Best Social Media Conferences 2020

How many social sites do you know? Offhand you can name up to 10, from Instagram to Twitter. But there are hundreds of them, including blogs, video hosting and even forums. Each of them is an opportunity to develop a brand. Only one question remains: which platforms to use in your niche and how to properly build a strategy for social media? This is what you can find out at the relevant conferences, the best of which are presented below.

Difference from Simple Marketing Conferences

The last few years of marketing has been a transition to digital sources of promotion. Social media has become the key to increasing brand awareness, transferring the value of a product or service and finding potential customers.

Social media is an important component of any modern marketing strategy. However, their capabilities and significance are so wide that now it is not enough to consider this issue only in the context of a general marketing conference.

Social media congresses are not just a meeting of several colleagues, but huge events that are held for several days. This is an opportunity to study different platforms in more detail, get exclusive information, find contractors and grow professionally.

Social Media Week

Site: SMWATX, SMWLA, SMWNYC, SMWLDN

Place: Austin, Texas, USA; Los Angeles, California, USA; New York, USA; London, Great Britain

Date: 26-28 February, 2020; 17-18 June, 2020; 5-7 May, 2020, 21-22 October, 2020

Cost: $556; $384-944; $719-1999; prices for a conference in London are still unknown

Social Media Week is one of the largest events in this area. It is held annually in more than ten cities. So, in 2020, conferences will be held in London, Los Angeles, Hamburg, Warsaw, Kiev, Toronto and other cities. It brings together thousands of marketing, media and technology professionals from around the world. Thanks to this event, you will receive a ton of unique social media management insights.

Key topics:

• Facebook Analytics;
• content creation through communication with the audience;
• brand development (conferences) strategy;
• what the client can teach;
• definition of a user profile;
• other.

A large-scale event requires an appropriate level of speakers. Regardless of the venue, you can hear speeches by niche leaders. For example, Alexis Davis (founder of The Content Plug) and Enish Dhawan (CEO and founder of PurPics) will perform in Texas, Christine Patrick (CMO PepsiCo) and Peter Sherman (senior vice president of Warner Media) in Los Angeles, and in New York - Gary Vaynerchuk (Chairman of the Board of Directors of VaynerFX) and Joe Marquez (CEO of Attention Capital).

Digital Summit

Site: Digital Summit

Place: Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Los Angeles, California, USA; Tampa, Florida, USA and others

Date: 24-25 March, 2020; 1-2 April, 2020; 6-7 May 2020

Cost: $295-995

Another large-scale event, which takes place from West to East and from North to South of the USA over the year. Every year there are more than 20 opportunities to get to Digital Summit, so time and place will not become obstacles for you. The summit is dedicated to social media and digital marketing. It gathers almost an army of speakers and visitors anywhere. Here you can find out everything from an advertising campaign strategy to data analysis.

Key topics:

• the formation and role of content;
• interaction with the audience through social networks;
• development of personalized UI / UX design;
• the importance of data analysis;
• formation of an effective strategy.

As with Social Media Week, at Digital Summit you get a chance to hear niche leaders. For example, Reshma Saujani (founder and CEO of Girls who code) and Jim Marsh (SVP in HBO) will speak in New York, and Kerry Smith (content strategy lead on Twitter) and Scott Dickers (founder of The Onion) in Los Angeles).

Social Media Strategies Summit

Site: SMSS

Place: Chicago, Illinois, USA; New York, USA

Date: 28-30 April, 2020; 27-29 October, 2020

Cost: $1999-2989

The third event, which is held in several locations. This conference is aimed at marketing professionals. Here you can get acquainted with case studies, as well as take part in practical exercises. Heads of marketing departments should pay special attention to SMSS Higher Education, where in addition to the intricacies of marketing, they consider working with subordinates.

Key topics:

• development of content strategies;
• promotion strategy through social networks;
• strategies for working with Paid Media;
• brand development and attracting a new audience.

Every year, the organizers attract speakers from world-class companies. This year, the speakers included Miri Rodriguez (Microsoft Global Global Internship Program Manager), Jason Burns (Senior Digital Marketing Manager at Lowe’s), Lauren Powell (Digital Analytics Manager at PepsiCo) and others.

Influencer Marketing Strategies Summit

Site: Influencer Marketing Summit

Place: Chicago, Illinois, USA

Date: 29-30 April, 2020

Cost: $1999-2989

The Influencer Marketing Summit is an event that is being held for the first time as part of the Social Media Marketing Summit and requires special attention. Influence marketing today plays an almost key role in promotion, therefore, considering it in one session is no longer enough. So, the organizers of SMSS in 2020 decided to devote two days to this topic, to conduct narrow-profile studies and speeches.

Key topics:

• technique of building a marketing strategy for influence;
• the state of marketing influence for 2020;
• the importance of friendship and trust in influence marketing;
• how to build a lasting relationship with influencers.

During the summit, you will hear reports by Jim Tobin (founder and president of Carusele), Bette-Ann Schlossberg (Director of Influencer Marketing at Lyft), Gwenn Roni (Director of Influencer Marketing at Carhartt), Payton Dougherty (COO at PopShorts) and many others.

International Conference on Social Media Marketing

Site: International Conference on SMM

Place: London, Great Britain

Date: 23-24 April, 2020

Cost: €250-450 (from 24 March - €300-500)

This conference is global in nature, but at the same time it focuses exclusively on the development of marketing in business. The purpose of the event is to provide a platform for practicing marketers. It will share its latest research, ideas and reports.

Key topics:

• implementation of SMM in emerging economies;
• branding and customer perception;
• affiliate marketing strategy.

By attending this conference, you can familiarize yourself with insights from Bhaskar Basu (Product Marketing lead at Microsoft India), Juhi Ketunen (Head of Sales & VP at Saalasti Oy) and many others.

Social Media Camp

Site: Social Media Camp

Place: Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Dqte: 5-7 May, 2020

Cost: $450-550

This event is Canada's largest social media conference. It attracts a huge number of delegates from different sectors and allows you to get acquainted with the intricacies of brand promotion from an economic, communicative and other points of view. This is not just a marketing conference, but an event that assesses the cultural impact of social media. The main uniqueness of the event is that the sessions are divided based on the level of visitors' skills. Therefore, you can not be afraid to get to a performance for which you lack experience.

Key topics:

• 3 ways to popularize the brand and increase sales;
• how to manage "online haters";
• marketing tools 2020.

This year, the organizers invited Jillian Harris (founder of jillianharris.com, host of HGTV Canada), Nicole Smith (founder of Flytographer), Darian Kovaks (founder of Jelly Marketing) Philip Shaw (CEO Cleverclicks)).

Intrigue Summit

Site: Intrigue Summit

Place: New York, USA

Date: August, 2020 (exact date is still unknown)

Cost: not announced

Intrigue Summit is a meeting of digital marketing professionals. The event gathers over 200 moderators and is based solely on question and answer sessions. The uniqueness of the summit lies in the fact that during each session several people speak at once, because the audience can get several different answers.

Key topics:

• storytelling of the brand;
• Big Data;
• AI in marketing;
• lead generation through social networks.

Despite the fact that the exact date and cost of the conference has not yet been determined, the organizers have already announced the speakers. Among them were: Christopher Desi (VP of Sales at PerformLine Inc), Johan Alein (Director of Marketing at Black Enterprise), Eli Orgel (Director of Marketing at The Rosenblum Law Firm) and others.

World Social Marketing Conference

Site: WSMConference

Place: Thessaloniki, Greece

Date: 21-23 October, 2020

Cost: €185-375

The mission of this event is to become a means of creating a movement for the dissemination of best practices in SMM. The conference has been held for 5 years and during this time has shown more than 700 presentations and attracted more than 3,000 speakers. WSMC brings people together to make marketing a better place.

The list of speakers and key topics is currently being compiled by the organizers. Previously, this information will be available on April 17, 2020. Therefore, if you are interested in visiting the WSMC, stay tuned for their updates.

Social Media Marketing World

Site: Social Media Marketing World

Place: San Diego, California, USA

Date: 1-3 March, 2020

Cost: $547-1547

Every year SMM World 2020 becomes something like a paradise for marketers. Here you can not only learn about the latest approaches to advertising and promotion, but also make new friends. The conference has been held for 6 years and includes not only presentations and networking, but also regular parties. This is one of those events that every marketer needs to attend every year.

Key topics:

• YouTube for business;
• brand development through Instagram;
• the current state of video marketing;
• LinkedIn's role in promotion;
• content marketing strategy;
• correct analytics.

By visiting SMMW this year, you will learn about the research and insights of Jay Bayer (founder of Convince & Convert), Mary Smith (founder of Mari Smith International), Michael Stelzner (founder of Social Media Examiner) and many others.

Social Fresh

Site: Social Fresh

Place: Orlando, Florida, USA

Date: 5-6 November, 2020

Cost: $797-1297

The conference has been held annually since 2008 and during this time has become one of the largest events in the field of social marketing. It brings together leading world leaders, including Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, and many others.

Social Fresh is a place where leaders learn. The event was created to help you improve your content, be more creative and get new results.

Key topics:

• audience of the future;
• maintaining contact with the client;
• development of creative content;
• current role of video marketing.

In 2020, Social Fresh speakers included Katie Richman (Social Video Production Team Lead on Facebook), Tatyana Holyfield (Head of Digital Strategy at Pacers), Miri Rodriguez (Head of Global Internship Program at Microsoft) and many others.