How The Melting Pot helped SMC in Salt Lake City

Last Thursday we held our fourth Social Media Club event in Salt Lake City. We broke from our established evening meeting timeslot to try doing something at lunchtime.

Our event committee reached out to The Melting Pot in downtown Salt Lake to see if they would be willing to host our event. We liked their Perfect Pairings Facebook application and they were willing to open for lunch exclusively for us (they’re usually only open for dinner; and this way we didn’t interfere with their evening guests).

The Melting Pot put together a special three-course salad, cheese and chocolate fondue menu, at a discounted price for the Social Media Club of Salt Lake City. One attendee posted on Twitter something to the effect of: “…you had me at fondue!” True enough!

As a leadership team, we were a bit apprehensive about trying out the new timeslot and actually charging money for the first time for people to attend an SMC of SLC event. But since we were getting a catered fondue experience, there was really no way around charging for attendance.

Combine the new timeslot and the cost to attend with today’s economy, and a keynote speaker — Jay Shaffer, vice president of marketing at Infopia — who was very accomplished but new to the Salt Lake scene, and we had reason to really publicize and work hard to get buzz about the exclusive opportunity.

Despite the frequent updates on our blog and other channels, SMC members and friends were a bit slow to purchase tickets. But true to the response we’ve received since our launch in January, our efforts really paid off.

Our event, at $30 a head, completely sold out the beginning of last week. We ended up with two groups being seated outside of the private dining room in an adjoining section of the restaurant. We were sold out and overflowing, and sadly had to turn a few walk-ins away.

So, here’s what we learned in Salt Lake City:

Although there’s something to be said for consistency — same bat time, same bat channel for meetings — there’s also an opportunity to mix things up every now and then.

Look for occasions to partner with restaurants and other venues that understand social media and the potential of reaching new customers through the Social Media Club.

Plan a program that’s topical — we focused on Facebook and Twitter, and either of them could have stood on their own as discussion topics.

Reach out to new presenters to bring fresh thoughts and secure new advocates for SMC.

This event, only our fourth one, has allowed our chapter to now have a positive bank account balance. We now have a little wiggle room for booking facilities and providing refreshments at events. And we can say that the Social Media Club of Salt Lake City is one of the hottest tickets in town!

In fact, we’ve decided to use some of our funds to purchase Pokens (they come from Switzerland, you know) and sell them to our members and friends, both online and at events, as a chapter fundraiser. The funds will be used to help us provide excellent programming and unique meeting experiences for our members.

So, the leadership team of the Social Media Club of Salt Lake City is officially and publicly thanking the staff at Salt Lake City’s The Melting Pot for being willing to partner with us and for doing a most excellent job with the food and service.

We’re also grateful to have reached out to Infopia and to now number the energetic and entertaining Jay Shaffer as one of our friends.

And finally, thanks to the Salt Lake Valley residents who believe in and support the Social Media Club.

Do you have examples of programs and approaches that have worked well for your Social Media Club chapter? We’d love to hear about them.