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

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!

How Des, Michael and Aaron Spent Labor Day Weekend: Brainstorming SMC Membership

A few weeks ago prior to Labor Day Weekend; Des Walsh , Aaron Strout and I (Michael Brito) were asked to brainstorm ideas about SMC membership and answer the following questions:

1. How do we increase new membership of Social Media Club
2. How do we increase engagement and generate excitement for existing members?
3. How do we localize SMC chapters on areas with few members and a lot of miles in between?

So, went off to our little corners of the globe, literally, and this is what we came up with; while of course, enjoying our three-day weekend.

Increasing Membership:

Drive awareness of the organization:

• Continue to drive awareness of SMC at traditional marketing/consulting events through sponsorships (my guess is that Barter will work)
• Advertising on Facebook as well as on prominent board member blogs (barter where possible)
• Consider submitting speakers at traditional marketing/consulting/technology events) under the “Social Media Club” name
• Make sure that all board members and active SMC members include a badge on their blogs touting the fact that they belong to the SMC (e.g. “Ask me about the SMC – I’m a member”)

Clearly articulate value proposition

• Consider adding free consultation sessions as part of membership (maybe monthly “member only” Skype or Conference calls with select board members) – if we each took a turn at this, we could get away with doing this 1-2/year/board member)
• Create a clear list of discounts to things like:
  • Analyst memberships (Forrester/Gartner)
  • Select conferences
  • Subscriptions
• If we thought about bolting SMC events onto things like SXSW, Web 2.0, Defrag, etc. (we may already do this), we could proactively invite potential members/companies

Co-marketing

• Continue partnering with a number of organizations like BlogHer; and consider partnering with more organizations (especially traditional ones)
• Agree to co-market events of more traditional groups to our base

Promoting Membership Engagement & Excitement

Engagement

• Create a rotating welcoming committee
• The goal would be to welcome (through email/phone/twitter) new members to SMC by reaching out to them and connecting
  • Twitter and blog “shot outs” for new members
  • Serves two purposes: engages existing members/welcomes new members
  • Connects local chapters w/new members
• Facilitate monthly (or bi-weekly) conference calls / webinars (similar to Twebinars); facilitated by random SMC members
• Provide coordinated speaking opportunities for all interested SMC members
• Offer free 1:1 (30 minutes) blog training sessions for new members who are thinking about launching a blog
• Provide sub domain blog hosting or existing members that do not have a blog (i.e. http://newblog.socialmediaclub.org

Recognition

• Create a recognition program that recognizes existing members who go “above and beyond” for the SMC community
  • Badge
  • Monetary: gift certificates for Amazon, Starbucks, iTunes

Communication

• Create a monthly newsletter with rotating levels of responsibility
• SMC members will rotate managing editorial process, writing articles, etc.

Localizing Membership (making it more convenient to attend local events)

The model of SMC presented on the wiki is of a city-based group that has face-to-face meetings (language of the wiki is all about clubs based on cities).

Looking at the wiki and observing the current “State of the Club”, there seems to be little or no incentive for someone to join who does not live in a city, preferably one of the cities where there is:

• something already happening regularly, or
• a critical mass of people likely to be interested in forming a local SMC

In fact, the way SMC is presented on the wiki makes it look as if people not in a city with an active chapter and unable or unwilling to set up a city chapter need not apply.

If there is an openness to other models, here are some suggestions.

In working on member benefits (and responsibilities) consider benefits people could have who are not in a city with an active SMC:

• for people who travel, this could be a regularly updated online guide as to what’s on and where
• person nominated in each chapter to promote the chapter’s events to the broader membership and be “welcomer” for out of town visitors
• for all, especially people more remote from the cities where there are active chapters, provide online resources, forums etc of value
• various benefits listed in “How do we get existing members involved?”, especially self-identifying badges for blogs/websites

Re-write all the membership information to make it clear that there is an encouragement to join no matter where someone lives.

Have nation-wide and international online events to enable members to connect with one another beyond chapter boundaries.

If you have any other ideas that would help address the challenges we have or simply to share some other ideas; we encourage you to post a comment and/or connect with us directly. Thank you for continued support.

Orange sponsors the Social Media Club France

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

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

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

Vote for the 42nd Interim Board Member

Wow! The response to our mistake has been overwhelming.  While we have much work to do, our first task is to figure out how to best harness this outpouring of energy.  We have enough work to do and projects that need help to get everyone involved who wants to be involved – particularly when it comes to educational initiatives and organizing collaborative projects.

Due to the size of the response, (38 34 potential candidates to choose from) we are altering the previously stated procedures slightly, but the integrity of the process I outlined the other day is intact, and the rules we laid out there are incorporated herein by reference (yay, a little legalese!).  Several people emailed me directly to throw their hat in the ring, but did not submit their names to the comments of the blog post as I requested and are therefore not on the list – sorry folks, gotta follow the rules intentions. We will be following up with everyone on this list shortly.

Procedure Notes:

We will be holding this vote open until Thursday July 17, 2008 at 11am PST – essentially 72 hours. At that time, the top 3 will be put to a runoff vote that will stay open from Thursday afternoon until Monday July 21 at noon PST.

The Candidates:

The group is diverse, smart and very active in the broader community.  It includes those that are well known and relatively unknown.  There are international candidates, people we know well and people we have just met.  I won’t say anything here about any of them individually, but I will say that we are quite pleased and grateful that so many people are willing to help us build Social Media Club into the pre-eminent force for good in the area of social media.

So without further ado, please vote for the person you think is most qualified to contribute and make a meaningful difference in our efforts.

Update:  Ann Handley, Gavin Heaton, Gennefer Snowfield and Siobhan O’Neil have withdrawn from the election process (they are not suprisingly going to be spending more time with their family just kidding, each has their own reasons and we are going to find other ways to work together in the near future for our common community goals

Social Media Club Forms Interim Board To Chart Strategic Direction and Advance Its Goals

The Social Media Club (SMC), a new media and advocacy organization focused on social media, today announced that 42 well-regarded industry leaders have volunteered to form an interim Board of Directors.

The new interim board has been charted to address several key organizational and strategic deliverables, including development of membership goals, acceleration of local chapter development, increase in adoption of industry standards and implementation of a new legal structure to enhance future growth.

New interim Board Member and Adjunct Professor of Social Media at University of Miami Alex de Carvalho said “Social Media Club is an important industry organization that has been working to establish social media standards and ethics. The voluntary participation of such noted industry leaders to further its mission is a clear indication of the Social Media Club’s value and contributions. I look forward to collaborating with the new interim board to progress the Social Media Club from being a ‘big idea’ to serving the community as a prominent agent of change.”

According to Chris Heuer, founder of Social Media Club and Partner at The Conversation Group, “The Social Media Club is honored to have so many accomplished and well-regarded industry evangelists come forward to lead the organization. While the interim board will focus on charting the organization’s future direction, our core mission will remain the same: promotion of media literacy; support of industry standards efforts such as Creative Commons licensing, Microformats, Data Portability and OpenID; discussion and promotion of ethical behavior; and sharing our knowledge among our members and the industry community at large.”

Co-Founder and Social Media Club President Kristie Wells added, “We are grateful to have received so much support from around the world over the past two years. With nearly 200 paying members and over 500 open members – we are deeply appreciative of the volunteer efforts to make the Social Media Club a success. With leading corporate members, such as Business Wire and SHIFT Communications, as well as dedicated individual professionals, the Social Media Club will continue to gain momentum and serve the greater needs of the industry while sharing our lessons learned along the way.”

The board will also focus on increasing its research efforts and strengthening relationships with other organizations such as the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) and the International Association for Business Communicators (IABC). The interim board’s work will be completed once the club reorganizes as a new entity, and holds an election amongst its members for a formal Board of Directors.

The newly named/appointed members of the interim board are leading social media analysts, bloggers and business leaders, and are as follows:

• Lee Aase – Social Media University, Global
• Rohit Bhargava – Influential Marketing Blog and Personality Not Included
• Richard Binhammer – RichardatDell
• Michael Brito – Britopian and Conversations Matter
• Chris Brogan – ChrisBrogan.com
• Mike Chapman – Austin Social Media Club and Every Dot Connects
• Megan Cole – MeganCole.org
• Alex de Carvalho – alexdc.org and Social Object
• Todd Defren – SHIFT Communications and www.pr-squared.com
• Serena Ehrlich – Business Wire
• Jason Falls – Social Media Explorer
• Maggie Fox – Social Media Group
• Jon Gatrell – spatiallyrelevant.org
• Howard Greenstein – HowardGreenstein.com
• Francine Hardaway – Stealthmode
• Josh Hallett – Hyku
• Annie Heckenberger – pikpr.blogspot.com and redspurs.com
• Chuck Hester – iContact
• Chris Heuer – ChrisHeuer.com
• Sherry Heyl – Mind Blogging
• Tara Hunt – HorsePigCow
• Bill Johnston – Forum One Networks Forum and Online Community Report
• Jennifer McClure – Society for New Communications Research
• Mike McGrath – Dogpatch Dispatch
• Jake McKee – CommunityGuy.com and Ant’s Eye View
• Gregory Narain – SocialTwister
• Lee Odden – Online Marketing Blog and TopRank
• Erica OGrady – ReinventingErica.com and Peanut Butter Media
• Jeremiah Owyang – Web Strategist
• David Parmet – Marketing Begins At Home, LLC and PerkettPR
• Jackie Peters – heavyBlog
• Doug Pollei – pollei.com (whoops – duplicate)
• Pierre-Yves Platini – Yoono
• Douglas Pollei – Pollei.com
• Connie Reece – Every Dot Connects and Austin Social Media Club
• Chris Saad – ChrisSaad.com
• Andy Sernovitz – Word of Mouth Marketing and GasPedal
• Brian Solis – PR2.0
• J.J. Toothman – jjtoothman.net and Red Pill
• Todd Van Hoosear – Tech PR Gems
• Des Walsh – Des Walsh dot Com
• Kristie Wells – KristieWells.com

About the Social Media Club

The Social Media Club centers on the sharing of best practices, establishing ethics and standards, and promoting media literacy with a focus on the emerging discipline of Social Media. The Social Media Club brings together journalists, publishers, communication professionals, artists, amateur media creators, citizen journalists, teachers, students, tool makers, and other interested collaborators who create and consume media and have an interest in seeing the industry improve and evolve. The Social Media Club provides a forum for diverse groups and individuals to discover, connect, share and learn about social media and to play a role in its future evolution.

To find out more about the opportunities in social media and connect with other practitioners, visit: http://www.socialmediaclub.org

* Photo by Fabrizio Sciami, Creative Commons  Attribution-Share Alike License

Social Media Club member kits are en route…

Chris and I spent most of the Memorial Day weekend printing welcome letters, laminating member cards and stuffing envelopes with stickers and shirts, to ensure the Social Media Club member kits were completed and shipped to their rightful owners*.

As Chris mentioned in the welcome letter sent out with the kit, we are seeing more and more corporations hiring people with Social Media in their titles. This means our work within, and around, Social Media Club becomes more important than ever. We will be working on a new members site this Summer that will promote your involvement and further our main goals, while helping to raise the professionalism across the industry. More news on this will follow in the coming weeks.

We are committed to our original mission of sharing best practices, establishing ethics and standards for technology and behavior, and promoting media literacy throughout our society. Things were moving more slowly then we would have liked earlier this year, but we have downed a couple of Red Bull’s and are ready to dig in…

More information:

• Becoming a Social Media Club member
• Member benefits
• Frequently Asked Questions

* I am still staring at about 30+ incomplete welcome kits as I am awaiting on folks who paid for a Professional (or above) membership to send in their shirt size to me. If you are still waiting for your member kit, please check your email to see if you got a note from us asking for your shirt size -or- shoot an email to socialmediaclub [at] gmail [dot] com and we will track it back on our end.

Pre-WordCamp, Social Media Club Brunch

Since we are back from our wedding and have not had a party in a while, we thought we should invite all of our hungover Social Media Club members and friends over to Brunch before WordCamp on Sunday – I love Brunch, its one of my favorite meals, so I figured why not put the chef’s hat on for a simple meal.  I will be cooking up eggs, bacon, granola and maybe even some French Toast to go with the Bagels, Toast and Muffins – there might even be a ’scone’ there for someone lucky

Please do register here on Eventbrite so we know how many to expect.  There is no fee to join us, but if you want to kick in a few dollars we won’t be offended.  We will open our doors and start cooking at 8am and head out for the short 2 block wallk to Swedish American Hall a few minutes before 10, but please feel free to come and go as you need.  If you have not been to our house yet, we will be sending all registered attendees an email with the address on SAT – or see me at WordCamp on SAT for more details…

PS – I am planning on having a bloody mary or two, but you can have fun with the coffee or just juice if you would like.

What’s this Knowledge Market Thing?

One of the things I have not written about much, but I talk about till blue in the face and running out of air, is this idea of a Knowledge Market, which is at the heart of my vision for Social Media Club.  It’s nothing overly odd, pretty much as you might imagine it based on common language usage – a place where people exchange knowledge – sometimes for free, sometime for money and always for reputation.  We donate it to non-profits, share it with our colleagues and occasionally sell it in the form of books or consulting.

Thanks to the wonderful vote of confidence of a couple hundred paying members, we have begun to invest in building out the Club site on Drupal to make this vision a reality.  While the vision is much larger than the first humble steps that will be visible in the coming weeks, the heart of the new site will clearly provide value to paying members.  More importantly, I believe it will become a shining example of how things should be done within intentional communities of practice such as Social Media Club.

Very very soon, I will begin to talk about more details, and invite all members to join me in forming the tools we use to communicate and collaborate with one another…  In the meantime, if you have some ideas of what we might need at the heart of the community, or you have some Drupal experience with version 5.1 or you know of some great Drupal based communities out there like http://www.gimme20.com/ which we might be able to learn from, drop me an email to chris [a-t] social media club dot com.

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