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Social technologies bring business efficiencies Anna Lawlor and Anna Marsden bring you the last in the 12 week series, How to Future Proof Your Business. They talk about the benefits of having an agile business culture in order to enact change quickly and improve internal communications. They also bring you some examples of social apps that deliver daily time savings for, so called, "office work" in the modern digital world. Anna and Anna run boutique media communications agency, Social i Media. You can find them tweeting at @SocialiMediaUK or connect with Anna Lawlor on LinkedIn or Anna Marsden on LinkedIn. For further details and more examples of social technologies check out the accompanying Social i Media blog.

What in the world is happening in social media? Jodie Hopperton, was recently appointed as the Managing Director at The Institute of Promotional Marketing (IPM). Jodie has an extensive background in advising various media organisations in navigating the disrupted digital marketplace and talked to Anna and Anna about what is happening in the world of social media. You can connect with Jodie on LinkedIn or Tweet her directly.

Planning for a digital future Ben Hammersley, is an applied futurist and is currently presenting a series on the BBC News Channel. Ben joined The Social Media Show, on the move during half term parenting duties, to talk about the future of technology and its implications for us all. He also writes and lectures internationally to explain the effects of the post-digital post-internet age to people, corporations, governments, and international organisations, and is the author of many books and articles on modern technology. You can see, Darknets, the first episode of Cybercrimes with Ben Hammersley on Saturday 1st November at 4.30pm on the BBC News Channel.   You can connect with Ben on LinkedIn or Tweet him directly.

Get qualified for digital marketing success Tor Goldfield, the head of student experience at Squared Online, the Google-developed education provider joined Anna and Anna to discuss how businesses can future-proof their digital marketing strategies by undertaking a course like Squared Online. Tor also talks about the importance of continual learning and practical application for employees in today's digital environment. For an in-depth look at other courses that are available, read The Guardian's "How to get a job in social media" written by our guest presenter Anna Marsden and referenced in this podcast. You can connect with Tor on LinkedIn or Tweet the We Are Squared team directly.

Using social data to enhance your social media approach Chris Evans the the UK Sales Manager at Coosto, a market leader of social data in the Netherlands, talks to Anna and Anna about how companies can use social data and how it makes a difference to their business. Chris talks about the importance of capturing conversations about your brand, crisis management and why you should treat your social media conversations as another channel of customer service, like the phone. You can tweet Chris here or connect with him on LinkedIn

Social Media Week London 2014 Gianfranco Chicco the Executive Director of Social Media Week London talks to Anna and Anna about how the event itself ensures its success on social and how it stays at the pinnacle of social media practices as an industry leader. Gianfranco also provides advice for businesses of all sizes on how to run a fully integrated social event. You can tweet Gianfranco here or connect with him on LinkedIn.

Why Certain Things Catch On… and others don’t Mike Cornwell, the CEO of the IDM talks to Anna and Anna about viral campaigns and whether there is a formula for success or whether it is just down to luck. The Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing is the UK’s only government-approved Institute for the professional development of direct and digital marketers, offering a broad range of practitioner-taught training courses and ten internationally recognised professional marketing qualifications. You can connect with Mike on LinkedIn.

Is this the end of free social media marketing? David Moth talks to Anna and Anna about organic verses paid social media advertising and how the industry is changing. David is a Deputy Editor at Econsultancy and has written some of the blog’s most popular content since joining the content team in 2012. You can connect with David on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Combating Social Media Scepticism Sharon Flaherty , founder of BrandContent, talks to Anna and Anna about getting your management to embrace social media and once they have, how to secure a bigger budget. You can follow Sharon on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing: 10 commandments of social Thomas Brown, Director of Strategy and Insights at The Chartered Institute of Marketing explains to Anna and Anna what the Keep Social Honest campaign is about.  Thomas reveals the 10 commandments that show you how to build trust with your online audience and demonstrate social media best practice.   You can follow Thomas on Twitter or connect with him on LinkedIn.

Using Hootsuite in social media automation Rylan Holey, Partnership Manager at Hootsuite continues the discussion about social automation with Anna and Anna. With the new "Suggested Content" feature, what should you expect from Hootsuite and how can you be sure social media automation doesn't hurt your brand.   You can follow Rylan on Twitter or connect with him on LinkedIn.

Using Klout in social media automation Jon Dick, Head of Marketing at Klout talks to Anna and Anna about social media automation. Managing social media can be a full time job but many business people don’t have the luxury of someone solely taking ownership of that role. This is why the number of companies offering social media automation has proliferated. So, is it a key trend for the future of the industry and for social media marketing? You can follow Jon on Twitter or connect with him on LinkedIn.

How to future proof your social media strategy for the next generation NATALIE WATERWORTH is a digital marketer, a blogger, and a millennial engagement expert. She co-founded Talented Heads, a digital marketing agency specialising in content marketing and the millennial generation. She talks to Anna and Anna about why brands and marketers should have a different approach to Millennials and generation Z. You can follow Natalie on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

Are Social Media Roles still specialist or mainstream? Steve Ward of Cloud Nine Social Media and Digital Talent talks to us about the changes he sees in recruitment practices for social media roles. Connect with Steve on Twitter @cloudninerec on his blog The Recruitment Misfit and on Facebook

Social media gets more psychological. Sam Mitchell of Chinwag ran Social Media Week London for five years. He talks to us about moving on and the development of the conference Chinwag Psych covering psychology, neuroscience, behavioural economics and more. The necessity to make our messages stand out and get noticed combined with our ever increasing ability to filter out what we're not interested in is leading to the use of a complex mix of disciplines. Sam gives a fascinating overview of how these knit together and explains why small businesses have the edge in this fast moving sphere. These are some of the resources that Sam mentions in the interview: • Pack A Powerful Punch – How To Write A Killer Headline By Nathalie Nahai • Neuromarketing Is Bulls**t By Craig Sullivan - amazing collection of tools to ue • Crowd Emotion - company tracking emotions via webcam • The Neuroscience of Telling Stories by Sarah Walker • The Size of the Planning and the Size of the Problem by Benjamin Ellis (his take on planning and the 45-day planning for a corporate tweet) • Conscious Business - Tomorrow’s Company Today - meetup for creating new, open organisations • Call to Action by Bryan Eisenberg (an oldie, but a goodie) - the one I mentioned that features micro-persuasion • Robotics Mission to California (23-27 June) - still a few spaces left, if any robotics or autonomous systems companies are interested • Idea Management Platform, I mentioned - Spigit, also a UK-competition Wazoku who spoke at Chinwag Psych in 2013. • For more on applying psychology, neuroscience and behavioural economics sign-up to the PsychMatters newsletter or follow @ChinwagPsych on Twitter.

Multi-purpose and multi-tasking social media for social change. Any business wondering how to tackle social media and integrate a diverse organisation, empower employees with different skill levels and provide real value for clients on both a local and national level will find lots of inspiration and ideas in this interview. Athar Abidi is Age UK's Social Media Manager. He creates huge value for 150 brand partners, supports and advises local volunteers, markets campaigns and events and produces shareable content for Age UKs main beneficiaries - old people.  Through the use of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, Athar manages multiple streams of activity. He talks to us about the tools he uses and the techniques that gently challenge preconceptions. Athar mentions a poem in the campaign for Love Later Life that can be found here: http://lll.ageuk.org.uk/ Follow Age UK on Twitter @Age_UK

Think your business doesn't have a visual story? Think again. Some businesses shy away from using Pinterest because they think they don't have a strong visual presence. Ekaterina Walter talks to us about the ways businesses of all types are using Pinterest to drive 25% more traffic to their websites and why Pinterest users spend 15% more than Facebook users. An expert in visual story telling, Ekaterina shares invaluable insights into how any business can use images to their advantage, why we are attracted to images, especially cartoons, and why this is her favourite story told in one simple image:   During the interview Ekaterina mentions a mobile phone company that uses very powerful storytelling in this three minute video. Ekaterina Walter led strategic and marketing innovation for brands such as Intel and Accenture, and is currently a CMO of Branderati. She is an international speaker and author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller “Think Like Zuck: The Five Business Secrets of Facebook's Improbably Brilliant CEO Mark Zuckerberg” and co-author of “The Power of Visual Storytelling: How to Use Visuals, Videos, and Social Media to Market Your Brand.” Ekaterina sits on a Board of Directors of Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA). Her thought leadership has been featured on CNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News, Forbes, TechCrunch, CNN, WSJ, Inc., Entrepreneur, Huffington Post, and more. You can find her on Twitter: @Ekaterina. Blog: http://www.ekaterinawalter.com/

Is it possible to design a business that is good for society AND makes a profit? Allan Szymczyk and Jan Verwijs met during an MBA programme in a class on Corporate Social Responsibility and decided to see if they could design a profit making business that benefits society and not just shareholders. They have created Agora which is a democratic company, community led, where anyone who joins can take part in the decision making process and benefit from the profits that are created. So far the community has decided on a constitution  and a product - a flavoured water branded "99% Guiltless". When the beverage is in production, community members who nominate independent retailers who agree to stock the product will benefit from the profits from those sales. Listen as Allan and Jan explain their vision and how it is working so far; My Agora has a Facebook Page  a Linkedin Page   a Twitter Account @OwlAtAgora  and its own YouTube Channel where some of the decision making processes are demonstrated. While this is a big experiment in business, Allan and Jan are using social channels to connect with people who are interested in joining in the experiment and bringing them into the forum where they can help to make the decisions. It's a fascinating story and one I'm sure we'll revisit but in the meantime, we hope you'll join the experiment and tell us your experiences!