SMC Seeking Executive Director and Summer Interns

Social Media Club (SMC) is now in its third year and continues to see consistent growth with an average of 10 new chapters launching every quarter. It has been loosely run by Chris and myself, with a handful of volunteers and an interim Board of Directors consisting of Serena Ehrlich, Howard Greenstein and Todd Defren.

In 2009, we began working to bring a little more structure to the organization - filing for our 501c3 (now turning into a c6), hiring a couple of assistants and building a new member site that will ensure our community can connect easier with one another and find the information you need faster.

Now the time has come to really kick the organizations into high gear. To do so, we need someone focused on steering the wheel; securing grants, selling sponsorships, building a membership drive, creating educational programs. All the things we need to ensure SMC’s success.

We need an Executive Director.

It will be a part time position to start, and the ED will need to bring funding sources in to help cover the salary costs (see more below in the Special Requirement section). We believe this is a unique opportunity to take a good global NGO and turn it into a great global NGO. The Executive Director is responsible for the successful leadership and management of the organization according to the strategic direction set by the Board of Directors.

One candidate has been presented for the role. The SMC board has motioned to open the application process up - for two weeks only. As an open organization we wish to have an open process for this and not a closed, ‘no-bid’ contract to ensure we provide an opportunity for all qualified candidates to apply for the position.

Submit your application online. The Board of Directors will review all submissions and an announcement will be made in early June.

Special Requirement:

The Executive Director candidate shall sell a predetermined amount of sponsorship dollars to help fund the position s/he will fill. Once the sponsorship dollars are secured, the Executive Director will start providing Executive Director services* (the scope of which would be mutually agreed upon) on a half-time basis, for a monthly fee on a month-to-month basis. The fee for such services is $5000/month for the first six months,
after which the parties will conduct an informal evaluation.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities (top 5 responsibilities…we have a few more things we need done, but we didn’t want to scare you off. Ha.):

• Oversee the planning, implementation and evaluation of the organization’s programs and services
• Monitor the day-to-day delivery of the programs and services of the organization to maintain or improve quality
• Develop sponsorship sales materials for SMC organizational and event sponsorships. The materials will be subject to SMC Board approval.
• Develop a sponsor prospect list and start making contact with the list after SMC Board approval. The Executive Director will receive sales commission of 5% for sponsorships closed from existing SMC prospects already contacted, and 10% for sales closed by Executive Director where s/he initiates the primary contact.
• Develop and promote paid membership program

Experience Preferred

• 1-2 or more years of progressive management experience in a voluntary sector organization

Again, if you are interested in the ED role, please submit your application online. The Board of Directors will review all submissions and an announcement will be made in early June.

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We are also looking for a Summer intern (or two) to help with research, events, audio/visual editing and community outreach. This is a great position for a student looking to get into Marketing/PR and wishing to learn about Social Media.

This position can be P/T or F/T and our preference is to have at least one person in the San Francisco Bay Area based on some of the project needs. However, if you are located outside the area, please submit your application as there is more than enough projects to dig into.

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:

• Online Marketing Summit: Started May 5, 2009 in Boston and travels to 17 other cities, ending in Seattle on July 1st. SMC members receive 20% off by using code SMCNAT20.  This event series is focused on best practices in online marketing including Social Media, Search Engine Marketing (SEO & PPC), Web Analytics, Usability, Email Marketing, Integrated Marketing Strategy.
• Innovating Employee Engagement 2009: New Ideas for Touch Times taking place June 16, 2009 in Chicago, IL. Use code tweet1 to receive $100 off registration. You will learn and share on the most essential aspects of employee engagement, HR and social media for internal communications.
• Executing Social Media For Internal Communications 2009: Delivering More Value In A Tough Economy taking place on June 17, 2009 in Chicago, IL. Use code tweet1 to receive $100 off registration.  You will learn and share on the most essential aspects of employee engagement, HR and social media for internal communications.
• Rethinking Corporate Communications 2009: Delivering More Value in a Tough Economy taking place September 30-October 1, 2009 in Washington, DC. SMC member can use code tweet1 to receive $100 off registration.  This is an interactive and intimate conference for corporate, government and non-profit communicators.

There are two other events we encourage our community to attend:

• A Clean Life: May 21, 2009 in Washington, DC. A Clean Life is dedicated to environmental stewardship through reducing waste, sustainable eating, and community building.
• Social Media Camp: June 4, 2009 in New York, NY.  Social Media Camp is a Social Media Club event that is participant-driven with the intent of helping Small Businesses and Job Seekers to learn how Social Media can help them with their current (or starting up) business, or with their job search.

New Chapters Forming

We continue to see requests for SMC in cities around the world, and are happy to report the following ‘active’ and ‘in the works’ chapters. Please note the list below is subject to change, so it is best to check the SMC Event Calendar for real-time meetings:

MARCH

• Chapter Launches: Canberra (Australia) - Gold Coast (Australia) - Greenville, SC (USA) - Hamburg (Germany) – Honolulu, HI (USA) – Melbourne (Australia) - Salt Lake City, UT (USA) – Sacramento, CA (USA) - Seattle, WA (USA) - Victoria, BC (Canada)
• Planning Meetings (preparing for launch): None

APRIL

• Chapter Launches: Corpus Christi, TX (USA) - Indianapolis, IN (USA) - Spartanburg, SC (USA)
• Planning Meetings (preparing for launch): Nashville, TN (USA) - New Orleans, LA (USA) - Orlando, FL (USA) - Richmond, VA (USA) - Toronto, ON (Canada)

MAY

• Chapter Launches: Houston, TX (USA) - Nashville, TN (USA) - Östergötland (Sweden) - Richmond, VA (USA) - St. Louis, MO (USA)
• Planning Meetings (preparing for launch): Orange County, CA (USA) - Pasadena, CA (USA) - Rio Grande, TX (USA)- Wilmington, NC (USA)

To find out information on your city launch and/or planning meetings, please check out our Local Teams page and then click through to the SMC wiki. The great thing we have found is that you too can start an SMC chapter in your town – so just add your city on to the wiki 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 are available for listening up to one week follownig each call.

We do ask that you review the follwoing items before you jump on the call:

• SMC Chapter Guidelines
• 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.

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. 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!

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: William Gaultier (e-Storm), Lars Wehmeyer (Formatune)
• Professional Members: Jon Wollenhaupt, Michael Rupert, Beth Schillaci, Mark Williams, Joan Lockwood, Christina Jones, Clay McDaniel,Shauna Causey, Carol Whittington, Linda Ziskind, Karen O’Brien, Susan Main, Geoff Brown, Jessie Zhou, Ron Ledesma, Josef Chervenka, Zena Weist, Kate Miltner, James Huckfeldt, Jessica Baker, Rick Simmons, Barbara Daniels, Kelly Mitchell, Todd Pitt, Christopher Hayes, Olivia Haist, Joseph Ortenzi, Melissa DelGaudio, Monie TenBroeck, Kathleen Nixon, Barbara Rozgonyi, Pankaj Kedia, David Nugent, Chris Chandler, Gaby Castellanos

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!

Welcome to our SMB and Professional Members!

We’d like to acknowledge our latest 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: Betsy Weber (Techsmith), Shelly Milam and Craig Oda (Page One PR), Jesse Engle, Aaron Gotwalt and Kyle Sollenberger (LaunchAbility)
• Professional Members: Kaarli Tasso, Murray Izenwasser, Jennifer Graddy, David Politis, Anne Bertelsen, John Swords, Catherine Martin, Christian Giangreco, Rachel Weatherly, Samir Balwani, JD Norton, Denise Ryan, Elisa Haidt, Gloria Bell, Nicole Swank, Debbi Jarvis, Stefan Möhler, Michelle Da Roza, Rebecca Keen, and Brian Remmel.

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Social Media Club Advisory Group News

• Alex de Carvalho will be on the Digital Tsunami: Breaking News at Breakneck Speeds panel at SXSWi in Austin, TX. For more on Alex, please visit StartPR
• Howard Greenstein will be speaking on Building Your Business on Social Networks in Chicago, IL on February 26th. For more on Howard, please visit Harbrooke Group.
• Chris Heuer will be leading a session on the Death of Advertising at Northern Voice/MooseCamp in Vancouver, BC on February 20th and will be speaking at the Next 09 conference in Hamburg, Germany on May 5th.  For more on Chris, please visit AdHocnium.
• Connie Reece has several speaking engagements coming up with the first on February 27th at the Women’s Business Conference 2009 in Austin, TX. Connie will also be profiled in the March issue of Austin Woman magazine in a special feature”Blogistas + Social Media Mavens” section. For more on Connie, please visit Every Dot Connects.

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 Media Club: Chapter Launches

Are you interested in launching Social Media Club in your local city?  Need a little help growing your existing chapter? On the hunt for interesting topics?

Join us on our 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 - between 8am PST and 5:30pm PST. An updated schedule is available online in the Social Media Club events calendar. We know these times are not ideal for the International crowd, so feel free to email kristie [at] socialmediaclub.org to schedule an alternate time as needed.

The conference call info is as follows:

Conference Dial-in Number: (269) 320-8400
Access Code: 509633#

We will be recording each call, so if you are not able to join us live - feel free to take a listen when time allows:

Playback Number: (269) 320-8499
Access Code: 509633#

We recently launched an official chapter launch guide, and encourage everyone to review these BEFORE you join the call so we all have a baseline to work from:

• See if your city is already meeting
• SMC Chapter Guidelines
• SMC Founder, Chris Heuer, also interviewed SMC Louisville Chapter Leader, Jason Falls, recently on Organizing a Local Social Media Club. This is a 30-minute podcast, please take a listen.

We have seen a bit of of pick up in requests to launch Social Media Club chapters as of late, and we will start posting a monthly update on what cities are ‘in the works’ to keep everyone posted. To get us current, here is where we are:

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): Detroit/Ann Arbor, MI (USA) - New Orleans, LA (USA) - Orlando, FL (USA) - Portland, OR (USA) - Tampa, FL (USA) - Toronto, ON (Canada) - Tucson, AZ (USA)

JANUARY:

• Chapter Launches: Salt Lake City, UT (USA)
• Planning Meetings (preparing for launch): TBD

To find out information on your city launch and/or planning meetings, please visit the SMC Wiki and click on the city nearest you.

Austin Real Estate Company Uses Social Media

An article in today’s Austin American-Statesman relates how Benn Rosales and Lani Anglin-Rosales, members  of SMC Austin, use social media in their real estate company. Their Agent Genius blog-magazine, which features 37 contributors from across the nation, won an award from real estate news agency Inman News for most innovative blog.

SMC Austin co-founder Connie Reece and program chair, David Neff, were also interviewed for the article. David took the unusual step of making a Facebook page for his house, which Benn and Lani are helping him sell through social media efforts.

Read the complete story: Social media help Austin agents sell homes.

Social Media News: September 2008

In this issue:

· Welcome New Members!

· Member Benefits Package

· Social Media Workshops: Starting the Conversation

· Documenting Election 08 Using Social Media

· SMC Gatherings Around the World

· Conference Discounts Available to SMC Members

· Local Chapter Leader Conference Calls

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Welcome to our SMB and Professional Members:

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

· SMB Co-Founders: Janet Fouts, CJ Brasiel, Patrick Sellers, Roxanne Darling, Shane Robinson, Lee Odden

· SMB Members: Bradley Silver, Tom O’Brien, Laura Chavoen, Aaron Strout, Heather Strout, Matt Shandera, Regan Fletcher, Karen Greenburg, Ted Morris, Ashirwaad Badami

· Professional Co-Founders: Jackie Peters, Patrick Reilly, Steve Banfield, Jennifer McClure, Scott Schablow, Stephen Collins, Alex de Carvalho

· Professional Members: Douglas Pollei, Joel Richman, Ayelet Baron, Jeanne Meister, Jim Nieters, Chris Ray, Crystal King, Beth Harte, Eric Rochow, Tucker Carney, Jason Falls, Cyril Simone, Janie, Graziani, Jason Kintzler, Ziad Kane, Jeff De Cagna, Te-ge Bramhall, Allen Mireles, David Naumann, Steven Fish, Tim Eby, Kathleen Ferretti-Gambale, Andy Sernovitz, Michelle Brusyo, Heidi Proctor, Zoe Korstvedt, Tessa Horehled, JoAnn Peach, Kyung Han

Each of the members mentioned above will receive a Social Media Club Member Kit that includes a membership card, t-shirt and stickers.  We are also happy to announce that for the next few months, new members will also receive an Akoha starter kit.  If you don’t know what that is yet, you need to check out http://akoha.com/ to see this great concept for yourself. 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!

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Member Benefits Package

We have been working behind the scenes to define the value proposition to attract new members (and keep existing ones connected) to Social Media Club and work towards building out the member benefit packages that are a little light right now.

The committee members are Michael Brito, Serena Erlich, Chris Heuer, Aaron Strout, Des Walsh and Kristie Wells and some thoughts have been shared on the SMC website on what we are thinking of and we would absolutely love your feedback on what you think the should be included in your SMC membership. Please post a comment and/or connect with us directly. Thank you for continued support.

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Social Media Workshops: Starting the Conversation

If you are trying to understand why Social Media is such a hot topic and what your organization should be doing about it, this is your chance to attend a workshop hosted by SMC professionals from around the world.  Each workshop has a slightly different focus and flavor, and each workshop is hosted by a different group of leaders, but each workshop is designed with you in mind, so you not only learn from lectures, but through conversations and interactions with the leaders.

We have two workshops coming up this year (with more to come in 2009):

Honolulu Hawaii - October 23, 2008

• $295 Registration ($100 discount if you register before October 10th)
• 8AM - 3PM @ The Hawaii Prince Hotel
• Workshop leaders include Roxanne Darling, Beth Kanter, Chris Heuer and Kristie Wells
• More information on the Hawaii workshop including the agenda is available on the http://SocialMediaWorkshop.com Web site
• Register Now

Northern California - November 8, 2008

• $395 Registration ($100 discount if you register before October 31st)
• 9am - 5PM @ TBD
• Workshop leaders include Erin Kotecki Vest (QueenofSpain), Lauren Fitton (Pistachio), Adam Metz, Jeremy Toeman, Kristie Wells and Chris Heuer
• Erin will be leading off this workshop with a keynote on her insights from the 2008 Presidential Election from the prior Tuesday.
• More information on the Northern California workshop including agenda and venue details will follow shortly

SMC Members in good standing (i.e., paid up on dues) can receive an extra 10% off by using a special discount code, which you can receive by emailing events@socialmediaclub.org.

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Documenting Election 08 Using Social Media

The SMC Boston chapter, to encourage more hands-on social media learning, built a social network for people to document Election 08 from a Social Media perspective. In a little more than a week, there’s been a lot of great content, and from some very cool and smart people in the Boston area. But it’s not just a Boston idea. It can work everywhere.

Add your thoughts now and join the conversation.

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SMC Gatherings Around the World

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

• Dallas, TX ( USA) - September 25th
• Paris ( France) - September 29th
• Boston, MA ( USA) - October 9th
• London ( UK) - October 9th (planning meeting)
• Phoenix, AZ ( USA) - October 9th
• Isle of Man ( British Isles) - October 16th
• San Francisco/Silicon Valley, CA ( USA) - October 21st

More cities to announce upcoming dates shortly. Keep watch online for a gathering in your local city.

As for growth, while we would like to build the organization organically and just blindly say ‘go do it’ – we also know the value of the Club will be finding ways to get the cities to work with one another, so we are intentionally growing at a slower pace right now as we implement the technology to ensure that happens.

If you are interested in launching SMC in your local city, please sign your city up on the wiki so we can start collecting names of other people interested in attending in your area, and seeking out venues to hold each gathering.  It will make it so much easier when we get ready to launch to know what the dealio is.

We also ask that you listen to the following podcast and read the wiki material on things to consider, and then jump on our weekly call held on Wednesdays, starting October 1st, to discuss the requirements for launching Social Media Club in your city, as well as receive advice and feedback to ensure your launch is a success.

• SMC Founder, Chris Heuer, recently interviewed SMC Louisville Chapter Leader, Jason Falls, on Organizing a Local Chapter (30 minute podcast)
• Best practices and items to consider provided in the How To Run a Meeting guide (on the wiki)
• Weekly call on Wednesdays at 8am PST. Conference Dial-in Number: (269) 320-8400, Participant Access Code: 509633#. These will be recorded for those who are not able to attend the live call. Playback Number: (641) 715-3445, Access Code: 509633#.

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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:

• AMA - Viral Marketing - Is it right for your firm?: September 25, 2008 in San Francisco, CA - Discount Available: $15 off standard non-member ticket price of $50. Use discount code fall08.
• Social Media Marketing Summit: October 1-2, 2008 in San Francisco, CA - Discount Available: Passes available for $495 (onsite reg. $1,295). Use discount code w3ace2.
  
• SMX East New York: October 6-8, 2008 in New York, NY ( USA). Discount Available: 10% off badges at all levels. Use discount code smx10smc (case sensitive)
• Executing Social Media: October 15-16, 2008 in Atlanta, GA - Discount Available:  $200 off the registration fee. User discount code ESM08SM.
• Social Media Summit: October 20-23, 2008 in New York, NY - Discount Available: $200 off registration. Mention Social Media Club when registering.
• Forrester’s Consumer Forum 2008: October 28-29, 2008 in Dallas, TX - Discount Available: Call +1 617.613.5905 or email events@forrester.com and mention SMC to save $400 off the full conference rate. Discount applies to new registrations only and cannot be combined with other offers.
• Searchnomics Social Media Strategies Conference: October 29-30, 2008 in San Francisco, CA - Discount Available: $150 off registration. Use discount code smclub.
• The Marketing & Online Communities Conference: November 5 in New York, NY – Discount Available: $100 off registration. Use discount code smcmoc9.
• Social Media for Internal Communications: November 17-20, 2008 in San Francisco, CA - Discount Available: $200 off registration. Mention Social Media Club when registering.

Other conferences happening around the world:

• BlogOrlando: September 25-27  in Orlando, FL ( USA)
• NCDD 2008 Conference: October 3-5  in Austin, TX ( USA)
• Social Media for Social Changes: October 10 in Boston, MA ( USA)
• BlogHer Reach Out Tour: October 11 in Boston, MA ( USA)
• BlogHer Reach Out Tour: October 13 in Washington, DC ( USA)
• New Marketing Summit: October 14-15 in Foxboro, MA ( USA)
• Mystic Meetup: October 17-18 in Mystic, CT ( USA)
• PodCamp Pittsburgh: October 18-19 in Pittsburgh, PA ( USA)
• Web 2.0 Berlin: October 21-23 in Berlin, Germany
• MarketingProfs Digital Marketing Mixer: October 23-24 in Scottsdale, AZ ( USA)
• PRSA 2008 International Conference: October 25-28 in Detroit, MI ( USA)
• Blogwell: October 28 in San Jose, CA ( USA)
• Web 2.0 Summit: November 5-7 in San Francisco, CA ( USA)
• 3rd Annual Society for New Communications Research Symposium & Awards Gala: November 14 in Cambridge, MA ( USA)
• 3rd Annual Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference: November 19 in Phoenix, AZ ( USA)
• Web 2.0 Tokyo: December 3-4 in Tokyo, Japan
• SXSW Interactive: March 13-17 in Austin, TX ( USA)
  

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Local Chapter Leader Conference Calls

We are going to begin regular monthly conference calls with the SMC Chapter Leaders to ensure you are informed on the latest happenings within and around the Club.  Your feedback will ensure the Club grows strong and is meeting the needs of our members.

Watch your email for the details on each call.

Be well you Media mavens.

SMC Newsletter - January 2008

SOCIAL MEDIA CLUB NEWS | JANUARY 2008

UPCOMING EVENTS

SEATTLE

Date: JANUARY 31
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Place: Text100 PR, 110 Union St.
Topic: Second Life in the New Year

***

BOSTON

Date: FEBRUARY 7
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Place: TBA
Topic: Civics, Social Media and Countdown to Election ‘08

***

PHOENIX

Date: FEBRUARY 13
note: date change
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Place: Jobing.com, 4747 N. 22nd St
Topic: Monetizing Social Media Livestream w/ Chris Pirillo from Seattle

***

AUSTIN

Date: FEBRUARY 21
Time: 8:00 A.M.
Place: TBA
Topic: Social Media Breakfast with Bryan Person

LOCAL LEADERS: Please make sure your PBWiki page is up to date so we can publish the most currentinformation for your group. Thanks!

*********

Social Media for Internal Communications

Social Media Club members receive a $200 discount

**
Search Marketing Expo - SMX West
Santa Clara Convention Center
February 26-28, 2008

Social Media Club members take 10% off registration
- use code: SMX10SMC
- April 22 - 25 in Sonoma County, CA
- EARLY BIRD PRICING ENDS FEB. 15
- Conference $995.
- Pre-or post-conf. session $195.
- SNCR Jam only - $75.

SMC MEMBER DISCOUNTS

- Save an additional $100 on full conf.
- Use discount code: NCF08100
- Pre-conference or post-conference session - save an additional $45
- Use discount code: NCF0845

************************

LOCAL GROUP NEWS

SMC Louisville chapter organizer Jason Falls (left), a Social Media Explorer for Doe Anderson, fifth oldest advertising agency in the U.S., with Michael McDonald (right), producer, director and reporter for WebProNews.com. The Louisville chapter kicked off on Jan. 22 with 33 attendees.

Triangle SMC in Raleigh, NC met at Panera for breakfast on Jan.23. Local member Kipp Bodnard led a discussion on how to develop and promote a podcast.

On Jan. 15, SMC NYC leader Howard Greenstein narrated a panel discussion on Social Networking with Peter Shankman and Andrew Weinreich.

Please email links to photos and meeting recaps for inclusion in the newsletter.

******************************

SMC PHILLY HAS A NEW HOME

SMC Philly has found a new home for their meetings, at local co-working space Indy Hall in Philadelphia’s Old City neighborhood. The club’s last meeting, on December 10, was invigorated by guests Geoff Livingston (SMC D.C. member) and Brian Williams from Viget Labs. Geoff led a group discussion related to content from his new best-selling social media book, Now is Gone, which he cultivated into a larger discussion about the hot topic of that week: Facebook’s Beacon.

SMC Philly was delighted to have Geoff and Brian visit and hopes that member friends from other chapters will get in touch if they are visiting Philly. Members from SMC Philly will be at SXSWi and look forward to the Austin Meet-up!

Email Annie Heckenberger or Twitter annierocks for more information about the SMC Philly chapter.

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MEMBERSHIP KITS

Professional, Small Business, Media and Corporate members have been sent a separate email with a link to an order form to specify the size for your SMC member T-shirt. All paid members will receive member cards and SMC stickers; the packages will be ready for mailing in about 10 days.

Once we have completed this shipment, we will begin our 2008 membership drive in earnest.

*****************************

A LITTLE LIGHT READING

A sampling of items we have bookmarked–chock full of good information:

* The Importance of Social Media by Chris Heuer

* A Sample Social Media Toolkit by Chris Brogan

* The Evolution of Social Media Releases by Brian Solis

* An Explanation of the ‘Social Graph’ by Jeremiah Owyang

Have you written something on Social Media you would like us to highlight? Please email the link and we will do our best to include it in a future issue of the newsletter.

*****************************

SPEAKING ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

SMC Founder Chris Heuer is keynote speaker at SoCon08, Atlanta’s second annual unconference Feb. 8-9.

SMC Executive Director Connie Reece is presenting at BlogHer Business in New York City, April 3-4.

If you are a co-founding member of SMC or leader of a local chapter, please email information about your speaking engagements and we are happy to include them in future newsletters.

Social Media Club News: July 2007

Sent July 19, 2007

• State of the Club
• Roles and Responsibilities to be Filled
• Social Media Clubhouse in Second Life
• Upcoming Events

I am writing you today feeling amazingly refreshed and enthused. Married life is pretty good, and things here in San Francisco are just amazing this time of year. It doesn’t hurt that I am also working on a new company I will be announcing later this month. I mention the new gig here because it will allow me some time to invest with SMC, without having to worry too much about paying the rent. So this email newsletter is perhaps one of the most important in Social Media Club’s short history.

I see a way through and beyond the community building obstacles we have faced lately, but it won’t happen without the membership making a sincere commitment to the community by donating time as a volunteer to complete key tasks for the club. So please read on, blog your thoughts about the potential future of Social Media Club and contribute where you can…

The State of the Club

The State of the Club is strong, though the summer has indeed been a time for many to take some time off - some local clubs have decided to skip a month or two, but there are still great conversations happening all around the world. Here in San Francisco and Silicon Valley we have a great new group of volunteers, with big plans for the fall and some great events planned for the coming weeks at KQED and Yahoo! respectively. Austin, Boston, DC, New York, London, Portland, and Phoenix continue to have strong showings with Seattle starting to take off along with Denver and Atlanta.

After announcing our need to take a step back to re-evaluate our direction and operations in May, we actually had a pickup in member registrations. As a result, we still have just over $10,000 in the bank and over 130 professional/business members. As for the use of those funds, the majority is going towards 2 projects, fulfilling our promise of member kits (mid August, really) and a new platform for the Social Media Club community based on Drupal (mid August preview for members).

After our very successful Social Media Workshop in June, Giovanni Rodriguez, Brian Solis and Jermiah Owyang donated their portion of the proceeds to a special fund to begin the process of making Social Media Club a 501(c)6 non profit business association. At present we are still operating Social Media Club under the auspices of Social Media LLC, but with the changes discussed below, we are looking to re-organize in earnest. If you, or someone you know might be able to donate some time to further the legal or accounting aspects of this process, please contact Chris Heuer.

So while things are still a little disorganized, we have a clear sense of what needs to be done – now the focus needs to be on getting everyone aligned and completing the work at hand.

Roles and Responsibilities to be Filled

In order to make the Club really work as we would like to see it, there are some ongoing activities that need to be performed. We have had a lot of interest in volunteering, but no place or process through which we can focus that interest yet. Personally, I am still in the same position I was in when I recruited Howard Greenstein to be the CEO, I am not well suited to manage the operations of the Club and manage all the systems that needs to be looked after. I really would like to find someone to take on the leadership position of Executive Director. As we grow, there should be enough cash flow to pay this position a salary, but today there is none. Perhaps we can have 2-3 people sharing this position with me in the interim? There are also some general ‘officer positions’ we need filled including Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. I think we should also create a formal Board structure to oversee the interests of the club from a completely strategic perspective, separate of the day to day operations.

Additionally, I would like to find people to immediately take on responsibility for:

• Member Recruitment
• New Member Welcoming Committee
• Blog Editor(s) – especially Social Media Now
• Conversation Captains (meeting content and online followup)
• Local Chapter Liaision
• Local Chapter Leadership

The formal officer positions will be determined through a nomination and voting procedure by official Club members. The other roles to be filled merely require an application to be submitted via email with some information on qualifications to fulfill the tasks that it entails and an idea of what you would do in the position. This discussion will be the focus of our next Conference Call which is open to all interested members. During the call we will also review the Club’s reason for being and our vision for fulfilling that purpose.

** Thursday July 26, 2007
** 830am-930am PST
** Dial In 001-605-990-0550
** Access Code 641643

Social Media Clubhouse in Second Life

Later that day, on Thursday July 26 at noon PST, we will be meeting on the site of the Social Media Clubhouse in Second Life to discuss how we might be able to use our virtual Clubhouse to further the goals of the club. Thanks to our good friends at Millions of Us, we are going to have a great location in Second Life near Wired, CNet and other industry leaders. To join the meeting you need to have an account on Second Life and just click on this link http://slurl.com/secondlife/Present/186/138/40/ .

Our goal for this meeting on the land is to co-create a vision for the Clubhouse and to discuss other ways in which we can use the space besides hosting virtual seminars, meetings and social networking. This is your chance to get creative and be a part of what will hopefully be a high profile Second Life project with one of the best development houses around. We will also be making a special announcement about a unique program we will be launching as a part of this project…

Upcoming Events

Green Communications – Case Studies

The green movement is more than just the latest trend. Companies and organizations are asking themselves how they participate in the movement. Business Development Institute and PR Newswire have partnered to produce a half day conference that specifically addresses the questions, issues, and opportunities facing the corporate communicator and marketer.

For inquiries, please call 800.830.6687.

Presented by Business Development Institute and PR Newswire
Tuesday July 24, 1:30pm – 6:00pm
@ Microsoft Executive Customer Briefing Center
1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY
$195 Registration - $145 for SMC Members with Discount – Use Code GREENSMC

To register or read more information, please visit http://www.bdionline.com/greencommunications

Gnomedex 7.0

Gnomedex is one of the very few conferences that I am personally willing to pay for out of my own pocket, which says a lot. It is also the place where I officially launched Social Media Club last year. If you want to meet the real movers and shakers in Social Media, this is the place to be. Thought provoking presentations, great conversations and fantastic parties – it doesn’t get much better then this…

There are only a few tickets left, so head on over and register right now!

Thursday August 9 – Saturday August 11, 2007
Seattle, WA
$495 Registration SOLDOUT
http://www.gnomedex.com/
MeshWalk Palo Alto - MeshWalk Gnomedex
I participated in the first Meshwalk after last year’s Gnomedex and I must say it is a wonderful idea - a walking unconference that draws its inspiration from the world as much as the participants. There will be another MeshWalk after Gnomedex this year, which I will probably be attending, but I am most excited about the event in Palo Alto which is focused on entrepreneurism and funding. Over the course of the day about 100 selected entrepreneurs will walk through Palo Alto and Sand Hill Road, meeting with investors and fellow founders and discussing the process of starting and funding a company. What a great way to get to know the people you need to know to start a company….

Wednesday July 25 Palo Alto, CA 830am - 6pm http://meshwalk.meshforum.org/

Social Media Workshops

After our great success in Palo Alto, we are working on a series of Social Media Workshop’s around the world. Current plans include visits to Austin, Boston, New York, London, and Hawaii!!! If you are interested in having a Social Media Workshop in your town, please contact us to discsuss.

Social Media Club Local Meetings

Some of the groups are taking a month or two off for summer, and some other groups are indeed meeting but I don’t have the current information at this time. For complete details, and to register for an upcoming event in your area, please visit http://www.socialmediaclub.org/events/

• London: July 19, 2007
• San Francisco: July 31, 2007
• Silicon Valley (Bay Area): August 23, 2007
• London: August 16, 2007
• Boston: September 13, 2007 (Summer Break in August)

Web of Change Conference

Web of Change is an annual gathering connecting senior leaders working at the convergence of online strategy, technology, and social change. Held every fall at Hollyhock Centre on Cortes Island, British Columbia, Web of Change offers an exceptional environment for learning, engagement, and reflection.

If your work finds you leveraging technology as a tool for social change and transformation, then you belong at Web of Change. Come to track the emerging trends and tools changing how we connect and communicate. Come to explore how organizations are evolving their structures to leverage emerging opportunities. Come to hone your leadership skills, and connect with other leaders in the field. Most of all, come to refresh your passion for the work you do.

September 19-23, 2007
Cortes Island, British Columbia
http://webofchange.com/

Closing…

Well, there is a lot more we could be talking about, but that about wraps up what we are sending out here tonight. Thank you all for your continuing patience and support - it’s not all that easy to try to build a global community organization for an emerging industry, but we are indeed making it happen, together…

Social Media Club: Membership News

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

SMB Co-Founders: General Mayhem, LLC (Sanjay Sabnani, Matt Cohn, Charles Turcich) and One By One Media, LLC (Jim Turner, Tris Hussey)

Professional Co-Founders: Debbie Weil, Cynthia Baker, Francine Hardaway, John Husband, Les Blatt, Daniel Goldman, Steve Eisenberg, Larry Aronson, Conrad Hametner, and Brenda Thompson

Professional: Kelley Burrus, Nate Westheimer, Dave Coustan, Michael McGrath, Greg Peverill-Conti, Jennifer Glass, and Andrew Sweet

Each of the members mentioned above will receive a Social Media Club Member Kit, which includes a membership card and stickers to start, and we will continue to beef the kits up as time goes on with other promotional items, discounts and various other benefits. The really valuable bits will be coming from our soon to be launched community Web site and Club Blog!
——————-

Got a Little Free Time to Donate?
So our vision for the Club is a bit more expansive than one or two people can create, so we have been sharpening our saw while working to focus the organization and prioritize. On the local level, the Boston Club has a great team structure for ensuring all the tasks get completed (http://socialmediaclub.pbwiki.com/BostonVolunteers ), which is a great model for other cities to emulate.

Given that the money is not growing on the tree in our backyard, but the community is growing like wildflowers, we are hoping there are a few folks out there who believe in the future of the Club enough to consider donating some time to propel us forward and complete some of our most crucial missions.

We could really use assistance with:

• Communications/Copy Writing – writing content for the site, newsletter, events, etc. (business and editorial)
• Graphic Design – banner ads, workshop collateral, etc.
• Technical/Coding Assistance – building out new website with Drupal/PHP experience and UNIX system administration
• Event Planner – assisting local groups organize their events
• Volunteer Wrangling - someone to help ensure that all the tasks people take on, get done

Each one of these are critical paths for the success of the organization, and each can be done with a few hours commitment per week/month. While there is no monetary compensation available at this time, we are happy to provide membership scholarships and possibly super huge discounts to future workshops/conferences if that is of interest.

If any of this peeks your interest, please contact socialmediaclub [a-t] gmail [dot] com.
——————

CO-Founder and Local Leader Conference Calls
We are going to begin regular monthly conference calls with both the SMC Co-Founders and the Local Leaders to ensure you are informed on the latest happenings within and around the Club. I had sincerely meant this to be happening already, but over the past few months while we were heads down figuring things out, I have had a tough time writing and sharing as much as I would have liked. This will be changing somewhat, as we are going to begin to regularly and seriously engage in discussions about what we are doing together as a Club to co-create value for our community, our companies and ourselves.

If you are a co-founder or are helping lead your local Club, watch your email for the details on the calls later today.
——————–

T-Shirt Contest Update: Cotton Farmers Get No Love From Us
Unfortunately, we had to close the T-Shirt contest(s) out without any submissions that captured the real spirit of the Club. For the moment, the sheep are safe and t-shirts will not be made.

We will revisit this down the road, but without graphic design help, our hands are tied as I think we would want more than the words ‘Social Media Club’ written in Arial, 10pt font across your chest. Greg Narain did a great job with the Web 2point2 shirts, but has his hands full these days. That said, I want to keep our promises to paying members, and I do have a very basic t-shirt design I made last summer http://urltea.com/hl2 which I am actually wearing right now. If you would like this t-shirt now instead of waiting for us to get just the right one, please email me and I will get one ordered for you.
——————–

Lastly, have you signed up for the SMC mailing list yet? Feel free to join the one in your town, or, if you’re not in a town with a local group meeting yet, join the more general purpose SMC-List. To join a list go to http://lists.SocialMediaClubMail.com/, click on the title, and follow the instructions of the form to join that mailing list. In the new site, this will all be integrated and much simpler, for local leaders and for members.

SMC News: February 2007

In this issue:

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

——————–

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

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

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

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

SMB: iPressRoom Corporation (Eric Schwartzman)

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

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

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

Which leads us into….

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

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

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

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SMC Gatherings Around the World

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

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

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

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

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

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

——————–

Are You a Member of the Club?

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

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

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

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

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

——————–

We Sure Love Those Links

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

——————–

Introducing the ‘They get it’ Podcast

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

• Fred Siebert
• Shel Israel
• Jackie Danicki

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

——————–

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

Be well you Media mavens.

Cheers,

Chris, Kristie and Howard
Social Media Club

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

Social Media Cafe - SF - Last minute availability

One of the reasons we use Eventbrite rather than a Wiki for event registrations is that it allows us send email to registered attendees to provide updates.  The Social Media Cafe we are hosting tonight in San Francisco is a perfect example as to why this works and why we chose this path.  We had two primary last minute needs

• With 100 people registered, the out of pocket expenses for refreshments was a bit high, so we asked the list of attendees if they, or anyone they knew might be interested in sponsoring.  Much thanks and lots of respect to Jimmy Wales from Wikia and Mike McAllen from Grass Shack Events and Media for stepping up and helping us out.  Of course, I would be remiss, if I did not also mention the great support we get from Joel Sacks and all our friends at CNet who graciously provide this great space for our use.  While their sponsorship does not cover all the costs, it makes it a lot easier!
• Same issue, different problem - with the higher demand, we started an informal waiting list (next time we will open up waiting list tickets through Eventbrite) so asked in our emails for people to let us know if they were not able to make it tonight.  The result is:

We now have five 5 openings for tonight’s event.  If you want to come out and have a good discussion about what is happening with the “Social Media Industry” and help us figure out what we can do together to keep things on the right track, please register now.

As we mentioned in the other post about this event, which was also sent via email to attendees, this will be our first of many Social Media Cafes.  Next month however, we are doing a slightly different sort of workshop, with a focus on learning how to conduct better interviews.  We will be announcing more details tonight and posting on this later in the week.  If you are interested in sponsoring next months gathering, please contact us here.

Social Media Club Events 2007.1

Welcome to the first issue of Social Media Club’s ‘Calendar of Events’ for 2007. Here we will bring you updates on all the latest gatherings happening around the world that will connect you ‘live’ with other great people who are also interested in Social Media.

In this issue:

• Social Media Club Gatherings (now in 13 cities)
• Social Media Workshop Announcement
• Discount for Social Media 2007 Conference ($100 off normal registration fee)
• Social Media Club Membership

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Social Media Chapter Gatherings

In the fall of 2006, we launched Social Media Club round tables in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston, London, Phoenix, Washington D.C., Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver. We are gearing up for the Dallas launch this month, Austin next month and will be announcing additional cities shortly. If you are interested in organizing Social Media Club in your town, please contact kristiewells [at] gmail [dot] com for more information.

We start the New Year off with a bang with gatherings taking place in the following cities:

• Boston: January 11, 2007
• Phoenix: January 11, 2007
• Portland: January 15, 2007
• San Francisco: January 16, 2007
• London: January 18, 2007
• Dallas (Launch): January 23, 2007
• New York: January 23, 2007
• Los Angeles: January 25, 2007
• Washington D.C.: January 25, 2007
• Atlanta (Launch): January 29, 2007
• Austin (Launch): February 22, 2007

We are working on dates for the South Florida, Seattle, and Vancouver groups and will post to the site once these events are locked in. These three locations are in need of a venue. If you have any recommendations, please contact kristie [at] brainjams [dot] org.

Register for any of the above events or learn more about other Social Media events happening around the world on the SMC website.

We have also set up an email list for each chapter of Social Media Club. Feel free to join the one in your town, or, if you’re not in a town with a chapter yet, join the more general purpose SMC-List. To join a list go to http://lists.SocialMediaClubMail.com/, click on the title, and follow the instructions of the form to join that mailing list.

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Social Media Workshop

One of the first events we want to announce for this year is the Social Media Workshop – a day long workshop that provides a great introduction to Social Media concepts and practices for every business. The topics range from tagging, to social networking, to blogging, to podcasting and more, all geared towards practical applications for making the most of the tools and technology while being a good member of the community.

If you are already a seasoned veteran on such topics, than we could probably use your help in making the workshop an extraordinary experience for others. We are currently accepting proposals for introductory level workshop sessions that will complement our planned agenda.

The initial dates are being finalized along with the venues, expect to hear more shortly…

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Social Media 2007 Conference Discount!

We are pleased to announce that Social Media Club has partnered with Business Capital Edge to offer a discount to SMC members for the Social Media 2007 conference being held on January 30-31, 2007 at the InterContinental Buckhead in Atlanta. SMC members can attend the conference for $500 ($100 discount!). To register and receive the discount, please call +1 (847) 993-5946 and reference code MC34. More information on the conference can be found at http://www.socialmedia2007.com/

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Social Media Club Membership

If you are not yet an official member of the club, please do register today at http://www.socialmediaclub.org/membership/. Open membership is free for all, but please consider supporting our efforts to serve the community by joining as a Social Media Professional or as a company member.

We hope you can make one of the many events taking place and look forward to sharing and learning with you.

Cheers!

Kristie Wells, Diva of Details
Social Media Club and BrainJams