Michael Nicklas is Founder of SocialSmart Ventures and a city organizer for Social Media Week Brazil. Social Smart, based in New York and São Paulo, is focused on early stage Brazilian internet start-ups. Michael tells us that registrations for SMW São Paulo are heating up — in fact, the event is nearly sold out. You can view the conference agenda here.
[Social Media Week]: Who are your favorite social media leaders in São Paulo and Brazil right now? Who should the rest of the world pay attention to?
[Michael Nicklas]: There are many; however, if I had to pick two I would say Edson Mackeenzy, founder of VideoLog and Raquel Requero, a professor and social media theorist.
VideoLog, the leading online video service in Brazil, is building a dynamic community of content producers while providing a cutting edge platform for media distribution. Raquel is an astute observer of the social media scene in Brazil and advises Brazilian and Silicon Valley startups including Lolapps.com.
[SMW]: Which social platforms are especially hot in São Paolo right now?
[MN]: Twitter is exploding in Brazil, crossing over from the early adopter crowd to a full-blown mass medium. Brazilians currently rank second on Twitter in number of unique users globally (8.8 percent of Twitter’s user base). @Twittess, a popular Brazilian Twitter personality was just selected to be part of the upcoming Big Brother Brazil 2010.
Also hot is Migux.com, an innovative, immersive social network for children and adolescents which provides a safe, engaging experience for kids that want to be on Orkut, but are a bit too young. Growth has taken off in the last 18 months and Migux currently has over 1.75 million users in Brazil.
[SMW]: How is the social web changing the way people interact? Why is this significant?
[MN]: Given the snarled traffic in São Paulo, it is not surprising that people turn to digital communication and social media in particular to communicate and coordinate. Nowadays it is easier to reach people via a DM on Twitter than through email.
[SMW]: What is one of your predictions for social media in 2010?
[MN]: I believe 2010 will be the year where companies and brands fully embrace the need to involve and engage their customers through social media. Crowdsourcing will be a significant trend as everything from product concept to market becomes social.
[SMW]: What is one challenge social media presents? How can we overcome it?
[MN]: One of the biggest challenges stemming from the growth of social media is information overload. There are a number of Brazilian startups working on innovative tools to address this problem. MeAdiciona.com, for example, helps users aggregate and point to their multiple online digital personas.
Follow the latest from Social Media Week Brazil on Twitter @smwsaopaulo.
