I recently attended two very different social media events. The first, the ‘London think-tank summit: at the intersection of traditional and social media’ hosted by the European Parliament, discussed the role that social media can play in influencing public policy and driving awareness campaigns. The second, hosted jointly by Facebook and the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry looked at how businesses can use social media – or more specifically (and rather unsurprisingly), Facebook, to grow a business.

At the EU Parliament summit Cicero’s Chris Jackson compared the business world’s experience of social media to sex – we’re all talking about it, a few of us are doing it and even fewer of us are doing it well. It was also remarked that social media is where the internet was in 1996 – we recognise that it’s incredibly important but we are also still at the beginning of the journey, nobody yet knows where it’s going. Read more on Social media: Politics 2.0 and the changing face of business…