Sponsor

Corking Sponsor

Videography Provided By

This morning I walked in to the OMMA Social conference at the beginning of a panel on monetization. The panel included Jim Nail of TNS Media Intelligence, Steve Jang of imeem, Seth Goldstein of SocialMedia, Brian Wieser of MAGNA Global and Jeremy Helfand of Classmates.com. There was a healthy debate over how and if it is possible to monetize social media effectively.

In discussing whether or not there is substantial money in social media, Seth Goldstein brought up a rumor of a large computer company recently spending a $10 million insertion fee to get into this space. So yes, there is money but Seth also emphasized that social media advertising is currently experimental.

In response to a question about whether or not social media monetization is sustainable, Jeremy Helfand says that this was the same discussion that took place years ago for interactive as a whole. Fortunately, we no longer need to prove the medium itself (internet advertising), but need to spend time educating the companies on social media.

Seth Goldstein focused on the early stages of interactive advertising. He said that car companies helped drive the initial online advertising industry and the entertainment industry has been doing the same in social media. Seth used a recent campaign for the Incredible Hulk movie investing heavily in social media. For now, the entertainment and media companies will provide the initial liquidity.

Brian Wieser, SVP of MAGNA Global was the naysayer on the panel. He believes that this isn’t a massive business because it doesn’t cost much to run campaigns currently. To contrast that, Steve Jang pointed to another example of a large brand investing in social media. While he couldn’t name the brand he had the opportunity to discuss advertising expenditures with that brand on the flight to NYC this morning.

One other interesting topic was brought up by an audience member who asked: how do brands protect themselves when social media is mostly made up of unfiltered user generated content for the most part? I was actually surprised to hear the responses. Steve Jang said that imeem actually filters out content manually to ensure that ads aren’t displayed next to offensive content.

While I don’t agree that this is an effective model for protecting brands I do agree with Steve when he reframed the discussion. He suggested that it is better to instead focus on advertising which is effective in a dynamic environment that has user generated content. He also emphasized that it is important that the company is able to segment the content effectively.

One of the last questions asked to the panel was how can advertisers maintain their lifestyle when when CPMs are in the toilet. Seth Goldstein responded that the industry average CPMs should hopefully bounce off of penny CPMs and hopefully move up toward $1 and $2 CPMs over the next couple years. Jeremey Helfand thinks that the industry first needs to figure out what is being measured before the CPMs are increased.

Overall the discussion was a lively one with a lot of discussion about where this is going. The overall consensus appeared to be that social media advertising is still in the early and experimental stages. While Brian Wieser doesn’t think that this will turn into a large industry, the majority of the other panelists seemed to disagree.

I’ll be spending the day in New York today to attend the OMMA Social Conference. The event has a great list of speakers and I’m guessing there will be some great attendees as well. I’ll be live blogging some of the sessions. There will be discussions about the state of social media, how to use social media as a tool and how to monetize social media effectively.

The event is only a one day event and as such I’ll be heading back to D.C. this evening. Hopefully I get some good content since I decided to wake up at 4 A.M. to head up to the city this morning! If you are at the event please come say hello. While not as big as the recent Graphing Social Patterns East event, this looks pretty great.

One of the more interesting presentations comes from Peter Hobolt Jensen who is the Vice President of online communications at Lego. He will be discussing how the company has leveraged social media to expand their reach and valuable lessons learned. I hope to see you here. If you can’t make it, check in to this site to learn more about what’s going on!

It’s summertime and it’s time to let lose with two of the biggest rockstars in social media: Robert Scoble and Gary Vaynerchuk. Capitol Valley Media has been working hard to put this together and with the help of Frank Gruber and the Social Times this is sure to be an amazing time.

Come network with the best of the best in D.C.’s social media and technology scene. It is guaranteed to be a hell of a party and a great way to connect with fellow D.C. professionals in the industry. Did I mention free wine?  Gary V has got the wine and you’ve got the time to come and connect with some of the most passionate people in the city. We hope to see you there!

To register for the event, head on over to http://dcsocialmedia.eventbrite.com. Tickets are going fast to be sure to get yours!

This week marks GSP East being hosted locally in Arlington, Virginia. I will be moderating a panel at the conference on user engagement in applications. The conference is sure to be a big one with speakers from Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, hi5 and Google just to name a few. I’ve been present at all the other Graphing Social Patterns events and each of them have been excellent.

I’m sure that this one will be no exception. If you aren’t able to make it to the event, I will be covering here on the blog. As usual, I will be covering any news taking place whether or not it is happening at the event. If you will be present, be sure to stop by and say hello! Social Times will also have a booth present in the expo area of the event. I will occasionally be at the booth starting tomorrow so be sure to drop by.

Want to attend the upcoming Graphing Social Patterns conference here in Washington, D.C.? The people over at O’Reilly have provided us with one free ticket. There are going to be some amazing speakers at the conference including people from Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Google, RockYou and more. I will be moderating a panel at the event about developing engaging applications.

If you’d like to attend the event, we’ve been provided a 20 percent discount code that you can use. When you register for the event, use the code gspe08nof. We are limited to this one pass so to win it, you need to answer two questions accurately via a reply to my Twitter account or post the answers via a comment on this post.

Here are the two questions:

1. What are the names of the three programs recently launched by Facebook, MySpace and Google that look to further social data portability?
2. Who was the most recent investor in Facebook?

The prize will not be transferable and the conditions of the competition were defined by Social Times Inc. You cannot sell the pass and cannot transfer ownership to anybody else. The pass will be subject to terms and conditions set forth by O’Reilly Media.

I have decided to be a media sponsor for the upcoming MashBash Tel Aviv. I had originally intended to participate in the festivities but after initial planning realized that I had a prior speaking engagement. I will be in Israel later in the week though to participate in other potential events. Either way, if you are based in Israel or will be in or around Tel Aviv on June 11, I suggest you check out the party.

Similar to the other MashBash events which have taken place previously, this will be the first international MashBash. Why Israel? It’s a hotbed for technology startups. Microsoft, AOL, Cisco and Sun each have offices, over 50 venture capital companies and over 15 incubators. While the country is known for leading in telecommunications technology, they have a fledgling web startup community.

The event will be limited to 500 people. Best of all the event will be hosted on the beach! I’m disappointed that I won’t be making this one as I will be flying in days later. Either way, if you are interested in attending, register for free via Eventbrite. It’s guaranteed to be a big event!