Social Media Day hits Sydney (#smday)

A throng of tweeters, facebookers and bloggers gathered in Sydney last Wednesday to celebrate the first international “Social Media Day”.

The brainchild of online social media bible Mashable, over 600 meetings were held worldwide with Sydney’s time zone making the gathering at the Ivy Ballroom one of the first.

Internationally acclaimed blogger and public speaker Euan Semple (@Euan on Twitter) was the keynote speaker.

Mr Semple was one of the first to introduce social media tools into a large organisation when he worked for the BBC ten years ago and has since worked with Nokia, the World Bank and NATO.

Mr Semple said the biggest challenge was trying to “demystify” social media.

“What we’re talking about is globally distributed near-instant person-to-person conversations,” he said.

“[It’s] nothing geeky, nothing about business, [it’s] just about people being able to connect.”

Giving an example of the power of social media, Mr Semple described how his presence as speaker had come about from a Twitter conversation with Sydney event organiser Laurel Papworth.

Ms Papworth (@SilkCharm), who was last year heralded by Marketing Magazine as the “Head of Industry” for social media in Australia, said the event represented the birth of a new industry.

“From shaky legs a few years ago [social media] is clearly making its mark on the world in a way that very few people foresaw,” she said.

“We’re heading towards the top of a curve at the moment where in about 10 years … it will be so much a part of our life.”

She said the purpose of the event was to bring people together.

“With social networking online there’s an interest in meeting offline,” she said.

“There was a study done a few years ago by the World Internet Project … they showed that 20.3 per cent of people who meet online want to meet offline.

“So I’m looking forward to it because it means there’ll be a bunch of people that I only know from their Twitter handles and their Facebook avatars and now there’s a chance for me to meet them in person.”

In the spirit of social media’s participatory nature, anyone in attendance was welcome to brave the podium and address the gathering following the keynote speech.

Participants shared their ideas and experiences in social media, while those in the crowd who were more microphone shy-mingled and shared their Twitter addresses.

#smday