Jaiku. Knol. Seesmic. They might be new models of minivans, or medalists at the 2008 Olympics. In fact, they’re just three of the many fresh social media projects emerging an increasingly complex online landscape.

The world of social media and user-generated content changes on a month-to-month basis. It’s critical for marketers and content creators to keep abreast of what’s new, what’s dead and what matters. This session discusses major social media trends of the past year, and looks ahead to what we can expect from 2008 and beyond.

Some of trends to be covered include:

• Who are the microbloggers, and should you be paying attention to services like Twitter and Jaiku?
• What is the state of virtual worlds like Second Life and Habbo Hotel?
• Is it wise to advertise on Facebook?
• Why organizations shouldn’t start their own social networks
• Who are the emerging competitors to Wikipedia, and do they even matter?

Attendees will leave this session chock full of fresh ideas to apply to upcoming campaigns.