Social Media and Crowdfunding: An International View

NEW YORK - June 28, 2013 - PRLog -- The Soho Loft joined the Italians as the latter celebrated the Social Media Marketing Day 2013 in Milan June 27, 2013, an event presented by the more than 10,000-strong Social Media Marketing Managers Association of Italy.

Mr David Drake, founder and chairman of The Soho Loft, provided the international perspective on social media and crowdfunding to the 1,000+ participants. He highlighted pockets of successes and challenges all over the world, regulatory and otherwise, in raising capital for entrepreneurial startup and growth at the intersection of social media and online automation.

The 1-day event focused on how businesses can leverage social media and the Internet practically and profitably. It covered a wide range of topics: marketing trends, e-commerce, corporate communications, crowdfunding, reputation management and personal branding, mobile payments, ROI and social CRM, blogging and SEO, analytics and social intelligence metrics, ROI and KPI, social TV, social mobile and customer relationships, new generation tools, and contact management tools for lead generation related to social media.

From among the speakers, Andrea Albanese talked about social media marketing trends in 2013 and social media ROI and KPI.

“This is an opportune time for Italy to take the lead and export the ‘sensa Italia’ and lead technology services into the kind of excellence that Italian brands have always been known to exude,” says  Albanese.

Andrea Albanese is the community manager of the largest Italian online associations of social media marketing professionals – Social Media Marketing Italia, Social Media Marketing Italiano, and Giornalisti e Pubblicisti Italiani e Social Media – with more than 12,000 members in total. He is a top social media network and web marketing advisor in Italy, who also specializes in sales and post-sales process optimization, web business intelligence and real-time customer behavior, and online and digital marketing.

As the only non-Italian in the event’s roster of speakers, Drake adds, “Italy is about to make history as the first country to implement an equity-based crowdfunding law that I believe will be a more liberal law than the crowdfunding law in the US JOBS Act.  And this will occur potentially within the next 10 days.   That is one year faster than the failing and lethargic US equity crowdfunding law.”

David Drake is the founder and chairman of The Soho Loft, an event-driven financial media company that advances innovative investing and entrepreneurship through visionary leadership, relevant education, and strategic collaboration with 150+ annual events globally. It is a subsidiary of the private equity firm LDJ Capital based in New York. He   also is a co-founder and former executive board member of the Crowdfund Intermediary Regulatory Advocates (CFIRA) and Crowdfunding Professional Association (CFPA) in the United States. He is a strong advocate of financial innovation, the U.S. JOBS Act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act), Dodd-Frank Act, and other entrepreneurial, economic and investment policies through his work as an international speaker and writer with such publications as Forbes and Thomson Reuters among others.
 
Crowdfunding has been making waves and changing the financial landscape of Italy ever since the Italian Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB), the equivalent of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, was charged by the Ministry of Economic Development (Ministero dello Sviluppo Economico, or MSE) with issuing the regulatory provisions for implementing the Decreto Crescita Bis, or the Italian “Growth Act 2.0” bill.

Other speakers at the event were: Roberto Liscia, Nicola Palmarini, Federico Luperi, Alberto Adorini, Alberto Giusti, Roberto Manzoli, Rudy Bandiera, Dario Manuli, Giampaolo Colletti, Alberto Muritano, Gianluca Treu, and Marisandra Lizzi.

Check out the event details at http://italian-crowdfunding-drake-thesoholoft.eventbrite.....

Check out also other upcoming events by The Soho Loft, happening all around the world: http://thesoholoft.com/crowdfundingupcoming-events/.
To keep abreast on the latest in global crowdfunding news and trends, you can subscribe to the weekly newsletters and event alerts by sending an email to carmen.campo@thesoholoft.com or through the company website subscription form.

About The Soho Loft (www.thesoholoft.com)

The Soho Loft is an event-driven financial media company that advances innovative investing and entrepreneurship through visionary leadership, relevant education and strategic collaboration. Major areas of focus and expertise covers, but are not limited to, online investment automation, capital formation, fund structures, angel network creation, private and public partnerships, venture capital, crowdfunding, private equity and hedge funds. A subsidiary of LDJ Capital based in New York, its founder and chairman, David Drake, is  also a co-founder and former executive board member of the Crowdfund Intermediary Regulatory Advocates (CFIRA) and Crowdfunding Professional Association (CFPA). He is a strong advocate of financial innovation, the US JOBS Act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act), the Dodd-Frank Act, and other entrepreneurial, economic and investment policies through his work as an international speaker and writer.

For press inquiries, contact carmen.campo@thesoholoft.com.