Continuing my coverage of the latest BIA/Kelsey conference Marketplaces 2010. In last session of day one, we had the opportunity to listen to Craig Donato, Oodle‘s CEO. I’ve been a fan of the Oodle model since they launched (aggregated classifieds platform with a centralized database and distributed content). They power Facebook’s classifieds section (quite a partnership in itself). I hadn’t heard Donato speak in a long time and I was happy to see that his thoughts were right on the money as far as I’m concerned.

Past Flickr picture by mixmoo

Highlights/insights:

• Social media will fundamentally change the game of classifieds
• Classifieds are inherently social as they always finish with a face-to-face interaction
• Identity and reputation play a big role in the future of classifieds
• Discovery through trusted recommendations is bringing a new era of social discovery
• We’re going from search engine optimization to social media optimization. He gave the Facebook page and Twitter profile examples, where you build a fan base and followers that share and join the conversation
• An interesting insight from their Facebook integration: the newsfeed is the new important real estate for businesses.The more people comment on an individual “activity” on Facebook, the more it gets viral and gets pushed to your friends.

The BIA/Kelsey blog has a small summary of that presentation.