Using Social Media to track Hurricane Gustav

I love hearing interesting ways people are using Social Media, and the Ning site put up today to help report news on Hurricane Gustav is a brilliant use of the tools available. The site will aggregate content from a variety of sources, including; Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, Utterz, Technorati, etc.- all you have to do is tag the item gustav.

Kudos to Andy Carvin for starting it and for everyone participating/contributing to help educate folks in the affected areas as well as keeping us connected so we can mobilize when needed.

We are all praying Gustav dies before hitting land again, but if it should continue on – here’s hoping we are better prepared to take action and respond quickly.

Orange sponsors the Social Media Club France

Great news just arrived from Europe today: Orange is now officially the first annual sponsor of the Social Media Club France.
By supporting the French SMC chapter throughout the 2008-2009 season, and with several SMC active members coming from its ranks, Orange contributes significantly to the definition and the diffusion of best practices in the social media industry. Being now backed by a major organization, the Social Media Club will be able to accelerate its development in France and Europe: events will be organized on a more regular basis, intern or part-time worker will be hired, new projects will be launched,…

Again, many thanks to Orange for its trust and its support.

For any info on the Social Media Club France and its future / past events, please visit our wiki section or contact Pierre-Yves Platini (pyplatini at gmail dot com).

Social Media for Social Good 08.28.08

Austin Social Media Club is once again partnering with 501 Tech Club of Austin to enlist Twitter users in a community project. This time the beneficiary is the Capital Area Food Bank and the event is a HAM-up (September is Hunger Action Month). Tyson Foods issued a challenge on their Hunger Relief blog, offering to donate 100 pounds of protein for every comment posted, up to a full 35,000-pound truck load. Organizers were floored when the truck was filled in just six hours; comments topped out at over 600.

Beth Kanter challenged the 250 attendees at Gnomedex to raise $2,500 before the end of the two-day conference in order to send Cambodian student Leng Sopharath to college for her junior year. With Twitter working as the back channel, word of the fund-raising project spread far beyond the conference center in Seattle. At the 90-minute mark the fund had surpassed the goal; the final total raised was $3,774. The additional money will no doubt be put to good use in another one of Beth’s projects for Cambodian children.

Conference Notes

There are a few conferences coming up that we thought you might be interested in sinking your teeth into:

National Coalition of Dialogue and Deliberation: October 3-5, 2008 in Austin, TX – NCDD’s dynamic conferences bring together leaders and future leaders in public engagement, conflict resolution and related fields to share resources and strategies, build lasting relationships, increase the visibility and effectiveness of their work, tackle challenges we face, and initiate collaborative projects.

The New Marketing Summit: October 14-15, 2008 in Foxboro, MA  - Bringing together the best speakers, most relevant topics and best tools and demonstrations on what’s next in online marketing and social media.

Communitelligence Executing Social Media: October 15-16, 2008 in Atlanta, GA  - In two, jam-packed days, you will learn the business opportunities and risks presented by the new technologies, including blogging, podcasting, RSS, YouTube, Twitter, social networks, and virtual communities. You’ll learn how each of these work and how to put them to work in your organization. Social Media Club members will receive a special $200 discount off the attendance fee by using promo code ESM08SMC when registering.

Social Media Now 08.26.08

Here’s a bit of what’s going on in Social Media of late. Feel free to add your own links in the comments section, or send us you suggestions for the next issue of Social Media Now.

Jeremiah Owyang shares his thoughts on how a you should look at Twitter before deciding to promote your brand there. Web Strategy: The Evolution of Brands on Twitter.

Valeria Maltoni wonders Are You Measuring Media by the Pound? and lays out some basic strategies for scaleability in your PR campaign.

Chris Brogan gives us a step by step plan in How to Listen for Opportunities on Twitter.

Marshall Kirkpatrick REALLY didn’t like SocialU. Did you?

Matt Dickman points out the vicious circle politeness can create in Social Media. And I’d just like to say thank you Matt.

Bright Shiny Objects
Tweetrush, is yet another app that shows estimated stats on Twitter usage. Is it possible to have too many analytics tools?

FriendFeed is getting even better with the addition of Friend Lists, Feed Sharing and photo hosting. Check out the blog to learn more.

Travel a lot and need to get oriented? OnionMap may interest you.

BestBuy to Host Social Media Conversations – Things are Happening in Minneapolis

Social Media Breakfast Twin Cities and Social Media Club of Minnesota and have aligned for selected events in order to push forward the digital community discussions and connections here in the Twin Cities. Better things happen when you come together. This coming Friday at 8AM, BestBuy continues their openness to discussions on new media and social media with local practitioners in Minneapolis by hosting a breakfast in their main auditorium. Rick Mahn, founder of the local chapter of Social Media Breakfast, is leading the charge and has brought together a great lineup. Julio Ojeda-Zapata, journalist for Pioneer Press (main paper in the Twin Cities) will talk about his upcoming book “Twitter Means Business – How microblogging can help or hurt your company.” Julio opened up live-writing on a chapter to the new book on Twitter before the event and he will share some of the collections at BestBuy on Friday.

Also at the event, there will be a live remote update from Noah Kunin of TheUptake.org from the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, CO. Noah will be demonstrating how social media, specifically mobile video, is being used for citizen journalism. You are able to watch remotely via the Mogulus video channel on Mogulus: www.mogulus.com/smbmsp. Attendance to the events has been  steadily growing, and the goal is to keep attendees around 80-100 simply because real interactive discussions can’t take place as the numbers get too large. The goal is to keep it interactive.

After BestBuy, the following three events in September and October are in the planning phase and will be hosted at Minneapolis Fortune 500s. Minneapolis is special because of the large business that exist here, including 3M, BestBuy, Target, General Mills, United Health Group, and Medtronic. These companies are big slow ships, but hey they are massive behemoths that are making strides to incorporate social media and build communities internally and for their customers. Some have had a few bumps along the road but at least they are willing to discuss it. Back in May, BestBuy’s Gary Koelling (Blue Shirt Nation) sat on the panel hosted by Social Media Club and MIMA  and brought some fresh air to the conversation on who controls social media in the enterprise. More news will be coming out of Minneapolis as these large companies are developing and putting into practice new services for massive amounts of customers and employees.

Be sure to tune in on Friday August 22nd at 8AM Central.
More details: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/991607/?ps=6 - 

Social Media Club of Minneapolis

Seeking Case Studies: Social Media Successes

We would like to put together a list of ‘case studies’ of companies around the world (large and small) who have adopted a Social Media strategy and, here’s the kicker, successfully taken action on their plan.

It may not have been a completely smooth path for them to walk down, but they are making strides and their internal and external communities are all the better for it.

Who should we make sure is included in this list and why (short summary please)? And feel free to toot your own horn if you are proud of what you are doing.

Social Media Now 8.20.08

Here’s a bit of what’s going on in Social Media of late. Feel free to add your own links in the comments section, or send us you suggestions for the next issue of Social Media Now.

• Mike Sansone’s mantra is Reach with Intention, and he provides some great questions to ask yourself when considering the use of Social Media tools in your Marketing strategy. 
  
• Patrick Williams writes a nice article on How to write a Strategic Communications Plan. Having written a few of these in my lifetime, his 13-step  model feels pretty dead on.
• Mashable reports an interesting story this morning on a possible break in Gmail’s security if you use this service on a public hotspot. Thankfully, it is easily corrected by clicking on ‘Settings’, go to the ‘General’ tab and select ‘always use https‘ when accessing Gmail. Might run a wee bit slower for you then, but at least your data will be secure.
• Michelle Lamar just completed the White Trash Mom Handbook. Great use of her site to give me snippets of the content and dig into her blog to learn more. Thinking I know what to get my girlfriends for  Christmas now…
• Pandora is in trouble as the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) is looking to almost triple the licensing fees for web radio sites. Note that under the new plan Internet radio stations would jump to 2.91 cents per hour per listener, satellite radio stations would pay 1.6 cents per hour per listener and traditional radio stations would pay…nothing. Everyone agrees royalties are due, it just seems to me there should be a more fair and balanced fee structure. More info, and how you can help here.
• via @ciaoenrico, Arizona Highways is having a photo contest to capture images of their great state. Smart way to engage visitors and locals alike and keep them coming back for more.

Bright Shiny Objects
Ok, these are not really so bright and shiny, but they are three services I find I cannot live without.

• Dopplr -For the folks who travel a bit. Easy to use interface with a great social element to help you connect with your community while on the road.  Dopplr is a free service.
• iContact – If you send mass email communications (i.e. newsletters and such) this is a great service to help you manage your contact database. Disclosure: We were users, and believers, long before they became a Social Media Club Small Business Member. You can try them out with a 10-day free trial.
• Survey Monkey. There are a lot of polling systems out there, but I find Survey Monkey is the one I go back to time and time again. They do offer a free version that would work for many.

Podcast Highlights: Be the Voice and Marketing Voices

• Be The Voice: August 17, 2008 – David Spark talks with Chris Heuer, Social Media Club’s CoFounder and a Senior Partner with The Conversation Group and Peter Hirshberg, also of The Conversation Group and chairman of Technorati about engaging with your community. Heuer and Hirshberg offer some amazing insight with regard to developing your voice, caring about what your audience cares about, and NOT just being an agent to deliver a message for a brand or company.
• Marketing Voices: August 11, 2008 – Chris Heuer talks to Jennifer Jones about how Social Media Club got started, what should be most important to marketers today and explains what he means by ‘gisting’.

If you have a podcast that covers Social Media Marketing, Tools and/or Practices and think our members would find the topic of interest, please send a summary and the link to socialmediaclub [at] gmail [dot] com.

How To Launch An Amazing Social Network In 4 Days

[I posted this article on my blog yesterday, but thought it might help a few SMC members if it were reposted.]

Last week, I strategized and launched a pretty large social network in four days, with the help of a really amazing team. In some days, I have done jobs like this before, in that I’ve launched a hyper-local social network last year in a couple of hours, but in many ways, I entered uncharted waters this week with this particular implementation.

To learn 13 of the things that you’ll need to do as a social web strategist, in order to get a huge, robust social network up in a ridiculously short time period, just follow this link. Damn the torpedoes!

Inbound Marketing Summit: discount passes available!

Join well-regarded industry leaders such as David Meerman Scott, Seth Godin, Chris Brogan, Chris Penn and Greg Verdino for the Inbound Marketing Summit on September 8th in Cambridge, MA to hear their insights on how to generate more leads and sales for your business.

There are less than 40 ticket lefts to this event, and thanks to our own Michelle Wolverton, you may now receive $100 off the price of the conference.  Just use code ‘8MCP1‘ when you register (thanks Chel!).

Finally! WordPress Reveals Favorite Plugins

Per Matt’s request, I held this under embargo until he started his address – may need to update wiht more facts once he explains the whole story

One of the things that struck me when I started using WordPress was that the Plugin and Theme universe was extremely vast. So vast, that I could never tell very easily which Plugin I should use, especially when there are 7 flavors of “recent comments”. So at the first WordCamp (or sometime around there) I was talking with Matt Mullenweg about this need.

I was thinking this might be a neat side business as a site to run, but Matt told me about this idea that he just announced as a reality during the “State of the Word” today – where WordPress would be actually looking at the statistics of which plugins people are actually using, rather than what people explicitly rate. This is a unique side benefit of the auto-update feature of the latest version of WordPress.

This new reality opens a new path to easier WordPress configuration. More importantly, it is a path to learning our collective best practices, doing what Web 2.0 and Social Media is best at, making things visible that previously were not.

While I anticipate some people in a privacy uproar over this, I don’t really see a problem with the fact that they have been collecting these statistics. The reason is very simple. I know Matt personally. I know Tony personally. I trust them to do the right thing. I trust they thought of this issue. In fact, when Matt told me about this announcement a short while ago, we both laughed nervously and expressed that, “oh shit, what are people gonna say when they find this out” look to each other.

This is just so cool, I am so happy to finally be able to see what other WordPress users are doing with their plugins. In fact, on the way here to WordCamp, I twittered a question for the people in attendance, asking which are the essential plugins? The answers I got are below. The real answers will soon be seen through WordPress’ new feature – I can’t wait to play with it…

• 
  jjtoothman: @chrisheuer wrote a post on that exact subject earlier this week: http://snurl.com/3fqrj (expand)
  about 1 hour ago · View Tweet
• 
  thornley: @chrisheuer Essential WordPress plug http://www.friendsroll.com – at least I’d like it to become essential
  about 1 hour ago · View Tweet
• 
  mabernathy: @chrisheuer headspace 2
  about 1 hour ago · View Tweet
• 
  sfdesigner: @chrisheuer CodeBox for me — I blog about coding and teach programming, so it is essential for me.
  about 2 hours ago · View Tweet
• 
  chrisheuer: Hey #wordcamp, quick poll – what are your essential plugins? Compiling a list for @socialmediaclub
  about 2 hours ago · View Tweet

Technorati Tags: wordpress, wordcamp, plugins,

Stand Up to Cancer

(NOTE: UPDATED 10/27 -see below)
Almost everyone has had Cancer touch his or her life. I’ve had a mother-in-law, grandmother, and 1st cousin fight and beat cancer, and I’ve seen the damage that it creates in their lives, and the lives of those around them. I lost a stepmother to cancer as well.

I’m writing today about a pro-bono effort I’ve been asked to take part in*, along with my friends at Weber Shandwick, to raise awareness of the Stand Up to Cancer campaign going on. SU2C is the short name and the tag for this effort.
SU2C is a multi-party effort started out of a group of Media Executives who are trying to raise money to fund ‘game changing’ research and “dream team” research teams who can make a huge impact in our fight against cancer.
You may have heard of the effort, as all 3 Network News Anchors appeared on all 3 Network Morning Shows recently to discuss it. On September 5th, NBC, CBS and ABC are doing a “Roadblock” of the kind you normally see during a presidential address. They will run the same show for an hour during prime time on that night. The show, hosted by Katie Couric, Brian Williams, Charles Gibson, and others, will attempt to raise awareness of the SU2C efforts and raise money.
Between now and then, I’m involved in the efforts to raise awareness on the web.

To do so, I’m making a call to action for all my social media connected friends: please be a part of this effort, raise visibility and help find the cure.

How can you help?

• There is media (banners, blog badges, email sigs, etc)  on the Virtual Standup site.  If you can, add a badge to your site, email, or other location, please do.
• I’d like you to show love to SU2C on Twitter by following it, and sending it tweets of support.
• Friend SU2C on Facebook. They also have an Application called the the Stand on that page.
• There are some videos on YouTube you can embed. Also there are really funny videos on FunnyOrDie.com that support SU2C by Henry Winkler, Sarah Silverman and Larry David. Embed them on your site.
• Let your followers know about this effort.

Lastly, I ask that you suggest other things we can do as a community to increase awareness. I think this is a “case study” for how SMC can help bring about change via social media.

Finally, I acknowledge the other work done in the Social Media community that I know about – from the Frozen Peas Fund and everyone that supports it, to Doug Haslam’s ride in the Pan Mass challenge to I’m sure hundreds of other efforts.

Stand Up 2 Cancer shouldn’t take away from these efforts. It should raise the awareness for Cancer in general. We’ve put men on the moon, controled robots on Mars, and beat back thousands of diseases that used to kill people  every day. Cancer is next. Please help make it happen. Stand up.

UPDATE: SocialVibe is a very interesting social media company that leverages the traffic from your pages to generate money for social causes. SMC isn’t related to SocialVibe in any way, but this is worth noting, via MaxGladwell.com:

For bloggers, however, SocialVibe is inviting all of us to raise straight cash by directing readers to this specific link: SocialVibe.com/SU2C. Which is a unique portal for signing up and becoming a SocialVibe member. For each successful sign-up through this page (that means you), SocialVibe donates $1 to SU2C.When all is said and done, SocialVibe will list the bloggers and their donation tally on its blog, The Vibe, together with a press release that will feature the top bloggers. As a blogger, you don’t have to actually sign up in order to direct readers to sign up. You’ll still generate $1 for every person who does, though the tracking may not be that accurate. Alternatively or in addition to this, bloggers can contact SocialVibe (su2c [at] socialvibe.com) to have a custom, co-branded badge designed for their blog, which guarantees tracking.

Max Gladwell linked over here to my post, and also have connected with WeberShandwick as well to get everyone on board. I think this is a solid way to raise money for this cause, and I’m personally putting this on my own blog now. Thanks to the Max Gladwell team and Social Vibe for reaching out to me.
* (Disclosure: While I have done paid work for Weber, this is totally pro-bono and voluntary on my part).

Update: Look how many people participated:  From ET online:

Members of Hollywood’s A-list are joining forces for a good cause. According to People Meryl Streep, Jennifer Aniston and Charlize Theron are among the celebs who’ve agreed to participate in the Stand Up to Cancer telethon, airing September 5 simultaneously on ABC, CBS and NBC.

Scarlett Johansson, Christina Applegate, Sally Field and “American Idol” champ David Cook are also expected to appear on the show, which will raise money for cancer research and treatment.

Social Media Now 8.11.08

Social Media Now 9-11-08

Here’s a bit of what’s going on in social media of late. Feel free to add your own links in the comments section, or send us you suggestions for the next issue of Social Media Now.

Chris Brogan shares his best advice about social media.

The Dontgo movement showed that the Republicans can get social media and they used social media channels to help build their “revolution”. Then they showed they didn’t get social media when they started banning posts from the Twitter feed as “inappropriate”. After some fast thinking they now offer a feed in “filtered” and “unfiltered” versions.

We found some interesting stats on the most popular social bookmarking services on Digital Inspiration.

Jeremiah Owyang posted his thoughts on the tracking of the propane explosions in Toronto as news spread from Twitter to the print press.

Another  take on social media as a buzzbuilder, “Applying Circuit Breakers to a Social Media Mob Mentality” is  about how we can fan the flames of a personal interaction until it quickly becomes the shot heard round the world.

Benedikt Koehler posted an interesting cloud/map of who’s investing in Web 2.0 companies.

Bright Shiny Objects

Missing your Facebook pokes because you don’t have a smart phone? Sarah Perez from ReadWriteWeb posted an article on a free mobile push app called BlueWhaleMail that can push your Facebook posts, pokes and messages to your mobile phone, even if it’s not a smart phone. (Available for selected Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones)

Speaking of Facebook, Guy Kawasaki set up a Facebook group for Alltop for viewers and owners of the sites and blogs Alltop aggregates. Sign up here:

Crunchgear turned 2 on August 11, and they’re giving away goodies for the next 10 days.

Posty is the latest Adobe Air app. to surface. It posts your updates to Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Tumblr Frinedfeed and Identi.ca.

AllofMe launched their public Alpa. It’s a timeline builder, allowing you to scan event or project timelines visually, or create a personal timeline of important events.

Vote for your favorite SXSW panel!

The SXSW panel selection process opened this morning, and several of the Social Media Club Advisory Group members have pitched presentation ideas in the hopes of sharing their experiences with you. If any of these topics move you, feel free to cast your vote for one, two or all of them (listed in alphabetical order):

• Against All Odds-A Media Literate World: The new “Media Literacy” means understanding the facts, context and perspective of content. When you share, modify, or comment, this shows who you are online and in society. The public record of your search and attention stream will define how you’re perceived. How do we increase media literacy?  Presenters: Chris Heuer, Howard Greenstein, Alex De Carvalho, Brian Solis (with possibly Howard Reingold too)
• Beyond Social Media: Introducing Social Communications: Who really “owns” social media? Is it PR, Marketing, Branding? This panel will demonstrate that it’s all of the above and more. Thus the new category “Social Communications,” which we can think of as a hybrid of PR, marketing, branding, WOM, customer service, product development and more.  Presenters: Jackie Peters, Kristie Wells, Connie Reece, Chuck Hester, Todd Van Hoosear
• Breaking Through the Digital Ceiling: Are you a woman (or a man) who loves to tech out but is tired of sexism, ageism, and the lack of diversity? Women in tech and social media experts identify strategies for breaking through the digital ceiling. The panel will discuss topics such as getting heard by upper management, how to effectively advocate for your work and expertise, what men can do to help promote women in technology as well as how to break through the barriers of being too young or too old in the tech sector.  Presenters: Allyson Kapin, Charlene Li, Connie Reece, Susan Mernit, Lynne Johnson
• Climbing the Corporate Ladder in a Mini Skirt (or pant suit?): Powerful tech women share their secrets regarding kicking ass, moving up the ladder, dealing with jerks, and helping other girls reach the top. Presenters: Mel Kirk, Sally Strebel, Kristie Wells, Bronwyn Jones, Aubrey Sabalas
• Corporate Reputation Management in the 2.0 World: For too long reputation management has involved cheap Google tricks and seat-of-the-pants tactics. Lee Odden and Rob Key, two prominent experts in search and corporate reputation management, will outline a strategic approach to reputation, based on a sophisticated understanding of conversation mining data and new media engagement. Presenters: Rob Key, Lee Odden
• Discussion on the Pervasiveness of Streams: The emergence of streams in our digital lives is, in many ways, aligning our thinking in a way that we are only subtly appreciating. Streams represent the end of top-down broadcast and the beginning of a confluence of information and communication exchange patterns that function multi dimensionally. Presenters: Greg Narain, Jackie Peters, Brian Solis
• Everything you know about Social Media is Wrong!: Everyone knows that social media has created a revolution in marketing. But aren’t most marketers missing the point about what social media can or cannot do for them? This panel will expose the horrible lies and deceptions surrounding social media marketing. You will know what social media is and isn’t. Presenters: Hugh MacLeod, Tara Hunt, Deb Schultz, Jeremiah Owyang, Chris Heuer and Brian Oberkirch (possibly).
• Fire Your PR Firm and Brand it Yourself: Social Media Club interim board members will give advice and anecdotes about how PR and branding have changed because of social media and how, as an entrepreneur, you sre empowered. You can now market your own product or company better than any PR firm. And you should. This is for technical people, to teach them the DIY of social media as a branding tool. You would be surprised how many engineers don’t know this.  Presenters: Francine Hardaway and a cast to be announced shortly
• 5 Common Misperceptions of Technological Creativity: Drinking the creation koolaid can sometimes be deceiving. It’s like trying to acclimate your taste buds to dog crap.  5 successful panelists share with you the ways to tell the difference between koolaid (the purple stuff) and Sunny D. to get results rather than reaching into a risky over populated grab bag. Presenters: Sally Strebel, Mel Kirk, iJustine, Kristie Wells, Laura Fitton
• Let’s Get Social! Moving from me to we: The Web 2.0 evolution has enabled companies to connect with their constituents in transparent and impactful ways, achieving a greater competitive edge. In order to take full advantage of this movement, companies must embrace open dialogue through community and fully understand the implications of becoming a more “social” organization. Presenters: Aaron Strout and a cast to be announced shortly
• Love Your Customers, They Love You Back: Relationships are the new currency in social media. They need cultivation and value from both sides in order to grow into something of value and longevity. Explore engagement as the only way to earn customer respect, business, loyalty, and referrals as we do what matters to earn their friendship. Presenters: Becky Carroll, Brian Solis, 2 Special Guests
• SEO for startups: Does your startup have a plan for SEO? Millions of searches are performed daily on the internet and there is an enormous amount of ROI that comes from ranking for targeted keywords and phrases. This panel will give you an understanding, dispel any myths, and provide tips on how to approach SEO for a Startup, just like yours! Presenters: Tony Adam, Todd Friesen, Lee Odden 
• Walking the tech runway in stilettos: Being a girl in a boys world. And succeeding. Similar to the panel above. But different. It’s a fun and lighthearted discussion that prepares females for greater success by helping them get comfortable in their own shoes. 5 panelists share the lessons learned on their journey toward success. Presenters: Mel Kirk, Sally Strebel, Kristie Wells, Bronwyn Jones, Aubrey Sabalas or Tara Hunt (I think)
• What does a community manager do: We will discuss and answer just what an online community manager is and what they do. How do you measure what a CM does? How do I know if I need one? How does a company evangelist differ from this? What skill set does my CM need? Where do I find a CM? What personality traits does a CM need? These and many other questions will be answered about this up and coming position. Presenters: David Peck, Jake McKee, Bill Johnston, Connie Benson.

Cast your vote and we hope to see you in Austin at SXSW!

UPDATED: Added SEO for Startups, Corporate Reputation Management and Everything you know about Social Media is Wrong!, What does a community manager do

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