If you are interested at all in tools that can be used for social media engagement, tracking, reporting, research, and management then you should attend the virtual conference Social Media Tools Week. Here are five reasons why:

1. Social Media Academy is organizing conference

Organized by the Social Media Academy, the premier educator for social media for business, this is a whole week packed with the newest and most compelling Social Media tools from around the world, key note presentations and career development sessions. Probably the most important Social Media Event of the year. If you register before Oct 15, you will still get a free ticket to attend.  I noted on the Website that after that time it will be a $35 fee.

The Social Media Academy is an education and research institute providing education for business professionals from all industries on how to best apply social media to their respective businesses. The main emphasis is to help business managers and consultants to get a comprehensive education on Social Media, including strategy development, planning, execution, tools, resources ways to report and analyze development and success and help understand the evolutionary changes in our society. As part of the educational development, the Social Media Academy conducts research exploring the ongoing changes in the field and supports the continuous learning process as well as monitor ongoing changes in the field.

2. Learn about social media strategy for business owners and management teams

After reviewing the program for the week, I found topics that include core basics such as  assessments of your social media landscape, strategy building, tools and platforms for corporate enterprises as well as those for small and midsized business.  If your company is asking the questions “How do we get started in social media?”  this would be the ideal place to get your company management team to invest some time.

Presentations cover public and private communities and structure as well as discussion on what departmental areas suit different types of communities. If you already had dipped your toe in the water, but are looking for better guidance, policy and measurement strategies I think the speakers will provide some interesting insight.

3. Explore social media tools

Are you looking for a place to hear about existing tools as well as the latest applications that enhance each of the major sites we do know about such as Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter?  This portion of the Social Media Tools week could be very important for you if your looking for that one additional tool to enhance a social media campaign or one that aligns with your target audience.  On the registration page you can see a list of 160 social media tools to get you started.  And those are only the ones who sent their information in early for the listing.

If you are already started down the path of using social media but want to explore content systems, blog platforms (free and paid) and more in depth knowledge on the types of tools such as multimedia, bookmarking, news aggregation, article sites, or social networking I don’t think you could find a better group of speakers offering info about what’s out there.

4. Learn about Social Media Relationship Management (SRM)

One of the most exciting parts in social media development is the creation of social media relationship management systems and tools that can better track and coordinate your efforts in the various social media spaces.  Today we have several tools that help us post to multiple places and that certainly saves time.  But the bigger pictures is a tool that would help us truly manage all the people in our networks in terms of when we last  connected.  Ideally these tools will integrate with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems already in place behind your firewalls.  Several presentations will cover this area and I am planning to attend these.

5. Get information on a social media career

Aside from all the info on the how, why and what for social media, there is also a track covering education in this field to better enhance your career in social media with your present company or add to your credentials for the next position.  Let’s face it, social media is here to stay.  We all need to understand how to use it to our best advantage in business and personally. This is not an area to make a mistake as it can go viral very quickly.  It’s also not an area to dismiss for your business – your competitors are not.

Must Attend Social Media Tools Week Virtual Conference!