Some interesting points from this mornings discussion:

Global numbers released about 6 weeks ago about Social Networking sites:

* 47% of online adults using social networking siteshttp:
* 1.5 million businesses have active pages on Facebook
* Average user is spending 55 minutes per day on Facebook
* 73% teens are members of at least 1 social network
* 50 million tweets sent a day on Twitter

Mike Stopforth – CEO – Cerebra
* Brands need to have a compelling business reason for being on Social Networks
* Problem with social media is that it’s not just applications and platforms. It’s actually more an evolving role of the consumer towards brands.
* I believe that we have to realize that consumers are no longer recipients of messages but are now participants
* People are going to complain because you are doing a bad job, bad service, not because of Facebook. So risks have always been there.

Ingrid Rubin – MD – Virtuosa
* Brands aren’t using the medium correctly because they are trying to advertise
* Use social media to the extent of integrating it into your business
* Take from social networks what is meaningful for your brand and filter out the rest.
* Not just about marketing, it’s about business processes and how you facilitate this online.

Arthur Goldstuck – CEO – World Wide Worx
* Facebook is the mainstream 6.6 % of South Africans are Facebook members – need to use a combination of services to get to your market.
* Social media is no longer a youth platform, the age curve is becoming older every day

Brent Shahim – MD – Aquaonline
* Brands don’t need to regain control of their brand, key opportunities to gain insight. Consumers can talk to each other and the brand can listen in on this.
* Real opportunity to gain invaluable insight into the brand.
* Social media is just visible word of mouth.

Toby Shapshack – Editor – Stuff Magazine
* Live in a brand new age, where brand belongs to consumers
* Brands have no choice but to be there listening to conversations

Pierre Odendaal – Creative Director Jupiter Drawing Room
* In the digital space you can cost effectively get your message out there and have a more profound effect on the brand
* Social Networking has a lot more punch then people think.
* Digital is face to face contact, it’s just in a digital world.
* Digital is the most dominant communication of our time and will shape our future.

For more from this mornings debate see Twitter and eMarketing Trends.