Important SMC News: March 2010 (SxSW Edition)

In this issue:

• New Website, New Membership Drive To Launch on March 12th!
• Social Media Clubhouse: Your Virtual Home for SxSW
• Local Leadership BBQ at SxSW: Request Your Invite!
• It’s a Wrap: Social Media Week
• Social Media Club Census 2010
• Local Chapter News
• Welcome New Members!
• Conference Discounts Just For You

New Website, Membership Drive To Launch on March 12th!
We’ve been thinking about this since we first realized the traditional association model was broken in the era of do it yourself community and inexpensive global network organizing tools, and the day is nearly here! On Friday March 12, 2010 we will debut our new Social Media Club web site and kick off a new membership drive as we kick off SxSW at the Social Media Club House with a special BBQ for all our local leaders and members. (more details below on the BBQ

Many of you have asked how we sustained this organization, and the answer has long been the tiring refrain of ‘we built this on our credit cards and through the generosity of a few hundred folks who bought expensive t-shirts!’. Well that time has come and gone, and we are ushering in a new era. An era in which we give you several great reasons to actually join us as a paying professional member or business member. An era in which we can build our organizational infrastructure to more fully and forcefully deliver on our primary missions. An era where Social Media Club grows from its humble roots in the Chris & Kristie home office and goes out in the world as an adult.

While the site has been refined in our heads for a long time, it won’t be refined in the real world to the point that we are completely happy for a few months. We need to hear from you with your criticism and compliments. We want this to serve your needs, which we understand, but which we don’t yet see or appreciate fully enough. So at the very least, when the site launches, please go and sign up as a free member and give us your feedback so we can talk about the ‘overnight success’ that Social Media Club has become in the 4 years since first registering the URL and dreaming this big dream.

Stay tuned for details on the http://www.socialmediaclub.org/ website. Follow our updates on Twitter and check out the new site on Friday March 12, 2010. ::we are so excited::

Social Media Clubhouse: Your Virtual Home for SxSW
If you are unable to make it to Austin for SxSW this year, don’t fret, because the Social Media Club House will be your source for all things SxSW from March 12-21. We have big plans for “The Clubhouse” in 2010. First launched in 2007 as a place for members and supporters to stay together and make media during a double conference stint in Las Vegas, then reinvented for Le Web this past December, we are now evolving the concept even further as our home away from home where we can report on conferences that matter to you.

In addition to reporting on SxSW with blog posts from clubhouse residents each day and our daily recap show produced with TechZulu and Justin.tv every day at 6pm CST, we are doing some pretty special events. With our sponsors/partners we will be hosting several conversations that matter in addition to a musical showcase with local NPR affiliate KUT 90.5.

We invite you to tune in to our live streams on the Social Media Clubhouse blog of The Synaptic Web Summit (Saturday, March 13th @ 3pm CST) sponsored by Intel, Maximum Engagement: Understanding the Social Media Multiplier (Sunday, March 14th @ 3pm CST) sponsored by Awareness, Inc and the Co-Working Summit (Monday, March 15th @ 1pm CST) sponsored by Moonfruit. Each show will be followed by a special musical performance from a rising star in the music world and then later on by the daily recap show.

It’s going to be a great start for our new site and we hope that you not only tune in, but help us by embedding the live video feed in your local chapter’s site and/or your own blog. Please do help us spread the word on this so that we can knock this out of the park and ensure that we can do bigger and better clubhouse’s at the events that matter most to you.

Local Leadership BBQ at SxSW: Request Your Invite!
If you are a member of the leadership team of a local SMC chapter or a professional member attending SxSW, you are invited to request an invite to join us at the Social Media Clubhouse on Friday 3/12 from noon to 2pm. Here you will be able to meet other leaders from around the world to network, share success stories, discover the new members site and hear about our important plans for the future (including how we will be getting you more sponsor dollars and providing more operational support if you want it). Even better yet, the BBQ is being catered by the world famous Salt Lick BBQ, which has been featured all over television as the best BBQ in Texas.

The Club House is about 15 minutes from the Convention Center on Lake Austin, and we will be providing transportation to/from the event to make it easier for you to attend. This event is first and foremost for local leaders, but if we have room, we will be opening up the guest list to more members and supporters as space allows. If you are not a SMC organizer or you are, and have not received an invite yet, you can request an invite here. Well, since we haven’t gotten the invites sent to local leaders yet, consider this your invite and register your interest in attending and we will reply to you confirming attendance ASAP! If you know a local leader, please do forward this to them for us and make sure they can attend to bring you all the info you need to know about the future of Social Media Club International.

In addition to serving as the official Austin Ambassadors at the Social Media Clubhouse, the local host chapter in Austin is organizing two other events during SxSW which you can register to attend:

• The fine folks at Kickapps and Akami are hosting a party on Sunday, March 14th and you are invited! You must register to attend, so please do so sooner than later at http://www.kickapps.com/ barparty
• Then on Tuesday, March 16th join our hosts for their monthly meeting of SMC Austin at the Bazaarvoice offices. Registration page is opening up shortly, so its best to follow SMC Austin on Twitter accounts for details. Both Kristie Wells and Chris Heuer (thats me) will be attending and talking about the new site and the bigger plans for Social Media Club, Social Media Camp, SMCEDU and all the other initiatives you haven’t even heard about yet.

We look forward to seeing you in Austin very soon!

It’s a Wrap: Social Media Week San Francisco
One week. Six cities. 100’s of events. Learning. Teaching. Networking. Good times.

As the organizers of Social Media Week San Francisco we can tell you it was a real blast and really exhausting with all these events happening in such a short time frame. Since we jumped into SxSW mode before the week was even out, we haven’t had much chance to tell the bigger story, but we do want to thank everyone who came out to the events to make the week a big success. We learned a lot across the week, at our 2nd official Social Media Camp, at workshops, at panels and even yes, in bars and living rooms. As a bonus, we closed the week with a terrific closing party that also raised $1800 for NetSquared!

Please join us in saying a hearty ‘thank you’ to all the Social Media Week San Francisco sponsors without whose support we never would have been able to do it all: Biz360, IDEA, Bing, SAP, GoGrid, Justin.tv, LinkedIn, Tungle, and Visible Technologies.

We love you guys. Thanks for all you do and for supporting this week’s worth of events. It is much appreciated and it was key in laying the foundation for our future growth. We also want to thank Toby Daniels, the original organizer and inspiration behind Social Media Week for allowing us to participate and for putting up with our vocal opinions throughout the process.

Social Media Club Census 2010
If you or someone you know is part of a local organizational team, please take a moment and complete the Social Media Club Census. We need to collect the ‘Census’ information so that when reporters, sponsors, or members of our community ask us about the current state of the organization, we can give them an up to date and truthful answer instead of our best guess (as I have been doing over the last few months especially). This information, in conjunction with the new website, will provide powerful levers in furthering our primary missions to promote media literacy, share lessons learned, encourage ethical behavior and promote industry standards.

Also again, we need your help! Can you please check in with your local leadership to make sure they see this link and complete our census? It really is going to take the village in ensuring we get to everyone we need to make this effort a success. https://socialmediaclub.wufoo.com/forms/social-media-club-chapter-survey-the-basics/

Local Chapter News
Social Media Club has experienced a strong period of growth over the last six months – going from 91 chapters in July 2009 to over 160 chapters today (though I suspect there are still some more smaller ones hiding out there somewhere). In fact, we have confirmed sitings of chapters on six of the seven continents on this fine planet of ours (we are coming Antarctica, I promise!!).

Every local chapter is a little different from the next, just as every local neighborhood has its unique flavor. Some use Facebook. Others use Ning. A chapter might user Twitter just to promote their events. Another uses an email service, like iContact. Some love the wiki. Others don’t even know where to find it. This is good. This is a chance for us all to learn. The experiences of each of the chapters has informed our growth along the way and lead us to some important insights we have put to good use in the new site launching on Friday March 12, 2010 (see above).

We plan to focus on infrastructure in 2010, improving the ways we communicate with one another and helping local chapters find the right path to sustainability for their particular needs. We sincerely appreciate everyone who has taken a leadership role in Social Media Club. Your efforts are the reason we exist today and we love you for it. While the new site will bring some changes and a bit more structure to our operations, our principles of openness and inclusivity remains at the core of our being.

However, in order to support our global efforts we need to secure more funds to employ the staff required. It can no longer be Chris and Kristie working on Social Media Club as a secondary job without income from it if we are to succeed at our mission. That said, the way we are setting this up, as we will discuss with local leaders during the BBQ during SxSW, is a great turning point for taking SMC to the next level and we hope you not only join us, but help lead us to the next great milestone!

Welcome to our Corporate, SMB and Professional Members!
We’d like to acknowledge our new Corporate, Small and Medium Business 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: Lacy Kemp (RealNetworks)
• SMB Members: David Berkowitz (360i)
• Professional Members: Tammi Hitchcock, Guillaume Vermeulen, Kyung Han, Michael Kauffman, Charle-John Cafiero, Candice Strudel, David Vanderpoel, Tina Hui, Suzanne Reinfranck, Richard Reader, Suzanne Alderson, Kathlen D’Amato, Wing Lian, Michael Moloney, Debbie Pascoe, Stacy Van Meter, Michelle Krasniak, Sean McCandless, Sean Engmann, Shelly DeMotte, Derek Brookmeyer, C. Rachel Dunnavant, Deidra Bodkin, Bronwyn Saglimbeni, Adam Helweh, Michael Howard, Stephanie Sammons, Eric Weaver, Constance Marshall, Anne Bertelsen, Andrew Sternberg, and Kevin Urie.

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. We think that once you see the new site and hear our story, it will be very worth your while – so much so in fact, that for the first time we are not only comfortable asking you to consider joining as a paying member, we are actively encouraging it! But hey, don’t take my word for it, take a look at the new site that will launch on Friday March 12, 2010 and see for yourself.

If you are able to support Social Media Club so that we can continue to advance Social Media professionalism around the world, please register here today. We look forward to welcoming you officially to the SMC family very soon!

Conference Discounts Just For You
Below you will find several conferences that have offered special discounts to SMC members. In the future, the only way to find these benefits will be through the members site, but until then, these are for everyone on our mailing list and blog too.

• Social Media Club Local Leaders BBQ: March 12, 2010 in Austin, TX. We are hosting a special (free) BBQ featuring Salt Lick BBQ for our local chapter leaders who are in Austin during SxSW. Watch your email inbox as your invitation will be coming in the next 24 hours. Space is limited, and this will be on a first come, first served basis. If you are a new local leader or you dont think we have your proper email address, you can ensure we know about you and get you an invite by filling out a request to attend right now.
• Social Media Marketing: March 15-16, 2010 in Singapore. This conference is designed to facilitate organisations’ adoption to a customer centric approach to marketing by building a framework for social network marketing. It will help organisations recognise the value of using this platform and will reveal the latest trend in this field, current best practices and how marketers are employing it today and in the future.Mention “SMC” and receive a 10% discount!
• Social Media Strategies Conference: May 18 – 19, 2010 in Santa Clara, CA. The conference will focus on social media marketing, optimization, analytics, case studies, work shop & best practices and how executives, managers, and marketers can leverage it to meet their business goals. Social Media Club members receive $200 off registration when using ‘SMC2010′.
• NewComm Forum: April 20-23, 2010 in San Mateo, CA. This events feature five exciting keynotes, one full-day and four ½-day pre-conference workshops, post-conference strategy sessions and a one-day executive summit. Social Media Club members receive a $100 discount when using “smcCOMM”.

Worthy causes/initiatives for you to check out:

• Social Health 2010: March 11, 2010 in Austin, TX. SXSH is a day-long international social health un-conference encompassing all aspects of healthcare. The objectives of this unconference are threefold: To bring together an international group of stakeholders in pharma and healthcare (patients, providers, professionals, and industry) within an unconference format, To encourage the interaction and discussion among these stakeholders in this open forum. To expose this traditionally “insular” group of stakeholders to the true culture of social media (i.e. it’s not just about the tech) at SXSW.
• TWESTIVAL GLOBAL 2010: March 25, 2010 in various cities. We are rallying around Concern Worldwide to bring attention to the fact that 72 million children in the world don’t get the opportunity to go to school. One day, one cause and this year is gearing up to be unmissable. Twestival is focusing on global education through fundraising for Concern Worldwide (@concern), a phenomenal organization who have been working to support the world’s poorest people with their innovative and compassionate approach for over 40 years. Nelson Mandela is quoted as saying “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” This has never been more true than now; with Haiti losing over 4,000 schools in the earthquake and other regions of the world where children are forced to work on the streets or struggle with hunger and water issues which prevent them from attending. The Social Media Club members around the world have enthusiastically embraced Twestival and made an undeniable impact on their local communities along with other volunteers. We invite you to spread the word and join Moscow, Seoul, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Buenos Aires, London and Cape Town by hosting an event in your area on March 25th. The event can be as big or as small as you wish, the idea is to come together for a night of fun and fundraising to put your city or school on the map. So get out to a Twestival event near you http://twestival.com / and follow @twestival for updates. Better still, become an organizer of a local event and show the world the caliber of leadership within Social Media Club and prove to the world the power of social media for social good!

——————–

Well, it’s a slightly long newsletter a long time in the making, but well worth it. We are really looking forward to taking the wraps off the new site next week and ushering in the next phase of growth for Social Media Club. In the meantime, be well and make great media!

Cheers,
Chris Heuer & Kristie Wells
Founders, Social Media Club Global

Website – http://www.socialmediaclub.org
Twitter – http://twitter.com/SocialMediaClub
Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaClub

Is everybody doing it?

Is everybody doing it? Why or why not? And what are the business cases where it might not make sense to participate in social media?

Last week’s San Francisco / Silicon Valley chapter event drew a packed audience and featured Forbes “Web Celeb” Violet Blue (@violetblue), Cisco’s social media enthusiast LaSandra Brill (@lasandrabrill), social media coach and author Janet Fouts (@jfouts) and Realty World’s social media expert Erin Robbins (@texasgirlerin) on a panel led by A-List Podcaster Jennifer Lindsay (@jennifered).

The panel discussed the hesitancy that many companies still have with getting involved in the social web, and used the adult industry as a prime example of an entire business segment of companies that are reluctant to “go social.”

Not all industries have been so reluctant of course, so the panel looked at examples of companies that are doing well with embracing the potential of the social web, including the Red Cross and Southwest Airlines. In the adult industry specifically, Kink.com and Suicide Girls have done well with integrating social into their promotions, but even they fear user-to-user sharing–the lifeblood of the social media world–due to the potential of lost revenues.

Another issue that has recently come into the spotlight is the balance between personal brands and professional brands, such as the decision by Forrester Research to have all of their analysts blog on Forrester-controlled channels. Employees need to decide if their relationship with their employer is going to be symbiotic or parasitic, because there are benefits to working with your company to build both brands. At the same time, companies need to be willing to embrace the brands that their employees are creating for themselves, because if they’re used properly, they can be beneficial to both. Watch the video clip of this part of the discussion on Michael Brito’s blog, britopian.com

Privacy was another key topic for the panel and audience, and one that companies and content creators are increasingly aware of thanks to sites like PleaseRobMe.com. With the recent increase in geo-location services and the constantly changing privacy landscape, users are having a difficult time managing exactly what content is getting out into the social world, who will see that content, and what the implications of that information sharing will be.

Lastly, the panel looked at how the social web allows companies to create a personality for themselves, and how that personality gives customers something that they can relate to. This will be especially beneficial to the customer service side of businesses, which have struggled to humanize their efforts while providing their services in an economically feasible way. For companies, one of the issues that they need to consider is where they choose to participate, since your channels dictate who consumes you, and how you’re consumed.

Big thanks to our video crew Rich Reader and Arnie Clomera. See a video clip and read more about the event on Rich’s blog

Special thanks to our sponsors for the February event: Spigit, Automattic and Stag’s Leap.

Save the date!  Next month’s chapter meeting will be March 23rd in Santa Clara. More details coming soon.

Enter to Be Our Resident VJ for Social Media Club House during SxSW

I am really thrilled to be writing this blog post. Over the past two months we have been busy organizing the logistics and finding partners for our Social Media Club House down at SxSW. Just yesterday, everything really started to fall into place – just as everything came together for Social Media Week San Francisco recently.

We won’t be publishing the calendar of livestreams from the club house or event dates just yet, but I can tell you its not a bloggers lounge, and its not a place where a lot of people will be hanging out.  We will be dropping by the TechSet Bloggers Lounge for that ourselves, so we will hopefully see you there (and hopefully in my Core Conversation with John Biehler on Friday March 12 at 330 called “Do the Cool Kids Leave When the Suits Arrive?” </plug>.

The idea behind the club house is still the same as when we did it in Las Vegas in 2007. There are a lot of folks in our community who go to the same conferences and we wanted a place where we many of us could stay together, make media and have a shared experience of it with each other. This creates opportunities to get to know each other, to learn, to see more of the conference through each others eyes, to be social and to create content.

After resurrecting the idea in Paris, France just a few months ago with the Social Media Club House at Le Web 2009, we are doing it even bigger and better down in Austin, TX.  Inspired by Real World, Forbes and our own experiences, the Social Media Club House is a mashup of epic proportions (just enough to match the grandeur of SxSW itself I think so we are psyched to kick it off here).

Its one part group housing, one part live stream studio.  It’s where Social Media Club will be reporting on SxSW and sharing our observations with our global community members. Its where we will be hosting some serious conversations like the Synaptic Web Summit and the Engagement Summit. It’s where we will host some special and intimate musical performances.  It’s where Social Media Club will host its local leadership celebration for SMC organizers from around the world with a big BBQ from Salt Lick on Friday  March 12 from 12-2pm. And it’s where Social Media Club and TechZulu will produce its daily recap livestream of what is happening in Austin throughout SxSW in conjunction with Justin.tv, Hootsuite and other media partners still to be announced.

And this blog post is your chance to join us in person as a resident of the Club House! It’s also a ’save the URL’ for Social Media Club members to tune into the reporting and live streaming we will be doing during SxSW from http://socialmediaclubhouse.com/, (new site and schedule coming early next week).

The Contest.

Starting today, we are looking to find one or possibly two Resident VJ’s for the Club House (yes video jockey’s, to call it a blog jockey would be NSFW). The chosen VJ will join myself and the other residents and reporters. In exchange for producing content on the Social Media Club House blog each day and contributing some video to our live stream and hopefully a bit more, we provide a sweet place to stay with a bunch of cool people and an experience to remember for a life time. It’s also a chance to break through and show you have mad skills, so be creative, this is your moment to shine.  It’s not quite American Idol, but it will put you in a position to meet a lot of cool people and put your talent on display. More details on the terms of the contest are below.

When I was originally thinking of the contest, it was going to be open to paying Social Media Club members only, as a membership benefit. But after tweeting with Eric Berto I realized we should make it open to anyone over 21 who is willing to agree to our Club House terms below. I don’t want to be the guy saying pay 100 bucks so you can enter the contest and then maybe not win – that’s not the sort of membership experience anyone should have. In the future though, we will have some things open to only members (ie, this same opportunity). But that will only be after we can show you the value we will provide in our new members web site and we complete our upcoming reorganization (or initial organization as some of you may be thinking – ha).

Look, this contest is really simple, we want to have you producing great media with us each day out of the Club House. For that, you get to stay there with us and some other really cool people who will be announced very soon.

How to enter.

Shoot a video that is under 3 minutes (bonus for being awesome and doing it under 1 minute) telling us why you would be a great Resident VJ in the Social Media Club House. Send us an email to socialmediaclub at gmail dot com with your name, social url’s, phone number, the dates you are going to be in Austin, a link to your video entry online (please also tag it #SMCH) and a link to some blog posts you wrote from another conference you attended (whether live blogging it, summarizing a session, summarizing the experience, writing about the party scene, whatever it might be that you think would be relevant.)

DO THIS BEFORE 23:59 EST ON WEDNESDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2010

If you want to, you can also tweet at us with a link to your video and we will retweet it for others to see from the @socialmediaclub account.

The winner be chosen at the sole discretion of the Club House producers, a full list which will be published on this blog in the coming week but right now it includes me.

What we are offering is a chance to be our roomie for SxSW for either interactive, music, or possibly both.  What we are asking for is that you serve as the resident club house VJ, reporting everyday on whats happening in Austin.

It’s gonna be fun.

Here is a simple statement of the general terms:

We provide you a bed in Austin, TX with a roof over it between March 11th-21st in this really cool house (ok, its a mansion, really) we rented on Lake Austin. There will be about a dozen or so other people staying there, maybe a couple more on some nights as a place of last resort for our friends and misplaced celebrities. Chances are several of the meals will be covered like the BBQ we are hosting for our Social Media Club chapter leaders, but you should be prepared to spend a little money here and there for food, transport and having fun. You cover your own travel (unless we get a last minute travel sponsor) to and from the Club House from wherever you are in the world. Winner must be 21 years of age or older so please don’t submit an entry if you are not. We are planning to have some transportation to and from the convention center daily as the house is 15 minutes away, but we can not guarantee it to be on call and it will not be available around the clock.

The bottom line is we think it would be cool to make some content together and we wanted to do a talent search to find someone to do it with us. Perhaps that is you…

Please Note: We would love to be more open with the Summits and other things we are doing in the Club House, but there are just some physical constraints that don’t allow for us to open it up to a big group. It’s intended to be more like a private studio then an event venue.  The other thing is, the house is in a residential neighborhood, so out of respect for the house’s owner we just can’t do any public events here.  So instead, the summits are essentially invited guests in an executive round table format to discuss the topic and stream it to the world.  We are still seeking sponsors to offset the huge costs though, which is another way to participate.

Everybody’s Doing It*, So Why Don’t We?

Question: to “go social” or not? And should we still be asking that question?

With San Francisco and Silicon Valley leading the world in web innovation and many considering our area the epicenter of all things social media, why are Bay Area companies still so reluctant – as much as those in the Midwest – to engage in the social web? And what about the original internet success story: the porn industry? It’s not thriving as much as you may think. So are companies that are reluctant to ‘go social’ making the right decision?

We’ve assembled a clever and varied panel for a provocative discussion from several different perspectives: big business, non-profits, small to medium size business, and a very specific alternative industry.

The event will be moderated by The A-List podcaster, Jennifer Lindsay @jennifered.
Panelists:

• Violet Blue @violetblue
• LaSandra Brill @LaSandraBrill
• Janet Fouts @jfouts
• Erin Robbins @texasgirlerin

Seating is limited–don’t wait!

Learn more about the speakers and the event and get your tickets on Eventbrite.

Gold Sponsor: Spigit is the leading provider of goal-driven innovation software for companies, connecting employees, customers and business partners for idea management and innovation discovery.

Venue Sponsor: Automattic, makers of WordPress.com

Wine provided by Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars 

Hello San Francisco and Silicon Valley

We have monthly networking meetings and events for members and non-members the third Tuesday (mostly) of every month, alternating locations between San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Everyone is welcome to join us! We keep our ticket costs very low, and Social Media Club members get into each event for free.

SAVE THE DATE

• Feb 16th, Automattic Lounge in SF  “Everybody’s Doing It“
• Mar 23rd, TiE Conference Center in Santa Clara “So You Want to Start a Social Media Business?”
• April Happy Hour, location and date TBD
• April 20th, CBS Interactive (CNET) in SF, “Is Privacy Dead?”
• May 18th in Silicon Valley
• June 15th in San Francisco

Join our Facebook page to get the most recent updates and invites to our events.
Twitter: @smcsfsv and #smcsfsv

Sponsors: Want to be part of our events? Please contact partnership directors Brian Remmel at bremmel@gmail.com or Mandy Mladenoff at mmladenoff@shiftcomm.com to sponsor an event and get terrific exposure to our members and event attendees.

Volunteers & Board Members: Want to get involved? No need to be a social media rock star, just a desire to pitch in and help – and have some social media fun. Contact chapter president Alyce Lindquist at alyce@mac.com.

Social Media Club SFSV: 2010 – A Social Media Odyssey

In 2009 Social Media crossed the chasm and became an important element of integrated marketing and PR. Today, while many consumers expect Twitter to be an always on customer service channel, there are still many more who don’t yet ‘get’ Twitter or understand why Social Media is important.

So what advancements will 2010 bring? How will consumer expectations evolve? How will brands adapt to the changing needs of a market empowered by Social Media? Will we see the democratization of the net or the birth of more 800 pound gorrillas? Is it getting easier to use or will it be more challenging? What will suprize and delight? What will fizzle and fail? Will 2010 be the year of Social Media or will people be so overwhelmed by the amount of information that they tune out and turn off?

Join us as we take a journey into the future with some of the brightest minds in the valley for 2010: A Social Media Odyssey. Panel portions of the program will be moderated by Jennifer Lindsay of The A-List podcast. We will allow plenty of time for Q&A, so please come with questions! [Read more]

“Keeping Social Media Human” in Virginia Beach

The Virginia Beach chapter launched in October where a crowd of 50 people discussed, townhall style, what platforms work well for those in business? How do we merge personal and business ? These questions led to lively discussions on privacy, such as  how to create the Facebook group lists and hide what some friends can see. Lori Aitkenhead, a founder, was at a conference in Boston, so she gracefully allowed us to do a live Skype call to introduce her to the group.

The demand for the social media approach was high so we continued with “Keeping Social Media Human.” at the November 9 event.  Momentum remained strong for this, our second meet-up ever! We were thrilled to have a nationally-recognized social media personality as our guest speaker. Francina Harrison, “The Career Engineer,” – a national career, business and networking expert – lead an interactive discussion about building business relationships through social media. She emphasized the importance of connecting with your audience regularly, staying engaged and providing good content. In fact, one of Francina’s most valuable nuggets of wisdom was, “Content is king!” Amen, Career Engineer!

After the meet-up, one attendee commented, “Great event! Many familiar faces, but lots of new ones. Info shared was fabulous–especially by Francina.” Indeed, Francina was an amazing guest speaker with a ton of relevant personal experiences and great information to share.  After the event, she was gracious enough to speak with us via podcast. Thanks to Garner New Media, this podcast will allow you to share in what we learned from The Career Engineer! We plan to have monthly podcasts highlighting and breaking down each meet-up.

Our December 2nd event will have small break out groups where the discussion will be about entering the Blogosphere: Set-Up, Strategy, and Content. Join us for daily discussion on our Facebook page, where members have reached over 400 and growing!

Social Media Boot Camp in Salt Lake City

For those of you on the United States’ west coast, or interested in being on the west coast (or at least the intermountain west) next Friday, October 23, 2009, the Social Media Club of Salt Lake City has arranged for a first-of-its-kind event to be held in Salt Lake City.

For the first time, Ragan Communications is bringing its world-class training operation to Salt Lake City to presents two seminars:

Advanced Writing & Editing
Social Media Boot Camp for Corporate Communicators

Both seminars are presented by the Social Media Club of Salt Lake City.

Participants who register using the SMC of SLC promotional code (SMCSL9) automatically receive $150 off the cost of registration AND support the Social Media Club of Salt Lake City because Ragan provides a co-branding fee for each registrant that uses our promotional code.

Details about both seminars are on SMCSLC.org.

We welcome your participation!

Orange and Viadeo sponsor the Social Media Club France

Some heartwarming news from the French SMC Chapter just arrived: Orange renews officially its annual support to the Social Media Club France, while a new sponsorship deal has been stroke with Viadeo.

By having supported the French SMC chapter since 2008, and with several SMC active members coming from its ranks, Orange is the historic and most significant partner of the French Club. By keeping on supporting the Club, Orange positions itself as a key-player in the definition and the diffusion of best practices in the social media industry.

With more than 8.5 million members, Viadeo is a worldwide leader in the professional social networking space, as well as a pioneer (founded in 2004!). After participating to a session, Nicholas (Viadeo’s PR Director) spontaneously offered his support to the Club. As Viadeo is often seen as one of the most appealing jewels of the French / European Social Media industry crown, we were of course very proud of Nicholas’offer (and accepted it right away).

Backed by major organizations, the Social Media Club will keep on extending its action 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 and Viadeo, for their trust and support. We are all very pleased to be supported by such great professionals.

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).

Conference Discounts Available to SMC Community

Below you will find several conferences that have offered nice discounts to the SMC member community:

• Social TV Forum: September 28 – 29, 2009 in London (UK). SMC community members receive 20% discount by using code SMClovesU.
• Social Media for Government: September 29 – October 2, 2009 in Ottawa, Ontario. How To Engage Your Employees And Citizens By Using The Latest Web 2.0 Technologies To Drive Communication Results. Mention “SMC” to receive a special $200 member discount!
• Social Media for Healthcare: October 5-8, 2009 in Washington, DC. How To Use The Latest Web 2.0 Technologies To Engage Your Community, Improve Quality Of Service, And Build Your Reputation. Mention “Social Media Club” to receive a special $200 subscriber discount!
• The Social Media Business Forum: October 23, 2009 in Durham, NC. This conference will feature national and local speakers from marketing companies, technology companies, and social networks discussing ways in which business communications have changed due to social media.Use code SMC to get 15% off.
• TribeCon: October 28-29, 2009 in New Orleans, LA. Join us as we assemble national community leaders to discuss ways of leveraging online tools to grow communities and empower action. For brands, activists, entrepreneurs, artists and anyone who values the power of communities to create share resources and create change both online and offline. Use code SMC to receive 25% off tickets!
• Social Networking World Forum North America: November 9 – 10, 2009 in Santa Clara, CA (USA). SMC community members receive 20% discount by using code SMClovesU.
• Social Media for Crisis Communications in Government: November 2-5, 2009 in Washington, DC. How To Integrate The Latest Web 2.0 Technologies To Maximize Effectiveness Before, During, And After A Crisis. Mention “SMC” to receive a special $200 member discount!
• The Social Consumer – B2C Case Studies and Roundtable:  November 12, 2009 in New York, NY (USA). Social communications is now part of an integrated marketing and communications platform for most leading organizations. This conference will showcase the best case studies that demonstrate how leading brands use social communications to achieve tangible business goals. SMC members receive a discounted rate of $155. Please tell them you are with SMC.
• Social PR Forum: December 4, 2009 in London (UK). SMC community members receive 20% discount by using code SMClovesU.
• Social Media for Government: December 7-10, 2009 in Washington, DC. How To Engage Your Employees And Citizens By Using The Latest Web 2.0 Technologies To Drive Communication Results. Mention “SMC” to receive a special $200 discount!
• Social Media for Gov Conference: Feb. 8-11 in Washington, DC. Mention this post & receive a $200 registration discount!

Worthy cause for you to check out:

• TweetsGiving09: November 24-26, 2009. Social Media Club is proud to partner with Epic Thanks, a global celebration that seeks to change the world through the power of gratitude. This event is scheduled for the 48-hour event and will encourage participants to express their thanks using online tools and at live events to be held globally, and to give to a common cause in honor of that for which they’re most grateful. More details to follow.

Welcome to our new 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 (’SMC’).

• SMB Members: Alexander Guiragossian (Edinburgh Fine Gardens, Inc.)
• Professional Members: Piia Aarma, Ann McDermott, Michael Lamattina, Chris Abraham, Chad Latz, Jill Howell, Jennifer Windrum, Marie Kare, David Shantz, Angela Darcy, Joseph Donlan, Zac Bowling, Jim Caruso, Vernon Brown and Linh DePledge.

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 Social Media Club so that we can afford to continue to advance Social Media around the world, please sign up here today. We look forward to welcoming you officially to the SMC family!

It’s Time for a Reality Check

I am excited to tell you about the launch of a new Social Media Club program called Reality Check. This will be our coordinated effort to get past the hype on several key issues to Social Media professionals by connecting across several of the different cities with active local Social Media Club groups, and exploring the practical, real world usage of key technologies and activities.

While some might see it as an event sponsorship, others might see it as a mini-site, others might see it as an online advertising buy, still others might see it as a video blog and hopefully more of you will see this as the forest and not the trees since all those things are true.

From my perspective, it is a foundational element of the future of marketing, which is a focused ‘market conversation’ around a topic of mutual interest between a given community/market and a sponsor/advertiser. Broadly, it falls under a practice area I am calling Market Engagement Optimization (MEO) which I will be writing about more later this week [teaser]. While some may call this a ’sponsored conversation’, I call it a market conversation because it is about the market more so then the sponsor.

The simple idea behind a market conversation is that there is a question of interest to market participants that is ‘underwritten’ by a sponsor, which we have framed under the guise of doing a reality check on our industry, something we feel is sorely needed. In this case, we are working with Real Player SP to do a reality check on portable video. How are people really using portable video, how would they like to be using portable video both personally and professionally?

In addition to sponsoring several local Social Media Club events around the world, their sponsorship has underwritten a videographer in each city, allowed us to hire Roxanne Darling (from Barefeet Studios and also Beachwalks with Rox) as the Executive Producer and enabled us to launch a new site focused on the Reality Check. We are providing Real Player SP with broad sponsorship of our digital media from our newsletter, to our member badge/widget, to the local events, to inclusion in all promotion for Reality Check and of course, on the site and videos we produce.

This sort of holistic integration of online-offline efforts is what I personally see as one of the best ways to get a corporate entity engaged in issues that matter to the community while respecting the community and its members.  Rather then focusing on pushing their products, they are a part of the conversation and in this case enabling it to happen in a more organized, professional manner.  They are actively participating by enabling this discussion to happen, but also by listening and contributing. In fact, RealTweeter and Real Networks Blogger Lacy Kemp is heading to many of the events herself and even CEO Rob Glaser is engaged after attending the Seattle Social Media Club meeting recently.

While Social Media Club gets funds it needs to enable the local and the international conversations at the core of our community, Real Player SP gets increased awareness, consideration for their new product (which I personally think is really cool and useful), research on a core issue that matters to them, a chance to humanize the brand (key to MEO) and a chance to show that they are not only engaged and listening, but taking different actions because of it.

How it works: we take 15 minutes out of the meetings in selected cities to discuss the same questions, reaching beyond our own world view to see how people from all around the country and all around the world think about a given topic. This is recorded on video and distributed on Reality Check, where participants from different cities can discover the similar and different perspective of others. We then use the Reality Check blog to gather new insights and discuss the topic together.

We previously did a network sponsorship of local Social Media Club events with H&R Block that was focused on them delivering tax advice in the month leading up to April 15 (our tax due date in the US). Reality Check takes this network event sponsorship idea to the next level.

Ultimately, I feel this is one of the best ways we have so far to connect our members and explore a topic together. So I invite you to join this month’s Reality Check, and let us know how you use portable video and how you would like to use portable video both personally and professionally.

BTW – Future Reality Check’s are planned for blogging, social networking, podcasting and even Twitter. If you are interested in participating in a Reality Check around your market, please contact us.

Tyson Foods Steps up to the Hunger Challenge. Again.

The San Francisco Food Bank, Tyson Foods and Social Media Club San Francisco are working together to increase awareness around the issue of hunger during the 2009 Hunger Challenge taking place this week:  September 20-26.

Tyson has graciously offered to donate truck loads of food based on our ability to use Social Media tools to  spread the word in support of our local food banks. 

From Tyson’s blog:

There’s a list of hunger facts below.  All Tweetable.  Tweet  or retweet any of them with the hashtag  #HChal and Tyson Foods will make a 100 pound donation (up to a total of 100,000 pounds) to the San Francisco Food Bank. Blog about this effort and we’ll donate 500 pounds.  Or comment to this post with your own verifiable fact (not opinion)  about hunger and we’ll donate 100 pounds.   That’s all you have to do. Let’s see how far and fast we can spread these facts out there in Twittervillle. If you’d like to make reference to this post, here’s a shortened URL:  http://bit.ly/sBE9x

Tweetable Facts About Hunger

• More than 35 mil. people in the U.S. are on food stamps–up 3 million since Jan.  #HChal
• App. 40% of families now on food stamps have “earned income”–up from just 25% 2 years ago.  #HChal
• For every $1 donated @SFFoodBank can distribute $9 worth of groceries. #HChal #hungeraction
• In San Francisco, 150K people are unsure where their next meal is coming from. #HChal #hungeraction
• 1 in 4 San Francisco children lack reg.access to food they need to learn, grow, & have a healthy start in life. #HChal
• 1 in 5 San Francisco adults can’t count on daily meals they need to lead healthy, productive lives. #HChal
• 1 in 4 San Francisco seniors lack the nourishment need to control chronic health problems. #HChal
• .@SFFoodBank distributed over 33.5 million pounds of food in the past year–nearly 8% more than the year before. #HChal
• 60% of the clients @SFFoodBank served last year come from working families.  #HChal
• In CA, the average food stamp recipient gets $4 a day to spend on food.  #HChal #hungeraction
• In CA, a single person can get food stamps only if their yearly gross income is $14,079 or less. #HChal
• 5.3 mil. Californians are living below the federal poverty line ($21,834 for a family of 4) #HChal
• The number of households participating in @SFFoodbank’s grocery pantry program is up 24% over last year. #HChal

Bonus Challenge:

Social Media Club would like to up the anty and asks everyone to donate $5 this month. Forget the latte for one day, and help feed a family of four. If you do not have the $5 to donate, the food banks could always use food – their most-needed foods include rice and pasta, canned fruits and vegetables, tuna or other canned meats, soups and stews, peanut butter, and cereal. You can find a local drop off center near you.

I hope you will help us reach that goal of donating 100,000 pounds of food. Would be awesome to raise $10,000 this month too. Can we do it?

Happy Birthday SMCSA, Now One Year Old!

Well we’ve hit the first of what is sure to be many milestones, our first year in the city of San Antonio and we’ve had the pleasure of meeting a great many new people and we’re honored to have them and all of our regular favorites share in this experience with us.

Can you believe it’s been 1 year since San Antonio joined the Social Meda Club family? In that amount of time we’ve seen our club grow from the early-adopter geek crowd to include business, non-profit and media types.

We’ve got a great speaker planned for this event who will share with all of you the key points to social conversion. Brian Massey who is otherwise known as the “Conversion Scientist” will be joining us as our amazing guest speaker for this big event and we’re hoping that Brian can help you figure a way to turn that community of yours into something big. Brian’s topic: “Social Conversion Rate” is sure to be as informative as it is entertaining.

You can also catch Brian’s amazing wisdom over on his website The Conversion Scientist, but don’t blame us for your success!

Time: September 10, 2009 from 6pm to 8pm
Location: C4 Workspace, 108 King William, San Antonio, TX 78204

Photo Credit hfb

SMC San Francisco/Silicon Valley Chapter Seeks New President/Team Lead

It has been a good ride over the past three years, but the time has come for me to resign as the president of the San Francisco/Silicon Valley chapter*, and hand the baton on to someone who can really devote the time and attention needed to ensure the chapter continues to serve the needs of the local community.

My current time commitments – president and acting COO of the global Social Media Club organization, my contract with Ribbit and helping to manage our Agency, AdHocnium, are requiring more of me these days, which leaves little time for anything else. I want to stay involved, but in a much lesser role (see below) – note, we also need a Production Director.

The local chapter has been loosely run, with a fairly large group of 15+ people volunteering as time allows. I think going forward, it would behoove the new local president/team lead to reduce the core organizational team to six people, each focused on one main task, and then have a larger group of ‘general managers’ supporting these six roles to ensure things run smoothly.

• President/Team Lead – Event project management, locks in schedule and ensures events actually happen monthly, works with Directors to complete projects assigned. Oversees all accounting records. Fills in where needed. Open position
• Programming Director – At the heart of the Social Media Club is great interactive events. The Programming Director manages all aspects of the activity calendar for the San Francisco /Silicon Valley club by determining topics to be discussed and speakers to present. Confirmed: Jennifer Lindsay with support from Chris Heuer and anyone else who wishes to submit topic ideas and/or speaker suggestions
• Production Director - Securing venue for each meeting, managing on-site signage, video, audio and lighting, working with Partnership Director to coordinate food and drink with event sponsors and/or venue, ensure supplies are provided at each event (name badges, pens, markers, etc.). Open position
• Digital Scribe(s) - Responsible for recording the discussion and producing a blog post/video/podcast that will be posted to the socialmediaclub.org website within one week of the event. Confirmed: David Libby, could use 1-2 more volunteers here.
• Promotions Director(s) - Managing the local chapter calendar postings on the socialmediaclub.org blog, wiki, Facebook group, Upcoming and other related forums. Confirmed: Janet Fouts and J.J. Toothman
• Partnership Director - manages the relationships with the national Social Media Club parent organization, other important related organizations (both national and local), as well as with local businesses and organizations interested in sponsoring or hosting upcoming activities. Confirmed: Kristie Wells (also acting Secretary/Treasurer)
  

When the work is distributed as noted in these roles, I would imagine each role would require, between 1-4 hours per month administrative plus 2-3 hours the night of the event.

If you are interested in taking on one of these positions, please let us know as soon as possible – either leave a comment below or shoot me an email to kristie [at] socialmediaclub [dot] org. Fall programming is in full swing, we need to lock this new team in and start making plans for 2010!

*P.S. We have been alternating meetings each month – one in San Francisco, the next in Silicon Valley. San Francisco events see between 75-150 people each month, Silicon Valley between 50-75. There was talk of splitting the group up and forming two chapters again, but I would love to see it continue as one…at least through the rest of 2009.

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