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

All three relied on the capabilities of NodeXL, the open tool built by the Social Media Research Foundation to map and understand networks, and which Smith described as “aspiring to be the Firefox for networks”.

Network Graph of #LSS11 on Twitter - made with NodeXL

Before Smith’s session, his SMRF colleague, Dr Bernie Hogan, a research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, also talked about the science of social networks. He started from the position that at the moment, networks seem to be more useful and interesting to scientists than the general public. We understand that there’s value in understanding networks, but we don’t know how to get at it. In this session and his lunchtime workshop, Hogan set out the basics of social network analysis. He identified three levels of information you can get from a map of a social network: individual position, clustering and the shape of the network itself. And he introduced the three canonical metrics of network analysis: degree, which is the number of connections someone has; closeness, which shows how connected someone is to people to whom lots of people are connected; and between-ness, which measures the shortest paths between individuals.

Of these metrics, he said, degree is the most obvious and the most used by companies in their search for social media influencers. But it can be misleading, because the person with the highest number of connections isn’t necessarily the one who exerts the most influence. Between-ness, he argued, is actually a better measure, because it allows you to identify where clusters overlap and connect.

Smith put it another way. “Between-ness is your bridge score,” he explained. “It’s why two connections can be more powerful than 200.” According to Smith, companies looking for influencers should be looking for bridges, because they are people who control the flow of information into new communities.

Having developed the NodeXL tool, the SMRF is encouraging people to use it to graph social networks, and to share their graphs with other users. According to Smith, the work is already paying dividends in allowing them to see the different characteristic shapes of social networks, what Smith calls the flavours. And he’s also tracked the progress of those shapes over time. The example he gave was of communities around message boards, which have a characteristic shape defined by “answer people”, people who have a lot of outgoing connections but few incoming ones, reflecting the fact that a lot of people listen to what they say for advice, but don’t then respond. Smith showed how to recognise these people in a community, and how you can see when they leave. The number one reason they leave is because of hurt feelings, the sense that they’re not appreciated, But as Smith noted, these people can save fortunes in customer service, by acting as an unofficial helpdesk or call centre. And getting them back can involve as little as sending them a branded coffee mug and an understanding message. Without that map of the network, however, all you’d know is that the volume of calls to your helpdesk had shot up, with no explanation why.

Both presentations are available on slideshare:

• LSS'11: Charting Collections Of Connections In Social Media – Dr Marc Smith
• LSS'11: Science of Social Media: Social Network Analysis On Facebook – Dr Bernie Hogan

For the 3^rd year in a row Local Social Summit (LSS) explored the cutting edges of the intersection of local and social media. This is a place where people including consumers, businesses and community collide. Where the use of smart phones and tablets has created the SoLoMo ‘Mandala’…

This year the co-founders of LSS, Dylan Fuller and Simon Baptist, expanded the summit to 2 days. The expansion was based on feedback from last years’ Summit and input from the growing global LSS community. Plus the sheer volume of great topics to cover. Additionally, they wanted to allow sufficient time for networking and space to organise the unique LSS pop-up burger & beer café with Young & Foodish… Probably the best burgers in London were served that night along with some great conversations.

The Summit keynote kick-off was again given by Internet analyst and LSS principle Greg Sterling. Titled: Local Social 2011 – The Paradigm Shift Picks-up Speed, Greg’s talk had 6 major themes:

• Hype-Local: Demand, Awareness Growing
• Mobile Momentum Continues
• Social Media, SMBs and the ‘Now What?’ Problem
• Local Data Tsunami
• Payments and Real-World Analytics
• From Clicks to Transactions

“Social Media, SMBs and the ‘Now What?’ Problem” was probably one of the most challenging themes discussed throughout day 1 and into day 2… If you’re a small business, what do you do in social media after you set up your account? This is what Greg Sterling called the “Now what?” problem in his keynote address on the first day of Local Social Summit 2011. And as he pointed out, SMBs aren’t getting a lot of help solving it.

Instead, many are sorting it out for themselves. When Eric Partaker, co-founder of UK-based burrito chain Chilango was asked in the Super Social Businesses panel whether he would outsource his social media activity, his joking response was “Where do I sign.” But he pointed out that, while he would have outsourced when the business was first starting, because he was scared and didn’t know what to say, he’s now seen how PR professionals have failed to capture the tone of voice he wanted for the business, so he does all his Twitter posts himself, spending up to four hours a week.

He also weighed in on the question of what social media is actually for, arguing that “it’s just a tool that allows you to do the fundamentals more efficiently”. This was an idea expressed earlier in the day by Dennis Yu, CEO of Blitz Local during the Search vs. Social panel. He said that social media isn’t a channel, but an overlay over all other marketing. He also argued that what most people describe as the sales funnel is really an hourglass, with the transaction at the waist. Social media, he said, can play at both ends of the hourglass. It can raise awareness of your products and services at the top, and it can do customer service at the bottom. And, as JoinHere founder Justin Sanger pointed out on day two, social media gives the customers you’re retaining the ability to help you with further acquisition. Or as Tupalo CEO Mike Borras put it, for SMBs, “customer service is the new marketing.”

This view of social media as a customer service and CRM tool also informed the discussion of Groupon and other deals-based models. A number of participants criticised these model for encouraging the “tour bus” approach, by which a group of customers turn up, get a discount and then vanish, leaving the merchant uncertain whether they’ll ever be seen again. Keynote speaker Perry Evans, CEO of Closely, summed it up; “Businesses love the underlying concept of deals – the guaranteed pre-paid transaction. But they hate the business model”. What’s happened, he said, is that the simple concept of the daily deal has been atomised, so that there are now multiple deals available at varying times across different locations, being delivered by multiple channels. The result is a move towards a yield management approach, giving merchants the opportunity to incentivise people to come in at certain times when demand would otherwise be low.

And it’s this sort of business issue that companies who want to serve SMBs need to understand and help with. As Borras admitted, one of the things his company didn’t focus on enough at the start was the customer perspective. That changed, he said, when “we realised we needed feedback from local businesses, because both consumers and local businesses are our customers.”

Greg’s full presentation is imbedded below:

The LSS team will be producing a Summit report that is due out before the end of December. Stay tuned. [Attribution: thanks to Mike Nutley for helping write this majority of this post.]

We have create a mobile guide to enhance the Local Social Summit 2011 experience.

As well as having the most up to date programme, maps and details for LSS'11, you can plan a personalised schedule for the two days.

Guidebook has an app that works with iPhones, iPads, iPod Touches and Android devices or you can get mobile web access for Blackberry and Windows Mobile.

To get the guide, choose one of the methods below:

1. Download 'Guidebook' from the Apple App Store or the Android Marketplace
2. Visit http://guidebookapp.com/getit from your phone's browser

The event is listed as LSS 2011!

Grant Muckle is Managing Director of Upcast Social – a world leading technology platform for managing ads in Facebook. Upcast Social is the sister company of I Spy Marketing where Grant was previously heading up their Natural Search, Social Media and Analytics division.

He has 10 years experience working at the leading edge of digital marketing on campaigns that include some of the biggest brands in the UK and globally. Prior to joining I Spy in 2008 Grant was Product Director at Touch Local responsible for setting up their search agency and developing their range of online advertising products aimed at businesses, from SME’s to large brands. He was previously managing director of a leading global SEO agency where he focused heavily on product development and innovation in this fast paced, changing industry.

Grant will be on the Search vs. Social panel at Local Social Summit 2011.

This year at the 3rd annual Local Social Summit we will be hosting a pop-up burger night as our main networking event on the evening of November 9th. This is going to be a very unique, fun and of course tasty dinner plus networking. We are very excited to be working with Young & Foodish (which is run by Daniel Young who will also speak on the Super Social Business Panel at LSS) to bring you a Y&F social event with real local flavour.

What’s the concept?

Well you have lots of humble or mediocre burgers in fancy venues, so Daniel has flipped this one and instead we have a humble British cafe and a gourmet burger (plus popcorn and craft beer for our event). Daniel’s innovation sounds simple enough but to make it happen takes planning, care and dedication. Tom of Honest Burgers in Brixton will be our man on the griddle this time. The cheeseubrgers will be made with a special Y&F blend of meat and a designer cheese.  Menu Summary: snacks will be old school pop-corn popping, killer cheeseburgers & chips plus craft beer from The Kernel Brewery of London.

We did an event with Y&F back in February as part of Social Media Week in London which was awesome. You can read the feedback and recap of the SMWldn event here. To get a preview of the pop-up concept watch this Y&F video:

To attend the Young & Foodish Burger Pop-up at LSS’11 you need to purchase the Altitude Ticket which is a bargain at £349 (you get 2 days at the Summit, 2x breakfest, 2x lunch, 1x Popup and 2x networking drinks). Please sign-up soon as these early bird prices will be going up on 21st of October. The Pop-up will be a great chance to network and socialise in a relaxed atmosphere while keeping local and eating great food.

The team at Local Social Summit love Mexican food. One of us (Dylan Fuller) has been saying for many years that London was lacking good Mexican food especially when it comes to fast and easy access to tacos and burritos. There is nothing better than a freshly prepared tasty taco or  burrito – this is a style that of course Mexico, Texas and California have in spades. We are now having a renaissance of Mexican joints and pop-ups across the UK capital. This is only a good trend. One of the best, if not the best, leading the fray is Chilango.

Lucky for Local Social Summit, Eric Partaker one of the co-founders of Chilango has agreed to join us for both the Super Social Business panel and our Can Social Media Be Outsourced debate. The Super Social Business session will be reports (case studies) from the field from a business owners who are using social media to really drive business, develop local+social communities and have fun.

Prior to setting up Chilango, Eric worked for Skype and in a variety of  roles both Europe and the US. Here’s what is says on the Chilango website about his journey to Mexican food:

One of our founders, Eric, grew up in Chicago, where he developed a real passion for Mexican cuisine, regularly dining out on tacos, burritos and the like. But when he came to work in London, there was nowhere he could go to satisfy his cravings. Things were looking desperate. Then Eric met Dan, our other founder, discovered he was also a Mexican food fanatic, and the pair made it their mission to bring the fresh, delicious flavours that they both love to the UK.

Eric and Dan gave up their jobs and embarked on a gastro adventure, looking for culinary inspiration. They went to Mexico City, Zihuatenejo, Ixtapa (and a few other places that we can’t spell), as well as Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco – home to three of the largest Mexican communities in the USA. Along the way they met everyone from street vendors to high-class restaurant chefs, family cooks to fellow foodies.

There is some more info about Eric and his business partner here:

• Dan Houghton and Eric Partaker knew little about the restaurant industry before they set up Chilango. But that hasn’t stopped them creating a thriving, award-winning brand

Here is a great video of Eric talking about creating passion for great Mexican food:

We are delighted to have InnerBalloons back on-board as a Silver Sponsor of Local Social Summit for the 2nd year in row. This is an innovative company that was an early spotter of the impact social media is having on local. The company is based in The Netherlands and does work across Europe.

InnerBalloons Consulting helps traditional publishing businesses innovate into vertical and local search players and help these niche sites drive greater revenues and profitability. Combining strategy with deep go-to-market experience with profitable products for small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) and excellence in roll-our-sleeves-up execution, we help our clients move from pay-for-inclusion to pay-for-performance. We leverage our background in crawling and natural language processing to deliver intelligent aggregation plays.

InnerBalloons is also the masterminds behind a new service called Goldenlistings:

InnerBalloons powers GoldenListing.nl. With powerful presence management and social media monitoring features, GoldenListing delivers a central place for reviewing and updating listings across all directories and verticals. Live in the Netherlands and rolling out across Europe.

Robin Allenson, the Co-Founder & CEO of InnerBalloons, will be joining our panel on The Changing Landscape of Local Data. Although, the title might sound a bit “techie” trust us this will not be technical, and is sure to be an interesting exploration of the many new sources of rich local data (addresses, reviews, opening times, deals , maps, photos, etc etc) and emergence of the local APIs space.

One of the panel sessions we are going to hold at Local Social Summit 2011 (LSS’11) in November that I am most looking forward to is titled “Can Social Media Be Outsourced?” The starting point of the debate will be from the perspective of the small and medium sized local business. The questions we will explore include:

• Is it effective for a local business to outsource some or all of its social media activity?
• Does it scale?
• Is it even ethical?
• What process should a local business use to decide the strategy on in-house vs. outsource?
• What criteria should they use to choose the right supplier/partner?

However, we are also sure to cover this question from the perspective of the big brand or even better the national/global businesses that have a local store or presence (think of any restaurant chain, for example).

An easy answer to this questions is “YES” social media can be outsourced. There are many companies offering social media services and tools. For a larger or more geographically widespread business it is probably a necessity to outsource some part or even all of their social media activity, yet alone build up social media skills in house. The sheer volume of potential work and a growing number of social channels drives the need for engagement by all sizes of business.

A quick survey of the web for recent posts on this subject found two posts YES and two post NO:

• Why You Should Never Outsource Your Social Media
• Automate the right way
• 5 Reasons Small Business Should Outsource Their Social Media Marketing
• 6 reasons why you should never outsource social media

For this session we have several interesting panellists already lined up. These include Justin Sanger, CEO & Founder of JoinHere and Seb Provencher, Co-Founder of Needium. However, I am pretty sure they will both be in the “YES” camp. If you are in the “NO” camp and want to be the detractor who says “no you cannot outsource your social media” – then please get in touch.

Note: Here is the Agenda for the 3^rd Annual Local Social Summit. If you are working at the intersection of Local and Social Media then you will not want to miss LSS’11.