SMC News: December 2008

In this issue:

• The Year Behind, The Year Ahead
• Getting All Official Like: Filing the 501c3
• Welcome New Members!
• New Website, Events Calendar (and more)
• Member Badge Now Available
• Local Chapter News
• Social Media Workshops: 2009 Planning Begins
• Conference Discounts Available to SMC Members

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The Year Behind, The Year Ahead:
Recently, during the Social Media Club South Florida meeting earlier this week at Yahoo’s Miami offices, Chris Heuer delivered his first annual ‘State of the Club’ address over Ustream. It was a last minute decision, which will be promoted further in advance next year so you can join the chat online as a dozen plus other people did. Some of the highlights are talked about in more detail below, but the big picture is this

• We have 33 active cities now with 37 more forming very soon
• We took in approximately $13,000 in membership fees this year and a little bit of money from our workshop in Hawaii and other smaller events – this was against approximately $20k in expenses, meaning Chris and Kristie are still funding some of the organization on their credit cards
• A lot of good things are happening soon, details below

You will be able to view the live discussion, which includes a look ahead at Social Media in 2009, on the SMC website [will update the post over the weekend], and you can follow along with Chris’s slides on SlideShare.

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Getting All Official Like: Filing the 501c3
Yes folks, we finally did it. We sent the paperwork and the check in to receive our 501c3 non-profit status from the IRS. We are told it could take months to finalize this, but it feels good to have that ‘in the works’ now. As such we will be seeking nominations for our formal board of directors as well as a few workgroup leaders at the beginning of January. The initial board consists of Howard Greenstein, Serena Ehrlich, Todd Defren, Chris Heuer and Kristie Wells. We are looking forward to having representative directors based on the wishes of paying members, so if you want to be considered, or would like to be part of the process – send an email to kristie [at] socialmediaclub.org and watch the Web site (or RSS feed) for more details in January.

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Welcome to our SMB and Professional Members:
We’d like to acknowledge our new 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.

• SMB Members: J.J. Toothman and Holly Hagen (Shiny New Toy), Mike Volpe (Hubspot), Frederik Hermann (Jajah), Brian Flatow (The Ad Store), Tami Casey and Danielle Salvato (Kulesa Public Relations)
• Professional Members: Jennifer Lindsay, Charlotte Ziems, Sarah Mason, Dave Peck, Dahna Chandler, Erin Bray, Jean Shirk, Adam Hirsch, Eric Doyle, Steve Radick, Yvette Ferry, Shwen Gwee, Pamela Abbazia, Jeff Cole, Des Walsh, Peter Fasano, Antonio Viva, Jack Hadley, Simon Small, Lynn Miller, Chris Lynn, Sean Davis, Pierre-Yves Platini, Pete Codella, Dale Larson, Vanessa Rhinesmith

Each of the members mentioned above will receive a Social Media Club Member Kit that includes a membership card, t-shirt and stickers. They also get included in the SMC Member Badge, which includes a member directory, events calendar, and featured posts from all paying members ($100 level+). Also, members receive three free job postings on http://socialmediajobs.com/ with other benefits being added soon. 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!

It’s hard to ask for money in these economic times, but we would be honored if you were able to join as a paid member so that we can continue sharing our knowledge and bringing people together to expand our collective abilities. If you are able to support us financially to continue our work, please register here, and we look forward to welcoming you officially to the SMC family!

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New Website, Events Calendar (and more)…
November was a busy month for us as we launched our new website, events calendar and a shiny new member badge (more on that below) all in an effort to help you to connect with local chapters, social media practitioners and continue learning (and teaching).

We still have some work to do on the website, but are happy with the progress being made.

Want to know what Social Media related events are happening in your neighborhood? Make sure you check out the new Events Calendar that highlights the local chapter events, and other conferences and seminars we think you might be interested in. Even better is the ability for you to feature any Social Media related event members should know about by filling out the form offered on the bottom of the events calendar page.

We are always on the lookout for interesting content to share with our community, if you have a video or an article you would like help promoting, please send us an email to socialmediaclub [at] gmail.com and we will work to get it up on the website. Likewise for any good presentations or video on teaching social media we might be able to feature on our home page.

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Member Badge Now Available
We released the Social Media Club Member Badge to highlight those who folks within our community to help promote you and the work you do. They way it works is every day we go through all of the blog posts written by members and select the best posts on Social Media, which then get featured inside the badge. The badge also has a member’s directory of professional members ($100 level+) and an events calendar that we also just recently launched. It also features a book store of the most interesting books written by members and friends of Social Media Club.

We would like to thank Chris Carfi and his excellent team from Cerado who developed the badge for us. There are going to be some even better developments put into the badge during Q1 we think you will really appreciate.

To get your SMC Member Badge, go to Cerado’s site where you will find both mobile versions as well as a code snippet for your favorite dashboard service (netvibes, iGoogle, etc), web site or blog.

<ad-sponsor-request> If you are interested in sponsoring the badge and the various mobile versions of it, we are currently getting around 2500 views per day on it and seeking a monthly sponsor for $1,000 which is around a $14cpm, but distribution is growing as is page views. </ad-sponsor-request>

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Local Chapter News
Fall 2008 has been a busy time when it comes to chapter launches, and it doesn’t look like it is going to slow down in Spring 2009 either. We are still working to get some stronger organizational tools in place before launching more cities, but found…sometimes…you just need to let it happen and worry about the details later. J If this has been frustrating for you, we would like to apologize, but we only have so much time in the day and have been doing this as a labor of love as opposed to doing it as a paying job. We appreciate your patience and your continued support of our growth, hopefully in a city near you soon!

Here is what has been happening and what is being planned (that we know of):

OCTOBER:

• Chapter Launches: Chicago, IL (USA) – Indianapolis, IN (USA) – Las Vegas, NV (USA)
• Planning Meetings (preparing for launch): Charlotte, NC (USA) – Honolulu/Waikiki, HI (USA) – London (UK)

NOVEMBER:

• Chapter Launches: Atlanta, GA (USA) – San Diego, CA (USA)
• Planning Meetings (preparing for launch): Jacksonville, FL (USA)

DECEMBER:

• Chapter Launches: London (UK)
• Planning Meetings (preparing for launch): Greenville, SC (USA) – Orange County, CA (USA) – Seattle, WA (USA)

JANUARY:

• Chapter Launches: Greenville, SC (USA) – Salt Lake City, UT (USA)
• Planning Meetings (preparing for launch): Detroit/Ann Arbor, MI (USA) – Hamburg (Germany) – New Orleans, LA (USA) – Orlando, FL (USA) – Portland, OR (USA) – Tampa, FL (USA) – Toronto, ON (Canada) – Tucson, AZ (USA)

To find out information on your city launch and/or planning meetings, please visit the SMC Wiki and click on the city nearest you. The great thing we have found is that you too can start an SMC chapter in your town – so just add your city if its not there and review the ideas and insights on the wiki about what you can do to be more successful with your efforts.

We are also hosting a weekly chapter call where we answer questions around what is needed to launch Social Media Club in your local city, how to develop awareness campaigns, discuss topics/conversations that have worked well in other chapters, securing sponsorships, and so much more.

The calls take place every Wednesday, and alternate weekly – at either 8am PST or 5:30pm PST – an updated schedule is available online in the Social Media Club events calendar. The conference call dial-in number is (269) 320-8400, and the access code is 509633#. These calls are recorded and will be posted shortly on the SMC website.

We do ask that you review the SMC Chapter Guidelines (scroll down to the bottom of the post) before you jump on the call and if you have time, you might check out this 30-minute podcast SMC Founder, Chris Heuer, did with SMC Louisville Chapter Leader, Jason Falls, on Organizing a Local Social Media Club. Take a listen.

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Social Media Workshops: 2009 Planning Begins
We are starting to plan for the next year and are looking at bringing the Social Media Workshop to several cities around the world.

We will be contacting local chapter leaders shortly to see about interest in hosting one in their city, and welcome your thoughts on where these should take place too. Please send your suggestions to events [at] socialmediaclub.com and we will publish the list shortly. Plans include both a US and European ‘tour’ with the possibility of adding in Australia and perhaps China. Stay tuned for more details

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Conference Discounts Available to SMC Members
I am pleased to pass along discounts provided to members of the Social Media Club (SMC) community for the following events:

• Blogwell: January 22, 2009 in Chicago, IL (USA) – Discount is 15% off ticket price. Just mention SMC when registering.
• Social Networking Forum: March 9-10, 2009 in London (UK) – Discount Available: 15% off ticket price. Please register using this special form to ensure you receive the discount.

Other conferences happening around the world we think you might be interested in:

• Social Media Jungle: January 7, 2009 in Las Vegas, NV (USA)
• Chicks Who Click: January 9-10, 2009 in Boulder, CO (USA)
• SoCon09: February 6-7, 2009 in Atlanta, GA (USA)
• SXSW Interactive: March 13-17, 2009 in Austin, TX (USA)

Also, keep on the lookout for more details about Pool 2.0: The Ultimate Tech Pool Tournament which will be held on Sunday, March 15th in Austin TX at Buffalo Billiards from 8-midnight. Paid SMC Members get in free, while others will pay a small fee to offset the costs of the free beer, live music and charitable tie-ins. If you want your company to field a team – check out this post on the event and then contact chris [at] socialmediaclub.org for more details.
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Be well you Media mavens.

Cheers,
Chris and Kristie
Website – http://www.socialmediaclub.org
Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/SocialMediaClub
Facebook – http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/Social-Media-Club/13521448764
FriendFeed – http://friendfeed.com/rooms/social-media-club

Social Innovation Camp: Changing the World One Weekend at a Time

Last weekend in London, I witnessed what I would call a series of miracles that soon could be a part of our everyday waking lives, or at least the lives of my friends in the United Kingdom.  The Social Innovation Camp hosted by The Young Foundation was a barcamp/startup weekend sort of event for social entrepreneurs, people looking to do good and make enough money to be sustainable.  If what I saw was as indicative of the scene in London as I believe, this is perhaps one of the major epicenters of transforming the world into the better place that we all know it can be. There is a really great write up of the whole weekend over on the SI Camp Blog.

Besides meeting tons of brilliant people like, I learned a lot about how to facilitate these sorts of events, how to empower better team collaboration and the deep seated desire that so many people the world over have to engage in what I call The Noble Pursuit.  I also confirmed that London is still one of the best cities in the world, and perhaps the only other city I would actually live in other than San Francisco.

I hope to work with a foundation or two in the Bay Area, along with my AdHocnium colleague JD Lasica to bring this sort of event to my home soon.  We are working on several great ideas I hope to tell you all about very soon that is related to our work with AdHocnium and JD’s work on Media Innovation Camp.

As I sat there last Sunday afternoon, I was impressed by the final presentations of the seven social startups created oer the weekend.  Each one progressed in dramatic ways from where they were at the prior Friday night when things got underway.  I personally had a chance to sit in on parts of the discussions on almost all of them and contribute little bits here and there, in an advisory sort of role.  As an outsider, I didn’t want to get too deep, but I did want to be a ‘useful visitor’, which is actually the team I spent the most time with and hopefully the one I contributed the most real value to.  I hope to continue to advise them over the years ahead to ensure it is successful.  It is something that I would surely use, as I suspect you would too.

A full write up on the process and the judging talks further about the prizes. Our Useful Visitor team came in 2nd place behind GoodGym. Their concept is interesting and has potential, but there are some security concerns.  The idea is that this service can enable people to do good while running, walking or biking by pairing them up with people who need help, companionship or support.  Recruit people staying healthy to run errands for people and just stop by for a visit.  Kind of like Big Brothers, but perhaps its more like BigRunners Will share some more thoughts on them in the coming days.

The other teams were We-Need, OwnGrown, AccessCity, Carbon Co-Op and PostPost. I will write up something on each of them next week along with some recommendations / advice but you can read more about them, see their presentations and check out the web sites they built by clicking on their names above.  In the meantime, I thought I would hand out some of my own awards.  This isn’t an attempt to make sure ‘everyone feels like a winner’, especially since I didn’t get to see everyone closely.  Rather this is just my appreciation of what I saw as some really great accomplishments that should be recognized.

Awards

• Most Prepared: We-Need
  Craig came in with a ton of planning diagrams and ideas – he really understands the problems faced by the people he is trying to help at a deep level and it showed.
• Best Research: GoodGym
  The team went out during the weekend and interviewed runners as to whether they would use the service… they actually signed up 10+ volunteers!
• Best Name Change: OwnGrown
  Prior to the weekend, this startup was called Vegsy – clearly, OwnGrown is a multi million dollar brand.
• Best Web Site: PostPost
  The UI is simple simple, the site looks fantastic.
• Best Team: Useful Visitor
  Well, this is a bit self-serving, but I really do mean it – with such a big team, to execute as well as we did and work so well together, I am really proud of everyone.
• Best Presentation: GoodGym
  Ivo Gormley was the epitome of dry British comedy and his presentation was superbly crafted.  Bravo.
• Best Post Presentation Q&A: Useful Visitor
  OK, again a bit of self interest here, but I didn’t see many other people get an applause line for their responses in Q&A so I was impressed…
• Most Easily Sustainable: OwnGrown
  I agree with the remark of one of the judges, this should be a real business.  I think it is perhaps a co-op as well, but it is surely a market.  If people don’t pay on the transaction level, they should at least be paid members.  Who doesn’t want locally grown produce at a reasonable price?
• Best Presentation Stunt: OwnGrown
  Towards the end of the presentation, they brought in a huge tray of vegetables because ’someone in the room ordered them’
• Most Needed: We-Need
  I can’t overstate this point – we need, We-Need.  There are too many people who need help from the system which is unable to connect with them properly.  Please support this effort in any way you can.
• Most Important / Biggest Impact: Carbon Co-Op
  One person can make a difference, but a village of people, working together to change the local energy consumption rates can make a huge difference.
• Most Valuable Player(s):The Young Foundation
  There are some really great people here doing important work.  This would have not happened without them opening their minds, their hearts and their offices – thank you so very much.

All in all, this was one of the most gratifying things in which I have participated in a long time.  Big thanks to The Young Foundation, Dan, Kati, Anna and all my new friends for welcoming me into your space this past weekend.  Hopefully we can find ways to work together again in the future.

PS – more of my photos from the weekend are available on Flickr.Technorati Tags: sicamp, social innovation camp, barcamp, social entrepreneurs, social startups

Social Media Now 12.7.08

Here’s what’s been going on in Social Media over the last week or so. Missing something? Email me or add your news in the comments section!

• Jeremiah Owyang points out Five Ways Web Professionals Should Be Proactive In a Recession.
• Chris Brogan tells us why Twitter Needs Two Channels.
• Patricia Skinner wonders if social media is really right for everyone.
• Everybody’s talking about Facebook Connect, and Shiv Singh shares his thoughts.
• Pownce was Acquired by Six Apart, which prompted Doug Haslam to write this post: Social Media Top 5: Goodbye Pownce, PR Still Not Dead, Mapple
• Scoble wonders if paying the crowd will be the new business model, like Dave Ingram is doing with Brownbook.
• Lee Odden gives some excellent tips from his Twitter followers in his post, Get Social Media Smart with 26 Tips on the Social Web.
• Jason Falls points out 10 Promotional Mistakes of New Bloggers.
• Last but not least; Lidija Davis tells us what President-elect Obama has to say about the internet and economic recovery.

SMC Poll: RSS Consumption

I am researching RSS Readers and the various ways people consume information/lifestreams, and ran a quick poll on Twitter this past Tuesday. It turned up some interesting feedback with 170 responses coming in by posting time:

Nothing surprising from the first question, most people consume information while in the office, with in the living room a solid second.

The second question was more interesting to me – most folks working off laptops over desktops and a large percentage tracking feeds while on the go.

And then came the kicker – the largest percentage (35%) feel they are fighting a losing battle and fall into the ‘information overload’ category.

The last question was exported into an Excel spreadsheet (not a graph), so I need to cull that data and will try to post a follow up over the next week.

I kept the poll short and to a very focused audience, which I believe slightly skewed the results, but still found it valuable information and will play a key factor in my research paper (for private use, but will continue to post results on future polls here).

Thank you to everyone who participated in this poll.

SxSW Party Planning Starts Now: Join us for Pool 2.0

We had so much fun at SxSWi, we were wondering if we could make it any better. While we don’t have the cure for the flu bug that went around last year, we do think we have a pretty good party idea for the next one….

Pool 2.0 is the ultimate tournament for Web 2.0, Social Media and Interactive startups. Originally inspired by the boys from Meetro (now LeFora) and their Bowling 2.0 league and our deep love of billiards and beer, we thought it was time for a gentlemanly competition to see who can really lay some heat on the table. We hope you will join us for a great night of partying and some serious playing.

Introducing: Pool 2.0

Sunday March 15th, 8pm-midnight
Buffalo Billiards, 6th Avenue, Austin, TX
Brought to you by Social Media Club and ????

We have the entire 2nd floor to ourselves (it’s pretty big).  We are bringing in some live music, providing free beer all night (looking for a beer sponsor too, and it has to be good beer) and there will even be some video game tournaments on the side. This is going to be the party of the week. We are even bringing in a special guest emcee and will be live streaming the finals to the world.

Here is the run down.  Web 2.0 or Social Media companies (hoping TechCrunch and RWW compete, but just seeing Facebook against MySpace may be enough fun) can apply for one of the 16 spots by filling out this application form.  The entry fee is $500 per company, with the competing companies essentially being sponsors of the event (though we still need a title sponsor to offset the cost of booze etc…).  It’s a double elimination bracket tournament with two person teams, but that may change if needed.

Companies will be playing for their favorite charity with $2,000 going to the winner’s favorite charity and $1,000 going to the runner up’s charity.

If you are interested in more details on how your company can participate, please complete this application and we will get back to you.

As with all SxSWi parties, space is limited.  Tickets will be given out starting in Janaury, so do keep a close eye on the Social Media Club site and our Twitter account.  If you are interested in other sponsorship opportunities, contact us through our web site.

We are really looking forward to seeing everyone back in Austin and finding out who the real sharks of the industry are. More details coming soon….

Spammers be gone.

The Social Media Club (SMC) wiki has been getting hit pretty heavily lately by a handful of spammers (one in particular who I would like to wring his little toes – you hear me ‘marketing [at] travel-airfare-hotel [dot] com’), so we made the decision to ‘lock the wiki down’ as honestly, there is just too much good stuff to do to waste our time on cleaning up the bad stuff.

What this means is, now, to edit the wiki – you will need a PBWiki account (it’s free to sign up) and be logged in before you can make any changes.  NJust a small step that should help minimize the random acts of stupid brought by the spammers. They will still be able to sign up and get an account, but as soon as they throw in their silly links – we can have their account shut down which will make more work for them if they want to try again.

So we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but it was a step that had to be done.

Research Project: RSS Consumption

I am in the middle of a research project and thought I would poll my pals here at Social Media Club to learn how you all consume information, assuming, you use RSS readers.

If you have 30 seconds to spare, I would love your thoughts on this, and I will be publishing the results on the blog tomorrow.

Help Us Save Darfur

Special thanks to Chris Heuer and Kristie Wells for encouraging us to blog on the SMC site about some work we are performing on behalf of Save Darfur. This week marks the beginning of an aggressive campaign to take advantage of the administration change and use social media to encourage President-elect Obama to action and end the Darfur genocide.

The Save Darfur Coalition’s “Be A Voice For Darfur” postcard campaign seeks to ensure that Darfur is a top priority for the Obama Administration. Obama has already promised “unstinting resolve” to end the Darfur Genocide.   The effort, which aims for no less than 1 million postcards to be emailed, blogged and snail-mailed to President-elect Obama within his first 100 days in office.

The hottest part is the unveiling of a petition application developed in conjunction with Facebook Causes. Other social media components include an influencer relations campaign, and a Darfur Blogger Toolkit with videos, photos, and other resources at http://www.addyourvoice.org/pages/blogger_toolkit.  And of course, there’s the mandatory Twitter hashtag: #voice4darfur .

The appalling genocide in Darfur continues – now in its sixth year and at the price of nearly half a million lives. Ironically, this December marks the 60^th anniversary of the United Nations  Genocide Convention, and we are still dealing with this horrific issue.

The time to for action is now, and in a year when many of us are suffering financial hardship, we can still make a difference. Signing the petition, tweeting or writing blog posts  are great ways to help without expending a lot of cash.

This is a great example of social media for social good.  But for it to work, you, the Social Media Club member needs to believe in the cause and do something about it. Help us end genocide, and spread the word to your friends online and with other local Social Media Club members