Written By: Duncan Ogle-Skan, Director at Localisation Marketing Agency EMO (you can follow then on @emolocal)

Local Social Summit is overflowing with great sessions on Social Network Analysis (SNA) this year. We are fortunate to have Dr Bernie Hogen from the Oxford Internet Institute back to lead us on not one but two sessions. Both of these will be on Day 2 – Thursday 10th of November. He can follow him on twitter @blurky.

1) 9:55 – 10:15am  Insights – Science of Social Media: Social Network Analysis On Facebook Data:

This talk gives a brief overview to thinking in networks, and how the clusters and patterns of these nets can inform our ways addressing behaviours on social media. I briefly cover some of the good news and bad news from Facebook research. On the positive side, people who engage the site feel more connected to the wider world and have a better sense of social resources. On the negative side, having all of one's friends on a single site flattens self-presentation into one-size-fits-all identities that can led to social faux pas, self-censorship and social sanctions.

2) 12:45-1:30pm: Seminar in Social Network Analysis (during the 2nd part of lunch in a dedicated Seminar breakout room!):

If we live in a networked world, then where are the networks? This talk gives a brief overview of the ways in which one can capture, visualise and analyse networks. This talk is partially a primer to the logic of social network analysis that can allow businesses to learn from and interpret the communities they value so highly. I introduce NodeXL, a package for downloading networks, and show how it can be used to chart a Facebook network, and how to read this network. I also tie this to Inmaps, a similar offering from LinkedIn. To follow along with this tutorial in the audience, I recommend you download NodeXL (https://nodexl.codeplex.com) and the Socialnetimporter (https://socialnetimporter.codeplex.com/ ). I conclude with an overview of what can and can't be downloaded from the Facebook API, especially for fan pages and groups.

We are looking forward to Perry Evans’ keynote talk at LSS’11 which will be provocative, insightful and disruptive. Perry is CEO of Closey. He is also a proven innovator in the local space and LSS regular.

The Timely Death of the Daily Deal [and the Birth of Everyday, Everywhere, Every Way Deals], A Daily Deal Insider Speaks:

The industry surrounding Daily Deals is rapidly morphing from one-deal-per-day delivered via featured email campaigns into offer exchange networks and live mobile commerce, and loyalty promotion. This talk profiles these changes, and highlights the challenges to merchants, media publishers and consumers within an industry in rapid reconstruction.

We are pleased to announce that we will have a dedicated session at the 3rd Annual Local Social Summit with the 1st European based executive at foursquare. This will be a conversation between Omid Ashtari from foursquare and Greg Sterling our ever skilled chief moderator. The session is schedule for 11.30am on Thursday 10th of November (Day 2 of the summit) – see the full schedule here. As a big fan and user of the foursquare app it will  be very interesting to get first hand insight into how 4sq plans to evolve the service for users with new features like Radar and develop the commercial side for merchants. We are looking forward to the conversation with Omid.

Speaker Profile:

Omid Ashtari is Director of Business Development for foursquare and is focused on expanding the European footprint through strategic partnerships. Before joining foursquare, Omid spent 7 years with Google in Dublin, London and San Francisco. During his Google tenure he held multiple positions in sales and business development, working with a broad range of clients and partners across the globe. Omid holds a bachelor’s degree in European Business Administration from Cologne Business School Germany and graduated with Honors. He is currently based in London, UK.

London 2012 will be the first tablet Olympics, the first connected TV Olympics and the first 3D Olympics.  The BBC is the host nation broadcaster of all the Games and have one amazing year planned for 2012.   Join us as Tim Plyming will provide us with a sneak preview of the BBC’s plans.

Tim Plyming is the Project Executive, Digital & Editor Live Sites in the BBC’s London 2012 project team.  He  leads the day to day activity of the ‘Digital Olympics’ project which is responsible for the delivery of all 2012 content across digital platforms including online, mobile and connected TV.

Another year and another Social Media Week. This year we did a cutting edge pop-up restaurant plus a seminar around a local social case study – Two Sides to Every Story. This was a collaboration with Young & Foodish and CowPR. Not to blow our own horn but this was a great event! Perhaps our best event to date.

We learned about one man brands intersecting with global brands to create “magic moments” that last beyond the initial connection. This intersection of the global with the local creates both long lasting value and powerful meaning for the people involved. A theme we will be sure to explore later this year at our 2-day 2011 Local Social Summit in November. Note: we are looking for a few good sponsors iIf interested please get touch).

STEPHANIE WOLLENBERG from RPM said it better than we could (read her complete post here with great photos):

As Daniel and Jack discussed the event in unison last night, what was interesting was the collaboration between them on such a small happening and it was nice to see corporates like Burger King taking an active interest in Social Media, and therefore Daniel’s invasion. Jack jokingly touched on his reservation to come down to Burger King that day without pre-warning Daniel. Neither of them knew much about the other, and it was like two strangers meeting with secret agendas, which thankfully for Daniel, worked out perfectly.

Stephanie’s post is also here on SMW site.

For some pre-weekend fun here is a short low quality 1 minute iPhone video from the event:




In 3 days time its Social Media Week in London. We will kick off the week with our event – Two Sides to Every Story – A Local Social Case Study - at 6.30 on Monday Feb 7th in central London. As of today there are only 4 spots left for this unique event – if you want to attend please book here TODAY!

So, what do we have lined up. First off we have an amazing menu on deck for our attendees and some solid beers on tap (well in bottles to be honest)… For nibbles we have Feta-shized popcorn by Young & Foodish. It’s popcorn sprinkled with French Basque chilli pepper powder and crumbed Feta cheese. Beers from Meantime (London Larger and London Pale to be exact in designer long neck bottles) and a special selection for The Kernel (rare but worth hunt).

For this special occasion, butcher Darragh O’Shea will not be entrusting his prized beef to a chef. The meat man behind London’s acclaimed O’Shea’s Butchers of Knightsbridge will take over the griddle himself, flipping burgers for the LSS@SMW pop-up.  Darragh will make his burgers from a freshly ground custom blend of his finest 100% Perthshire Black Angus beef and then top them with melted Ogle Shield, made by award-winning cheese maker James Montgomery and arguably the best burger cheese in the world. The prestigiously bred cheeseburgers will be accompanied by hand-cut chips.

Once we’ve finished filling our bellies with great food it will be time for the seminar. This will have 2 parts. First I will lead a panel discussion with CowPR/Burger King and Daniel from Young & Foodish to discuss the first  #BurgerMondaySwarm event that took place On Monday 15th November 2010… Then will we have Dr. Bernie Hogan presenting a Social Network Analysis of the burger swarm. This is sure to be both educational and mega interesting.

To help get you in the weekend mood, below is a sweet video from the burger swarm to watch. Technology permitting it will be on the wall via pico project on Monday night as well.

The Local Social team are very excited to be part of Social Media Week in London for the 2nd year in a row. For 2011 we have put together what we hope if both an interesting and fun event.

Here are the details for this years event:

Two Sides to Every Story – A Local Social Case Study

Learn while eating great food and meeting interesting people…

Come explore the story of what happened when one of London’s leading lights of the food scene led a group of Burgernatics in a flashmob/#BurgerMondaySwarm of the Waterloo Station Burger King. Gain exclusive knowledge on how a Global Brand listened to a Social Media Community and got involved in a successful event. This is gourmet burgers and craft beer followed by a seminar which will include the case study, social network analysis (SNA) and discussion…

LSS@SMW’11 brings you not the humble hamburger in a posh restaurant but rather a posh burger in a humble restaurant. A London food celebrity will take over the flat-top griddle at a classic British 1950s caff transformed into the Young & Foodish Diner. For more info on the venue and PopUp concept you can check it out HERE.

This is a unique opportunity to learn about how a global brand interacted with a social community at the local level in a very considered way, while executing on a stellar global social media strategy. You’ll gain insight into the new ways people are using social media to organise (and swarm) locally, build new business models and increase brand equity.

Additionally, we are very excited to have Dr. Bernie Hogan joining us again from the Oxford Internet Institute to present a social network analysis (SNA) of the #BurgerMondaySwarm event (= the science part).

Tickets are £35 per person and includes food, drinks and the seminar. Tickets are limited so get them HERE soon!

He will be sharing new findings and insights from fresh research into how young people (I thinks this is defined by those under 25?) are using social media and how many friends they really have…

Here’s a detailed outline of what you will hear on Thursday:

Decoding Digital Friends

When we decided to tackle the subject of digital friends at Decode, it was because we were frustrated with the usual myths about young peoples’ relationships with the online world. Myths such as:

• Young people all have thousands of digital friends who are as important to them as friends they see face to face regularly.
• The vast majority of young peoples’ communication is now online.
• Young people are very social online and post all sorts of things about themselves to everyone without thinking about the consequences.

The Decoding Digital Friends study revealed the real truth behind social networks and young people. It involved a quantitative stage with a 25-minute questionnaire given to 3000 respondents, followed by a qualitative stage including online diaries and online dialogues.

Robert will explore insights such as:

While social networks appear large at first glance, ‘real’ friends remain a small component of the whole.

Changes in life situation often cause changes in network dynamics as ‘distant’ friends become close friends and vice versa.

Young people are very aware that they are presenting a ‘face’ to the public. They constantly edit the information they share and are skilled at managing their profiles and avoiding context collision.

Brands must seek permission before attempting to join young peoples’ networks. A brand can make the individual a best friend, but should not expect the individual to ever view them as a best friend.

These insights will be explored with reference to case studies and findings from Decode’s syndicated study.

Finally, Robert will introduce Decode’s Buzzfluence Index ™. The index is based on both attitudinal insights and information regarding the level of online contact. It enables us to find out which young people have most influence and how these high influencers think and behave. It is a highly valuable tool for companies seeking to create or improve online strategy and gain insight into the digital worlds of young people.

What can we say, we are Über excited to have Greg Sterling from Sterling Market Intelligence and Search Engine Land back at LSS. This year he will be opeing the day with a Keynote and also running the panel: “Facebook and Local. Will Facebook do for Local what it did for Games?”

Here’s the teaser for Greg’s opening keynote:

The Local Social Paradigm Shift

The local market is on fire, thanks in part to the rise of mobile. It’s also in a state of profound transition. Google is going after local consumers and advertisers with unprecedented focus. Social sites are driving an evolution of the way consumers access and interact with local businesses. And daily deal platforms inject a potentially disruptive element into tried and true local ad models.

The local market has never been more dynamic — or chaotic — for consumers but especially advertisers. We’re in the midst of a “paradigm shift” in local. Greg Sterling will identify critical trends that are shaping the future. He’ll also tell you who he thinks will win and who will lose in Local 2.0.