SMC News: February 2007

March 4, 2007 by Kristie Wells

In this issue:

Welcome New Members!
T-Shirt contest
SMC Gatherings around the World
Link Love
Introducing the ‘They get it’ Podcast

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Welcome to our Co-Founders, SMB Members and Professional Members:

We’d like to acknowledge our new Co-Founders, Small and Medium Business Members, and Professional Members here. Thank you ever so much for opening your heart, and your wallet, to support the mission of Social Media Club.

Corporate Co-Founders: Business Wire (Laura Sturaitis, Monika Maeckle, Ken Zamkow, Clint Howell, Serena Ehrlich, Malcolm Atherton, Liz Koch, Francine Vida, and Joel Tesch) and Shift Communications (Todd Defren - his team to be announced shortly)

SMB Co-Founders: anthonyBarnumPR (Connie Reece, Melissa Anthony, Mike Chapman), Swatchbox Technologies (Mike Bruznell, Andy Jenks, Jesse Engle), Intellicontact (Chuck Hester, Ryan Allis, Brandon Milford), VOCE Communications (Mike Manual, Stacy Libby, Michael Moeschler), The Bravo Group (Christopher Bravacos and his team), and Starlight Media (Laurence Koret and his team).

SMB: iPressRoom Corporation (Eric Schwartzman)

Professional Co-Founders: Brian Solis, Mitch Ratcliffe, David Meerman Scott, Alex Williams, Eric Ward, Tim Bonnemann, Andrea Weckerle, Josh Hallett, Jeffrey Keefer, Tom Hayes, Steven Vitka, Todd VanHoosear, Dee Rambeau, Debbie Weil, and Cynthia Baker.

Professional: Michelle Lamar, Robert Chiarito, Adam Broitman, Shel Israel, Kelley Burrus, Nathaniel Westheimer, and Dave Coustan.

Each of the members mentioned above will receive a Member Kit that includes a membership card, stickers, and a T-shirt. We will continue to beef the kits up as time goes on with other promotional items, discounts and various other benefits, so stay tuned for further announcements!

Which leads us into….

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SMC T-Shirt Contest(s): Win a Shirt, a Little Fame and Our Undying Love!

We are looking for funky and fresh designs, something people would be proud to put on their chest and back. A good example of a cool T-shirt design is the one Greg Narain designed for the Web 2point2 unconference. It not only played into the messaging perfectly, it was a great conversation starter and something most folks could relate too. Thanks again Greg - that was really kick ass. All entries will be posted to the SMC site and will be voted on by your peers. And if yours is/are the winning design(s), you will get a free T-shirt with your design on it, a Professional SMC Co-Founder Membership ($250 value), a $100 Amazon gift certificate, link love galore, and full bragging rights. Not a bad deal I think. And it probably goes without saying that your completed design should have something to do with ‘Social Media’ (open for interpretation) and/or slogan “If you get it, share it”.

Contest rules and details can be found online and we hope to see your designs soon!

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SMC Gatherings Around the World

We have a fresh round of local events coming up over the next month and hope you can join one of us at one of them:

Atlanta: March 6, 2007
Phoenix: March 8, 2007
South Florida: March 14, 2007
Boston: March 15 2007 (date change)
London: March 15, 2007
San Francisco: March 20, 2007
Dallas: March 27, 2007 (pending)
New York: March 27, 2007
Austin: March 29, 2007
Washington, DC: March 29, 2007

Los Angeles, Seattle, and Vancouver gatherings are in the works and we are looking into launching groups in Silicon Valley, Denver, Philadelphia and Toronto shortly!

To get information on an existing gathering, please visit our Events page.

Don’t see a group in your local area yet? Sign up your city on the wiki and we will contact you to help SMC launch in your backyard (well, not literally, but you get the idea).

If you don’t know about what happens during our meetings, check out these two posts with audio from the February NYC and San Francisco events.

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Are You a Member of the Club?

You may have seen the membership button on the navigation, but perhaps wondered why you would join as a member, when all you have seen so far is the blog and our events. The thing is, by registering as an open member, you are showing your support of our desire to build a community of social media practitioners and champions. A statement of that desire through our registration form is a great first step towards the mutually beneficial work we are doing. You need not pay us money to be supportive of our efforts.

We have always had and always will have an Open Membership option for free - for those who want to participate but either don’t have the money or simply don’t want to pay.

We have been seeking co-founders and paid memberships as a form of ‘community financing’ to help us ramp up more community services (to be announced shortly). It also could very well save the life of one of Chris’ very, very tired credit cards.

So if you have received any benefit from the events we have organized, or if you see the need for a community organization to support this emerging new form of communications and want to be involved in creating it, please register today as an Open Member.

If you are a member of the club already - we can’t thank you enough. With over 120 registered members and about 40 paid members, it warms the cockles of my heart to know that all this hard work is making a difference and helping people to connect with the people, ideas and resources they need.

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We Sure Love Those Links

When you blog, podcast, videocast or do some other Social Media ‘thing’ and wish to link to Social Media Club, please use .COM not .ORG address. We are moving everything over to the .COM and this will not only reduce confusion, but also doesn’t divide our search engine mojo up to two domains. You get it. Thanks.

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Introducing the ‘They get it’ Podcast

You may have caught a blog post or three on the podcasts we have done recently with some people we know who really ‘get’ Social Media. We are going to be producing more of these as we go forward, talking with other smart people who have a deep understanding of what is happening here. As Doc Searls says, there is something of “Greater Significance” happening – the people we are talking to in this series can truly “see the forest for the trees” and will help you see it too.

Or, you can subscribe to the feed and never miss an episode! If you would like to nominate someone to be interviewed for the ‘They Get It’ series, please end an email to theygetit@socialmediaclub.com with a short note introducing the person, and why they ‘get it.’

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Last, but not least. Have you signed up for the SMC mailing list yet? Feel free to join the one in your town, or, if you’re not in a town with a local group meeting yet, join the more general purpose SMC-List. Simply click on the title, and follow the instructions of the form to join that mailing list.

Be well you Media mavens.

Cheers,

Chris, Kristie and Howard
Social Media Club

Coming Next Month: A member survey so we can learn more about who you are, and what we can do to make SMC the organization you want it to be

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