For episode 32 of Insider InSites, I spoke with Toby Daniels, best known as the Founder and Executive Director of Social Media Week, which started in random New York City conference rooms and is now in 20 countries.

FYI – Get a $100 discount off New York or Los Angeles 2019 attendance with promo code "MediaVillage100".  

Given the fact that it's the 10th anniversary of the conference we spent some time first looking back and thinking about the industry of social media in 2009... when Facebook already had hundreds of millions but not its current billions of users, the energy was optimistic, and people were also aiming to use it to create a positive impact on the world.

We fast forward and, as Daniels describes it, “we're obviously in a really interesting place -- at an inflection point where people's relationship to social media has shifted.” As he added, “now in 2019 there's never been a more important time for us to come together and convene to tackle some of the most pressing issues about the role of social media in our lives and the opportunity it presents us as marketers.”

Listen as we also discuss in this Episode 32 of Insider InSites:

• How causes like Charity:Water leverage tech and social to raise awareness and money
• Helping the “potentially billions of people on this planet who are digitally illiterate...with access to technology but no education or guidance in to using tools to their advantage professionally or personally”
• How can media and marketing companies leverage social to better underscore trust
• Why Facebook represents the same shift that’s true for all tech platforms – from  “a time where it was a cheap, cost effective, and straight forward to be able to reach and engage audiences or build and scale of audiences in social media, and the big shift from organic towards paid and a new set of complexities
• How brands grapple with concerns around adjacency ...and as such, why Social Media Week is launching a special track on Paid Social with case studies of both successes and failures.
• Are the rumors of a slow death for Snap to be believed? And what platform does Daniels say is “the coolest, sexiest, most interesting platform right now?”

Enter the code MediaVillage100 for $100 off the New York or Los Angeles 2019 Social Media Week pass.

Read more of the transcript for this and all Insider InSites episodes on MediaVillage.com - and please subscribe and listen anywhere you get your podcasts: Spotify, iHeartRadio, GooglePodcasts, Apple, Stitcher or TuneIn.