‘From Silicon Roundabouts to a Silicon World’, a Social Media Week event hosted by the UKT&I this morning, looked at how UK brands need to think about behaving as they expand their businesses internationally.

The theme the panel came back to repeatedly, and what is emerging as a theme of the week at events I’ve attended and followed, is that wherever they do business, be it Bolton or Boston, brands need to understand their communities in a few different ways.

First, where are they?  Microsoft’s Mel Carson made the important point that companies need to remember that social media is not just about Twitter & Facebook. Should you consider using rich media, mobile technology or gaming to connect?  He also pointed out that old-fashioned email remains an important tool to include in a social strategy.  Apparently 25% of Facebook traffic still comes via Hotmail accounts.

Moonfruit’s Wendy Tan White emphasised the need to consider what your brand’s community wants.  The agency is launching a new website soon, that will merge its internal and external communities removing, what she called the ‘walled garden’ around what could be a brand’s most important advocates, it’s employees.

As for how you engage with your communities, there are a huge range of technological toys to play with these days, but as Nokia’s Ash Choudhury pointed out, it’s not about the technology, it’s what you do with it that counts.  If your brand’s priority is B2B, your time may be better spent developing meaningful niche networks with the few hundred followers you have on Twitter, than focusing resources in other areas that may go for maximum, rather than meaningful impact.

As this was a UKT&I event, the question had to be asked – what is the UK’s brand strength? Tan White highlighted the UK’s reputation as a leader in design and innovation, Choudhury and Carson championed the UK’s reputation as a barometer of change, quick to pick up and also move on from trends compared to other markets and therefore, something of an early warning system for brands who want to stay ahead of the game