20 Must-Attend Social Media Conferences in 2017

Update (January 2018): We have an updated list of the top 22 social media conferences to attend in 2018. Feel free to check it out!

Working on social media can be a little lonely at times, especially if you are working as a team of one.

Imagine being around like-minded people who understand your daily struggles and learning from top professionals in the marketing world. Maybe even doing this while on a vacation!

Social media conferences are the secret to all that. These conferences, ranging from one day to a week, promise talks from top social media experts, workshops on the latest social media strategies, networking opportunities with fellow marketers, and more.

Pro-tip: If you are traveling to any of these conferences, you could also turn it into a mini-vacation ?️

Here’s a list of 20 top social media marketing conferences for 2017, with all the information you need to know such as data, location, and price.

If we’re missing your favorite social media marketing conference, it’d be awesome if you could share the details in the comments section to let others know about it.

Let’s jump right in…

The 20 Best Social Media Marketing Conferences of 2017

Here’s a quick overview of the top social media marketing conferences for the rest of 2017. This list is arranged chronologically. To see more details, click on the respective links.

1. Social Media Marketing World (March 22-24, San Diego)
2. Social Media Conference for PR, Marketing and Corporate Communications (March 27-29, Orlando)
3. Content Marketing Conference (April 11-13, Boston)
4. Social Media Strategies Summit (April 26-28, Chicago)
5. Social Media & Web Analytics Summit (April 26-27, San Francisco)
6. Social Media Camp (May 3-4, Victoria, British Columbia)
7. Engage Prague (May 17-19, Prague)
8. The Social Shake-Up (May 22-24, Atlanta)
9. WistiaFest (June 11-13, Boston)
10. Social Media Week (June 12-16, Los Angeles, Mexico City, and Milan)
11. Corporate Social Media Summit (June 15-16, New York)
12. Digital Marketing World Forum Expo Global (June 19-20, London)
13. VidCon (June 21-24, Anaheim)
14. Content Marketing World (September 5-8, Cleveland)
15. CMX Summit (September 19-20, Los Angeles)
16. INBOUND (September 25-28, Boston)
17. SpredFast’s Smart Social Summit (October 16-18, Austin)
18. Social Tools Summit (October 18, Boston)
19. PubCon (November 6-9, Las Vegas)
20. Social Fresh Conference (December 8-9, Orlando)

1. Social Media Marketing World

March 22-24, San Diego

Date: March 22-24, 2017

Location: San Diego, California

Price: $1,597 (Virtual tickets are $697 each.)

Social Media Marketing World 2017 is the largest social media marketing conference, by the largest social media marketing blog, Social Media Examiner. There will be more than 120 speakers and 3,000 fellow marketers at the conference, making it a great opportunity to learn from and connect with others. Our social media manager, Brian Peters, will be on a panel, discssuing Twitter promotion.

Sorry for the short notice about this amazing conference. If you are thinking of attending this conference next time, Social Media Examiner has released the dates and venue for the next two years — February 28 to March 2, 2018 and March 20 to March 22, 2019, both in San Diego at the San Diego Convention Center. Otherwise, you could also grab the virtual tickets and attend the conference online.

2. Social Media Conference for PR, Marketing and Corporate Communications

March 27-29, Orlando

Date: March 27-29, 2017

Location: Orlando, Florida

Price: Starting from $1,295 (Live webcast is available at $995.)

Apart from social media marketing, social media strategies for PR and internal communications are also on the agenda. If you want to get the most out of this conference, there are pre-conference workshops, such as Big 5 social media boot camp, you can sign up for. Here’s a bonus: this conference is held in the magical lands of Disney World.

3. Content Marketing Conference

April 11-13, Boston

Date: April 11-13, 2017

Location: Boston, Massachusetts

Price: Starting from $1,249

With the mind-blowing amount of content being created daily, Content Marketing Conference wants to give you actionable tips and strategies to create great, engaging content. The talks will cover everything from planning, to creation, to optimization, to distribution and more.

4. Social Media Strategies Summit

April 26-28, Chicago

Date: April 26-28, 2017

Location: Chicago, Illinois

Price: Starting from $1,599

Social Media Strategies Summit has been running for seven years now. Apart from the conference in Chicago (SMSS Central), there will also be Social Media Strategies Summits in New York (SMSS East, October 17-19), Boston (Higher Education, November 2-3), and San Francisco (SMSS West, February 2018).

5. Social Media & Web Analytics Summit

April 26-27, San Francisco

Date: April 26-27, 2017

Location: San Francisco, California

Price: Starting at $1,695 (Recordings and slide decks are available at $600.)

This summit covers more than how to use social media but also how to measure and analyze your social media data to perform better. Besides this summit, the organizer, Innovation Enterprise, hosts more than a hundred webinars and summits on various topics each year.

6. Social Media Camp

May 3-4, Victoria, British Columbia

Date: May 3-4, 2017

Location: Victoria, British Columbia

Price: Starting at $599 (Digital tickets are at $97 each.)

Social Media Camp is Canada’s largest social media conference, and this year’s conference is its eighth annual event. On top of marketing discussions, there will be sessions on ethics, work-life balance, and security on social media. To help you make the most of the conference, there are SMCamp coaches (social media professionals in various industries), who would tell you which are the best sessions to attend according to your goals and help answer any questions you have after any sessions during the conference.

7. Engage Prague

May 17-19, Prague

Date: May 17-19, 2017

Location: Prague, Czech Republic

Price: Starting from $599

Engage Prague is organized by the team at Socialbakers, who provides social media marketing and analytics tools. The first two days will be filled with more than 40 hands-on workshops, and the final day will be a conference. There will also be Engage Bali, Engage Americas, and smaller events coming up next.

8. The Social Shake-Up

May 22-24, Atlanta

Date: May 22-24, 2017

Location: Atlanta, Georgia

Price: Starting from $1,195

This three-day social media conference is organized by PR News and Social Media Today. Speakers from companies such as Twitter, Google, and The Coca-Cola Company will teach you about social media marketing, content strategies, and PR. One thing in the agenda that stood out for me is the case studies sessions where real-life examples will be discussed.

9. WistiaFest

June 11-13, Boston

Date: June 11-13, 2017

Location: Boston, Massachusetts

Price: $750

We found that 83 percent of marketers want to create more video content if they won’t restricted by time or resources. WistiaFest might just be the conference you need to help you improve your marketing efforts through videos. And it just looks super fun!

10. Social Media Week

June 12-16, Los Angeles, Mexico City, and Milan

Date: June 12-16, 2017

Location: Los Angeles, Mexico City, and Milan

Price: $799

Social Media Week organizes conferences in 12 cities around the world throughout the year. While the next conferences are in Los Angeles, Mexico City, and Milan, there will also be conferences in Jakarta, London, Rotterdam, and more for the rest of the year. There are also independently organised Social Media Week events in more than 10 other cities.

11. Corporate Social Media Summit

June 15-16, New York

Date: June 15-16, 2017

Location: Brooklyn, New York

Price: Starting from $1,995

If you work in a big company, Corporate Social Media Summit might be the best one for you. You’ll get to hear from leaders of top brands such as Unilever, Adidas, Lego, and more. There’ll also be a chance to be paired with one of the speakers, who would discuss and work through your social media strategies through breakout sessions.

12. Digital Marketing World Forum Expo Global

June 19-20, London

Date: June 19-20, 2017

Location: London, U.K.

Price: Starting at £299 (about $366)

While #DMWF Expo Global covers a range of topics from Content Marketing to AI and VR in Digital Marketing, it has a track solely for social media and influencer marketing. Besides this expo, there will also be #DMWF Expo Europe (3-4 April, Amsterdam) and #DMWF Expo North America (Dates TBA, New York).

13. VidCon

June 21-24, Anaheim

Date: June 21-24, 2017

Location: Anaheim, California

Price: Starting from $125

VidCon is all about online videos, from social media videos to YouTube videos, to even virtual reality videos. While it doesn’t focus purely on the marketing aspect of videos, I believe there’s a lot to learn about creating great videos and engaging your community. VidCon is also happening in Europe (April 7-9, Amsterdam) and Australia (September 9-10, Melbourne).

14. Content Marketing World

September 5-8, Cleveland

Date: September 5-8, 2017

Location: Cleveland, Ohio

Price: Starting from $1,095 (Post-show video access is available at $495.)

The largest content event, Content Marketing World, is expecting more than 4,000 attendees and 225 speakers this year. With an amazing speaker lineup of content marketing leaders, it promises to give you all the information you need to create and execute a content marketing plan (which could be essential for your social media marketing strategy).

15. CMX Summit

September 19-20, Los Angeles

Date: September 19-20, 2017

Location: Los Angeles, California

Price: $749

A great thing about social media is being able to engage and connect with your customers and community. CMX Summit is one of the top conferences for community builders. If you are curious about the types of talks at CMX Summit, the CMX Hub team is awesome enough to share all the talks from their past events on their website. Enjoy!

16. INBOUND

September 25-28, Boston

Date: September 25-28, 2017

Location: Boston, Massachusetts

Price: Starting from $299

INBOUND, organized by HubSpot, is probably the most well-known inbound marketing conference around. INBOUND 2016 featured a diverse group of speakers like Gary Vaynerchuck, Anna Kendrick, and Serena Williams and had almost 300 breakout sessions with top sales and marketing experts.

17. Spredfast’s Smart Social Summit

October 16-18, Austin

Date: October 2-4, 2017

Location: Austin, Texas

Price: VIP pricing of $695 until April 30

Spredfast was able to get incredible speakers for the previous summit, and I believe, will continue to do so this year. There were keynote speakers such as Cubby Graham, Social Media Strategist of charity: water and also speakers from Airbnb, Twitter, ESPN, and more. If you want to see whether you might like the summit, you can catch up on the recaps of the summit here.

Update: Spredfast has another summit, Smart Social NYC Summit, coming up on May 23, 2017, in New York City.

18. Social Tools Summit

October 18, Boston

Date: October 18, 2017 (as shared by the co-founder, Neal Schaffer)

Location: Boston, Massachusetts

Price: To be announced

If you are a fan of social media tools, Social Tools Summit is made for you! It is a conference dedicated to social media tools, focusing on the tools are available and how to use them to maximize the ROI of your social media efforts. There is also a LinkedIn Group for the conference attendees and anyone interested in discussing social media tools and best practices.

19. PubCon

November 6-9, Las Vegas

(Sorry for the rather old video. This is the latest video about PubCon I could find.)

Date: November 6-9, 2017

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Price: Starting at $349

PubCon was listed as one of the must-attend conferences for entrepreneurs in a Forbes article in 2013. While it is a social media and SEO conference, it covers a wide range of other marketing topics such as SEM, content, email, and more.

20. Social Fresh Conference

December 8-9, Orlando

Date: December 8-9, 2017

Location: Orlando, Florida

Price: $747

Social Fresh is a social media marketing education company which has organized 18 Social Fresh Conferences so far.

This year’s conference will focus on actionable strategies and tactics for things like Instagram and Snapchat Stories, Chatbots, Messenger, social advertising, and more. You can check out the topics that’ll be covered here.

What’s your favorite social media conference?

Wow, that’s a big list of social media conferences! But I’m sure I’m missing some of your favorite social media conferences. I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.

Also, if you have been to any of these conferences before, it’ll be helpful for fellow readers if you are up for sharing your experiences and why you love the conference. Thank you!