You can run as far as you like, but you just cannot hide from Social Media.

Call it what you will; ’socmed’, ‘invaluable tool’ or ‘waste of time’, the impact is undeniable; Social media has quite literally changed the world, and trying to ignore this revolution is futile. Futile I tell you!

The beast itself is a beautiful thing. Social media is allowing brands to engage with users, closer and quicker than ever before, it makes real life connections even stronger with a personal…but not too personal, instant new form of communication, and your average Joe can become a Twilebrity overnight if he can string together some valuable musings  in 140 characters or less.

The only backlash of the rise of social media is the side effect that comes with all new marketing/communication phenomenons; self-proclaimed ‘experts’. Those looking to get their head around the medium are hit from all sides by those looking to make a quick buck off the back of a new trend and selling their ‘expertise’ to anyone that’s buying.

If you’re about to throw yourself in the social media ring, you’ll figure out pretty quickly that the majority of people and events claiming to help you along your way will, in fact, lead you down the garden path.

Choose wisely.

Here’s my checklist to help you decide whether you should attend a social media event.

The speakers

Do a bit of research before you part with any attendance fees. Check out the listed speakers, and don’t just take the event organiser’s word for it; look up their names and credentials and explore whether their experience is relevant to what you are trying to achieve within social media.

Big names pull in attendees, but they don’t always add value to an event. Check out their LinkedIn profile, or their Twitter stream, and look at what they’ve really achieved when you strip away the shiny brand name they work for.

The sponsors

There is nothing worse than having irrelevant sponsors’ material shoved down your throat at an event. Are the sponsors relevant; or did the organisers bring on any man and his dog willing to pay the sponsorship costs?

Check up on the sponsors. Look into the companies behind the logos to help you decide whether the sponsors are going to help you; or just annoy you when you’re trying to learn.

The agenda

Check out the titles of the sessions and speaker presentations. Yep, they’ll all probably sound the same. By the looks of things, they’ll be examining, evaluating, adapting, measuring and analysing the life out of social media, its state, potential and future.

Look a little deeper; is the presentation or session going to provide you with any real value?

It’s easy for speakers to rattle off social media metrics and trends, but at the end of the day, you want real action points to take away with you, and ultimately, implement into your own use of social media. Cut through the buzzwords and be brutal. Will you really get anything out of it?

The audience

Is there are public guest list? Can you search attendees through a event hashtag on Twitter? Does the event have a Meetup page, Facebook fan or event page?

If you can get an insight into who’s already going, you can get a better idea whether you should be there or not. There’ll be quite a few of the ’social media experts’ I mentioned earlier, but ideally, you’re looking for people in a  similar situation to you; you’ll find it better for learning.

However, networking is networking – you can always find great new contacts at events like these, so be on the look out for people you want to link in with. Just a word of warning; if you’re completely new to the space, don’t waste people’s time asking questions about the basics. If you’ve got a question, Google it. Topical discussions, or even just a ‘how about this weather’ will get a better response.

So, the Social Media World Forum is coming up next month, and, in-keeping with the checklist, I thought I’d give it a once-over.

Based on the points below, I’ve decided to attend; but check it out for yourself before you sign up!

• Yes, there are big names attending, but I’m actually interested in what they have to say. For example; Kristin Wadge of Metrica is an expert in PR evalution and measurement, a subject I’m interested in, I can see from her Twitter stream that she is a seasoned speaker. That’s a good start. See the list of speakers here.
• One of the silver sponsors; yiid looks like a great concept. As someone who uses multiple social media tools, their offering looks like just the thing I’ve been waiting for. I’m looking forward to seeing what they have to offer at the event, and also, Social Media UK is the event’s main networking partner – I’ve been to one of their events before, and thought it was great. Good sign.
• I spotted a session on the second day; Social Network Advertising and Monetisation, a subject I think will be one of the biggest talking points in social media this year. I’d love to engage with the panel on this one.
• A quick Twitter search of the event name has given me an insight into who’s already going; as well as an idea of how much buzz this event is creating. I can see lots of new, interesting faces I’ve never met at social media events before, so the networking opportunities look to be well worth it! Search #SMWF.

I had an idea for T-shirt slogan, but you’re probably not going to appreciate it unless you’re sad enough to go to as many affiliate marketing industry events as I do. It would read:

“Every time you clear your cookies, an affiliate cries.”

Not too hot, right? But at least you, seasoned reader, might have understood where I was going with it. Ask my Mum what ‘clearing cookies’ means and she’ll stare at you blankly and tut-tut, wondering where you’ve picked up such yankee colloquialisms from. You used to be such a nice boy/girl.

The truth is, today’s web users (including my Mum) rely heavily on first party cookies to ensure a smooth browsing experience. Remaining logged into Gmail, heading back to Amazon to be told which comedy DVD to buy; these are tasks and actions we are used to and value as users. I could probably explain that to my mum. Given a couple of weeks…

But the value of third party cookies is less obvious.

The privacy lobby would try to tell you that these super-scary ’spy cookies’, a phrase coined by EU Commissioner Viviane Reding (see her at 13m20s of this video), are used to track your every online move, spam your cat and seduce your daughter. The reality is very different.

Online advertisers and affiliate marketers depend upon third party tracking cookies in order to be properly rewarded for the promotional actions they take on behalf on brands and retailers. These advertisers fund the free content and services that users have come to expect online, and form the unspoken contract between content producers and consumers. Without them, distribution of free content becomes impossible. Moreover, in the highly liquid market that is e-commerce, any marketing action acts as a signpost for users directing them to useful and relevant sites.

With the CPA model as used by affiliates, this becomes ever-more apparent. My actions as an affiliate would only ever be rewarded when a sale occurs, or in other words, they were found to be useful by a user. These signposts, therefore, are fundamental to the usability of the web and inherently valuable.

The EU hasn’t bothered to see this side of the story. The 96 pages of contradictory directive recently passed (and much discussed) describe legislation designed to protect user-privacy but do little to define how member states should define privacy or even how user consent could be taken. There appears to be little or no understanding of the very foundation of the internet’s functionality. But there’s no point appealing to our Brusseleir friends now: this legislation will be UK law by June 2011.

At a well attended meeting of the IAB’s Affiliate Marketing Council yesterday, the Head of Regulatory Affairs, Nick Stringer, gave an outline of what we can expect. As a country, the UK has a tendency to push through legislation like this as drafted and ‘on-the-nod’. That is to say, it’s not likely to be debated in Westminster. It may well pass into UK law sometime in the next two years as ambiguous as ever with the fight to be taken to the courts.

What can we, as an industry, do to counter these dismal prospects? Unfortunately, little at the moment. With an election looming, there is no way to guess when the next government might enact the directive. For now, all we can do is wait and turn the discussion to what technological changes we could implement to preserve our industry if it came to it . Will we end up with other cookie-less tracking? Would the browsers implement a sensible method of consent or will it be left to publishers on their individual sites?

When the time comes, and the new PM is getting comfortable in Number 10, just try and keep us from yelling at those in Westminster to explain the true value of online marketing.

If the next government clears our cookies, it won’t just be a couple of affiliates crying, it will be a whole industry.

I’m the Account Director at Skimlinks. If you want to carry on the discussion, leave a comment below, email me (mark@skimlinks.com) or find me on Twitter (@markofmac). For more information on the legislation, see the great posts at Econsultancy and Out-law.com.

The Startups Awards 2009 were held at the Marriott Hotel in Grosvenor Square, London, last Friday, and Alicia and I attended to represent Skimlinks – a finalist in two categories; Online Business of the Year, and Innovative Business of the Year.

After a fabulous three-course lunch with our fellow finalists, the awards were announced, with Wonga and Three Sixty Entertainment winning the two categories respectively, with the latter going on to win the penultimate Startups Business of the Year Award.

It was a pleasure to hear about the most exciting young businesses in the country, and speak to the inspirational entrepreneurs behind them.

We are truly honoured to be recognised among the best and brightest in the UK!

The BlogWorld and New Media Expo 2009 is over, and the Skimlinks contingent is back on British soil after a mad weekend of networking and promoting our fabulous service.

Day One: Hardip, Joe and I arrived in Las Vegas on Wednesday, and we headed to the beautiful Wynn to meet up with the first-comers including the wacky @newmediajoe, @digitalandy and @gregarious and also marvel at the ridiculous animatronic karaoke frog. Ridiculous, but, of course, perfectly Vegas, as we would later find out.

We trudged back to our hotel at what would be the most resonable hour of the entire trip, and slept like a bunch of jet-lagged babies. Joe on the 4th floor, and Hardip and I on the 11th floor with our amazing view…

Day Two: We filled up on eggs and coffee before wandering over to check out our brilliantly placed booth at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

We created the foundations of the stand, and Hardip and I went off to pick a few extra bits and pieces for the booth. Five hours later, after a trip to the roughest part of town and a free ride from the manager of a Subway sandwich bar, we finally got back to our hotel.

After an outfit change, we made our way to Fat Tuesdays, to find Joe on his way to Bellagio’s for the TechSet party at The Bank. We took too long to take eat some horrible noodles for dinner, and caught Joe in transit again, on his way over to Caramel with @brett and the rest of the crew, where we met @benhuh and @mikeprasad who took us on a tour of the creepy talking trees and the chocolate fountain in the lobby at 3am in the morning.

Day Three: We got up on Friday with not a moment to spare before the official opening of the expo, and so, breakfast-less, we manned our booth for a full day of gabbing with the attending bloggers about the joys of affiliate marketing with Skimlinks.

The Guitar Hero proved a popular feature for the booth, with attendees battling it out through the day, and Hardip and I losing on purpose everytime we played (yeah, right). We got to see some pretty impressive skills from some people who obviously spend too much time playing pretend guitar, but we found our comfort zone cranking the bass on ‘Play That Funky Music’.

Joe did have a pretty intense session with @lewishowes and of course, there’s video evidence here.

After a wee nap back at the hotel, we traipsed down to Envy The Steakhouse for orgasmic steaks and hilarious conversation with the @marketleverage team, @rabeidoh and Rob from @bloggeries. From there, it was on to celebrity hotspot Lavo for some dancing, followed by a short limo ride to Planet Hollywood, where Hardip and I called it a night and left Joe to ‘network’ into the wee smalls.

Day Four: Another round of coffees and we were all set for our second, and final day of the expo. We had Patrick O’Keefe; Mr @ifroggy over for a few questions at our booth, as he spoke about managing online forums and his book of the same name. You can see the video of the interview here.

Highlights of the day including meeting the wandering Johnny Depp look-a-like who looked a lot a like…just from far away; the stealth impromptu interview by @jdlasica and giving away the Guitar Hero game and Nintendo Wii to @brettbum. Congratulations!

Before long it was time to head out again, this time to the Blogworld afterparty at the Hilton, which featured a fabulous pool-side BBQ, then onto the Scene-It Red Carpet party, with one last stop at Tech Karaoke, where it became clear bloggers are quite the extroverts when you give them a mic and a stage!

After an absolutely massive weekend, we left them to it, and crashed just in time to get up again for the epic trip home.

An awesome time was had by all, we met a load of great people and everybody got a kick out of all of our weird accents. Always good to have a bit of novelty factor, right?

Alicia was out of the Skimoffice yesterday for Tech Media Invest 2009.

The event profiled the best of the Tech Media Invest Top 100, the list published in the Guardian on September 7th, in which Skimlinks featured. Alicia was asked to present Skimlinks at the event, and won ‘Best Presentation’ in the process!

Skimlinks also picked up a very unexpected IF Communications Award for the Best Communications and Marketing!

We’re super honoured to have been included in the Top 100, and also having been given the opportunity to present at the event.