Sam Michel's blog

The importance of work experience was underlined at Chinwag's recent Careers Day (see our round-up blog for some top CV tips). There's plenty of competition for the choicest work experience or intern positions, because they provide such a powerful point of differentiation for candidates, not to mention heaps of useful job-hunting contacts.

So, with London's biggest collaborative event, Social Media Week returning to London in September (24-28), what better time to offer a lucky few the chance to get their teeth stuck into one of the largest digital events to hit London? Find out more about what's involved and how to apply below.

Finally, proof that social media marketing isn't just a case of cranking out a few Tweets, checking Facebook walls and Pinning pictures of shoes.

A post on Business Insider, reveals an infographic - and you know how we like a pretty picture - from Buddy Media's recent product launch, showing just some of the complexity of the current social media landscape.

Matt Alder, founder of MetaShift and one of the leading brains in the social recruitment world, recently back from a tour of Silicon Valley, quizzed Morgan Missen, FourSquare's Head of Talent on their approach to finding new talent.

Turns out Silicon Valley has even more acute problems in finding talented staff, particularly engineers, than many of the companies in the UK. As Missen points out, every person they offer a job, has competing offers from the other Silicon Valley giants. Watch the full video

Following on from the successful session during Social Media Week London, Chinwag is excited to announce a half-day conference, The Psychology of Online Influence taking place in central London in early May 2012, with tickets going on sale next week.

Big data provides ginormous quantities of information about user behaviour, analysing but interpreting this avalanche of information provides plenty of challenges for marketers. This event brings together the worlds of psychology, behavioural economics and statistical analysis to provide actionable insight.

As this year's Social Media Week London kicks off next week (13-17th Feb), I asked Lauren to scan the 150+ events that make up the schedule with an eagle-eye for events focusing on recruitment, careers, skills and social media.

She found some corkers, which are listed below, the majority of which are free to attend. The full schedule has an enormous variety of events covering subjects from Freedom of Tweet: Censorship, Government, Marketers and the Law (Tues 14th Feb, 1 - 5pm @ Design Coucil) to Collaborating on Cancer (Weds 15th Feb, 2 - 3.30pm @ City Hall).

Heading out to Austin for this year's SXSW extravaganza? Or you'll be in the neighbourhood? Interested in meeting startups from around the globe and spending time at Dell's HQ, then take a gander at this event our friends at Dell are putting together the day before SXSW kicks off.

Centered on their HQ campus at Round Rock a few miles from Austin, Dell are  hosting a full day Unconference March 8th, 2012 (the day before SXSW), on social and technology trends in small businesses- a fast-paced, intense and fun event environment that allows participants to control the agenda.

After a successful trip to Berlin last year, CIKTN have teamed up with PICNIC, one of the must-attend digital conferences in Europe, and the UK Science & Innovation Network for a special event on 21/22nd Feb in Amsterdam.

Kicking off what's billed as a series of events between UK firms and Amsterdam, which has a strong reputation for digital businesses, this looks like a promising intiative for digital firms looking to start or develop a foothold in Europe.

What seemed like a fantastic marketing campaign, turns out to be a horror story. Metrics were missed, warning signs ignored and US retailer, Target ends up 'doing a Hoover'.

As with so many promotions, it started with a terrific deal for customers. Visit Target's Facebook page and get a $10 gift card for spending $50. What happened next was a  free-for-all with deal hunters gaming the system, some claiming profits of $5,000. So, what went wrong? 

After last week's successful Social Media Week London brainstorm - we're delighted to announce a SMWLDN Brainstorm Round 2 in preparation for next February's SMWLDN on Wed 7th Dec from 6pm - 8pm in Shoreditch or TechCity, if you're startup-minded (RSVP).

This time, the aim is to focus on how social media is affecting and impacting our day-to-day lives from the clothes we wear, the food we eat, the music we listen to, the games we play, the sport (some of us, ehem) do and our families.

Our love-in with infographics continues with this doozy from mindflash with a step-by-step Linkedin Bootcamp giving some steps to get the most out of the B2B social network.

Handy and practical whether you're on the hunt for a new gig, working a business development angle or just buiding your professional profile, it's a handy check-list. Check the full list below and click-through for the big version.

A couple of weeks back I was asked to speak at TechWorld, a conference and expo organised by UK Trade & Investment. This year's event included the addition of the first TechCity Entrepreneur's Festival.

The week-long festival incorporated a bootcamp, access to investors, a giant get-together with Silicon Valley Comes to the UK, pitch training and a pitch competition. In the light of so many overseas companies heading in to London, I thought a whistlestop tour of the UK's digital sector, location of clusters and London, in particular might be handy.

Two heads are better than one. So, 35 must be exponentially better, right?

At Chinwag, we're big fans of building things collaboratively, so we thought we'd really push the boat out for the initial planning of Social Media Week London 2012 (SMWLDN), 13-17th Feb, in case you're wondering.

On Tuesday evening, after an open invite, 35 people gathered at Ketchum PR's offices in Shoreditch to ruminate, dream and scheme on the themes for next year's SMWLDN. Analysing last year's event and taking informal soundings, the group started to explore five starting points:

Thinking caps on, pretty please - don't worry, nothing too onerous!

Following on from the success of our first Chinwag Insight conference, Chinwag Insight: Facebook Marketing, we're starting to plan for the next event, probably post-Easter 2012.

As with the first event, the aim of these conferences is to delve deep into a topic area. There's lots of options, which is where you come in. If we could beg 15 seconds of your precious brain power, could you fill in the poll below and let us know what you think.

It couldn't be easier. Just one question: which topic should we dive into and explore in-depth? Should we revisit Facebook Marketing, what about Twitter? YouTube? Or for those looking at B2B and recruitment, what about Linkedin?

News just in that'll whet the appetite of anyone working in the UX world: the folks at ICT KTN (Knowledge Transfer Network for those that don't speak government) have 10 scholarships available for this year's MEX: Pathways to the mobile UX horizon.

The event takes place 30 Nov - 1st Dec at Wallacespace in London and with tickets costing £1,499, the scholarships are going to get snapped up quickly. To apply fill in this application form. The deadline is next Tue, 25th Oct.

For the least three years, over 150 companies have taken part in Digital Missions to the tech centres of the US. The week before last, we met with a group of companies interested in heading East, to South East Asia and China.

Gathering at the offices of our hosts, Pinsent Masons, we talked through the outline plans that have been brewing at Chinwag Towers and had an in-depth discussion about the priorities for a potential Digital Mission™ to Singapore and Hong Kong including the primary objectives, timings and possible companies to meet on the trip.

Here's a quick summary of the discussion and an outline of the plans for what happens next and how to get involved: