Social Media Club NYC meeting 1/15/08
January 16, 2008
Last night’s SMC New York meeting featured yours truly as a moderator for a panel with Peter Shankman and Andrew Weinreich, talking about Social Networks.
(photo credit: Steve Eisenberg http://www.clientservicenetwork.biz/wordpress/wp-content/Peter_Andrew_SMC_Meeting_01.jpg)
Over 70 people attended this meeting, with some enthusiastic networking both before and after the event.
Steve Eisenberg put up this audio of the event and these photos.
Les Blatt put up this review of the Future of Social Networking panel on his site. Les’ point is accurate, that the panel ended up being very framed in terms of the Social Networking giant of the moment, Facebook. What’s clear to me, and what came out in the panel, is that leaders are always replaced, but what we’re learning from people’s use of Facebook about people’s behavior is the key takeway of the current web era.
Updated: Jean Barmash posted this summary at NYWebGuy.
Sphere: Related ContentSocial Media Club NY Meeting, 12/11/07
December 12, 2007
Last night, Business Wire hosted SMC New York for a panel on “What Worked and What Didn’t in Social Media in 2007.”
I moderated a panel with Jack Myers, Founder and CEO of Myers Publishing, Joel Smernoff, President and COO of Paltalk, and Peter Himler, Founder and principal of Flatiron Communications LLC. Being moderator, I couldn’t really take too many notes, but thankfully2 intrepid bloggers captured some of the action.
Jenny Ambrozek posted in “Social Media Club Gathering 20071211: A Gorilla on YouTube” a thought from panelist Jack Myers:
“Jack proposed a potential outcome of the current writers strike is fundamentally changing the traditional television broadcasting industry. Given the impact of digital technology on transforming the recording industry, an entirely reasonable prediction.”
Les Blatt wrote some comments about the other Gorilla in Social Media, Facebook:
“There was a long discussion of Facebook’s Beacon conflict. Did Facebook hurt itself with Beacon? Possibly, although they do seem to be trying to fix it – the move from opt-out to opt-in, while perhaps not handled as smoothly as it should have been, is at least a move in the right direction.”
I know that the intrepid Steve Eisenberg, who helped organize the meeting, has recorded audio and we’ll link to it when it’s posted.
Sphere: Related ContentSMC New York City Meeting Reviews
October 24, 2007
Thanks to Les Blatt from LB’s Rambles for a great set of notes from last night’s SMC NYC meeting. In his post on “Learning from the Crowd” Les captured much of the discussion that went on as people introduced themselves and were asked to share one site or resource they found useful so that everyone in the group could learn about it.
Then, in “Business Gets Personal Again” Les reviewed Chris Heuer’s slides and the discussion that the group had around how Social Media is making business personal.
Allen Stern had a slightly more critical review of the meeting at Center Networks. Chris responded in the comments, and so did I but that one seems to have gotten lost or hasn’t been moderated as of yet. Allen’s feedback is appreciated, and we are looking for more folks to lead more topics. The challenge of the room’s layout -which didn’t allow for people to see each other (classroom format) - will hopefully be one of the things we fix in future meetings.
Steve Eisenberg recorded the meeting.
Sphere: Related ContentSocial Media Club New York, 5/31
June 1, 2007
Last night’s Social Media Club meeting in New York hosted Craig Newmark of Craig’s List. The 65 or so attendees saw Craig speak of the list, building online community, and his other interests in philanthropy (see Craigslist Foundation) and journalism that takes on powerful interests. He mentioned politics several times, and specifically called out Tech President as one of the things he had an interest in supporting. (disclosure: I know the folks who run that site for years.) Since I was moderating I did not take good notes so here is a roundup from others:
Donna Bogatin of ZDNet wrote up her take on the meeting.
Attendee Allen Stern of Center Networks blogged the discussion and also has an audio recording of the Social Media Club meeting (MP3, about 1 hr, 20MB) for those who missed the meeting.
Over on PRBlog News, Mark Rose has his take on the meeting including a poor photo of yours truly and some cynical takes on Craig and some of the discussion.
Jeffrey Keefer also blogged it.
Send more blog posts or links to me, or leave them in the comments.
One item that came up was organizing the NY chapter and volunteers. See the NY Wiki Page for more on that. Those interested in the NY mailing list can find a link here.
Thanks to Craig for attending. A special note of thanks to Steve Eisenberg of the Client Service Network, who went above and beyond the call of duty to get food and drink to the meeting. Thanks to Laurence Koret of Starlight Media for helping out and thanks to David Bradfield and Fleishman-Hillard for hosting. UPDATE: Also, thanks to Laura Allen from 15 Second pitch for being our ‘check in person’ and to Frank Casale from the Outsourcing Institute for answering the door over and over again!
Social Media Workshops
May 2, 2007
Today, Social Media Club will announce “Starting the Conversation,” our first series of day-long business workshops, at SocialMediaWorkshop.com. The first will be June 11 at SAP headquarters in Palo Alto. Then we move to New York City on June 19th; Boston, June 21 and Austin June 26.
Consultant-writer Shel Israel, co-author of Naked Conversations, How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers, has agreed to be host-moderator for the entire series. Shel has been a frequent and well-received keynote speaker on social media issues to business audiences in Europe and North America.
In each city, guest instructors prominent in social media will join us. They will be announced as we get closer to each event. These workshops are designed for mid and upper level professionals who are interested in not just getting the big picture of how social media is fundamentally changing business, it is for people who want to understand real and actionable tactics for bringing social media media programs into their work environment, without fear and based on programs that will show co-workers the value of social media. (More information on the agenda page.)
Tickets are on sale now, with an early-bird discount for those who purchase seats soon. Also available is a package where attendees can purchase membership to Social Media Club and obtain the member discount of 10% off the advertised price. (Existing Social Media Club Professional, Small Business and Corporate members can also benefit from discount code SMCMEMBER). We hope to see you there.
Technorati Tags: socialmediaworkshop, socialmediaclub, shelisrael, blogging, education
Quick Recap of the NYC Social Media Club Meeting 4/23
April 25, 2007
This month’s meeting was held in conjunction with the Web 2.0 Social Networking meetup. Thanks to Brett and Peter for making us feel welcome.
This wasn’t a typical NYC Social Media Club meeting, which is good. It is useful to have meetings to see product/company pitches, especially local companies in the Web 2.0 space. There was also good socializing-networking going on in the bar space, also a different-not-better change from our regular format.
When we typically meet, we try to have fewer presenters and make sure the entire group is being heard, and that’s not really the style of a meeting in a bar or of this meetup. I want to emphasize here that this is not a criticism of this meetup - as I really enjoyed it and met some good people.
However, my preference is for the format we have had in the past. It is tough these days to find a place to be in a somewhat quiet space and be able to ask tough questions about business and the trends of Web 2.0 and Social Media and get back great answers.
I hope that people are ready for that format, because on May 31 we’ll be joined by at least one special participant who will kick off our discussion on community and on creating a community where the users love you. I’m excited to welcome Craig Newmark to town on that day, and to learn what I can from him about Craig’s list and participate in the discussion.
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Sphere: Related ContentSocial Media Club, NYC, 3/27/07
March 28, 2007
A fascinating Social Media Club meeting in NYC last night, covered well by Jason who led the discussion after Jay Rosen’s discussion of NewAssignment.net. Thanks to Jay for coming and for sharing what’s going on in this groundbreaking experiment.
I don’t have much time to do a full recap, but thanks to posts by Joshua Mack and Rachel Clarke you don’t have to read what I thought about it.
Sphere: Related ContentHoward Greenstein’s talk at Business Wire in NY
March 21, 2007
People who attended the Business Wire Breakfast in New York this morning may find slides of Howard Greenstein’s talk linked here as a pdf.
The event covered mostly Search Engine Optimzation and Search Engine Marketing from the PR and News perspective, and I learned a lot from my fellow panelists Rebecca Lieb of ClickZ, Greg Jarboe, and Melanie Mitchell of AOL, and our host Laura Sturaitis from Business Wire.
If you didn’t get to speak with me after the panel, you can email me at Howard [at] socialmediaclub -dot- com.
Sphere: Related ContentDoes Old Media “Get it?”
February 28, 2007
I noticed this article, Web 2.0: Does ‘old media’ get it? by ZDNet’s Donna Bogatin discusses the meme started by friend of Social Media Club Tom Foremski regarding are companies like Google the New Media companies, which also implies the NY/Hollywood crowd are over.
Donna comes out with some good ideas about NYC, including some ideas on why as media content companies, the NY scene may be even more valuable than the valley folks realize. But I don’t think anyone wants this to be an east-west smackdown.
Those around in NYC tonight and who already signed up at NextNY’s wiki will get a chance to discuss “New York’s Present and Future as a Place to Foster Innovation and Entrepreneurship,” and perhaps figure out how to reinvent the parts of NY that aren’t working as well as they could. See you there later.
Social Media Club 2-20-2007 NYC
February 23, 2007
Social Media Club meeting 2-20-2007 including a discussion about how Social Media is changing the way the 2008 political races are being run.
If you’d like to subscribe to the feed of Social Media Club Meetings, add this URL to iTunes or your favorite podcast catching software.
http://brainjams.hipcast.com/rss/social_media_club_meetings.xml
Sphere: Related ContentSocial Media Club’s NYC meeting 2-20-07
February 21, 2007
We had a really interesting and thought-provoking meeting last night where the main topic was “How is Social Media changing the Election process for 2008.” Our discussion leaders included Sanford Dickert, former CTO, Kerry for President 2004, Noel Hidalgo, advocate and futurist and Joshua Levy, associate editor of Personal Democracy Forum.
Michael Meyers of NowPublic did his bit as a citizen journalist by taking photos of the event.
Still to come - audio of the entire event, and several people who promised to blog this discussion.
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Sphere: Related ContentRecap - Social Media Club NYC - 1-23-07
January 27, 2007
On Tuesday, January 23rd, Social Media Club in New York met at Fleishman Hilard. Almost 50 people attended, and the meeting was covered and blogged by Donna Bogatin at ZDnet blogs (Monetizing the Conversation).
For those who missed the meeting, a podcast will be uploaded shortly that contains the entire meeting. You will find pictures from the meeting on Flickr here. Below is a summary of the meeting by David Blumenstein, who took the notes, (as verly lightly edited by Howard Greenstein.)
Social Media Club says “Hello World”
New York’s most recent Social Media Club meeting put itself out there for all to see. Howard Greenstein, the organization’s co-founder, has gone “all-in” to borrow a Texas Hold’em poker expression, leaving his day job to pursue this full-time.
The Social Media Club (SMC) was presented as the second disruptive wave after the World Wide Web in the mid 90’s. Coincindentally, Howard and the author of this report were founding members of the WWWAC, the World Wide Web Artists’ Consortium back in the day, and this organization, as such, has a similar feel to it.
SMC is designed to assist its members in leveraging their online and in-person relationships, building upon credentials, and shared knowledge within the group, as well as reaching out to the local communities, schools and not-for-profits. One of their programs is to have members “adopt a blogger” and help them get on the right track online.
To be clear, this is a membership organization running as a “not-for-loss” and there is a dues structure, which can be found here: http://socialmediaclub.org/membership. The stated benefits of being a member are: a social network, discounts to industry conferences and organization
Discounts, and of course a t-shirt and other organization paraphernalia. The intent is that the organization be funded by the members for the members.
The mantra for SMC: “Stop telling people they don’t get it, and them get it, by building a broader understanding, establishing standards and ethical guidelines. Throughout all of the SMC meetings I have attended the concepts of transparency and disclosure have been made paramount.
In a period of 4 months, 800 more than1000 people have met in 8 cities around the United States, with four more locations coming on board: Dallas, Austin, Atlanta and South Florida.
This New York meeting was held on the premises of Fleishman Hillard, a leading Public Relations firm. David Bradfield, Senior VP and leader of its Digital Team had been the only member of the group to put agenda items on the wiki, so he was able to set the agenda. He served as one of the meeting’s facilitators putting forth the evening’s agenda:
* What tools are people using to track Social Media Content?
* What is the perception of Social Media? What matters most?
* Is Social Media redefining Advertising, Public Relations & Marketing?
Tools:
Even with 40+ people in attendance it became readily apparent that the environment fostering Social Media and Web 2.0 development is still so new to so many. The responses to what tools are being used barely scratched the surface: News Readers (Ranchero’s NetNewsWire, Google’s Reader, and EspRSSo), followed up by:
Touchstone - http://www.touchstonelive.com - Stay Informed Without Getting
Distracted
and
Netvibes - http://www.netvibes.com - Personalied news, data feeds, pod and video
casts aggregated on personal website.
All of the above are worthy of merit, I (David) was just struck by such a small list and the lack of vocal enthusiasm on the part of the attendees to champion their respective favorites. Time to stop preaching to the choir. We are far from a common toolset and as for barriers to entry, let’s just agree that they are not physical.
From the assemblage it was clear that both measurement and metrics in a Social Media/Web 2.0 world are wholly subjective. People were hard pressed to agree on how to gauge success, let alone what constitutes it. For those of you reading this who do “get it,” understand that you are clearly in the minority and that there exists such a chasm - the size and scope of the Grand Canyon lends itself to understatement.
Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations are three wholly distinct and separate discipines. This is what I was told and had drummed into my head growing up. Well, these times are a changing. There’s a mad scramble for all these folks to establish their footholds and much like the automobile industry, there definitely will be more hybrid organizations encompassing the three disciplines. It will be interesting to see who runs out of gas first.
The evening was capped off by the attendees breaking into small clusters and banging on about authenticity online. Four distinct groups with their own take.
Here is a sampling:
- The environment is self correcting, and the audience will decide for itself
- Disclosure above and beyond all, maintain relevance, manage thresholds
- Online journalism become the new traditional media
- Greater emphasis on friends and colleagues to prioritize and legitimize
FWIW
David says: I am not sure I trust the general public, or more aptly the audience. There are a lot of television programs that I liked, which got cancelled due to ratings, and more than enough trial verdicts I wish were overturned. The idea of bloggers as journalists and as our “new media” is indeed evolutionary, even revolutionary, but do you really want to have just anybody be your messenger? The idea that we are now relying on our friends and colleagues to help us sift through what is and what is not speaks volumes as to how overwhelming this has become.
The online video space has come full circle. Much like television in the 1950’s, a whole new generation is re-discovering this visual medium and how it can be exploited. Media people are elated. The Internet has doubled back a point in time, a paradigm, which they not only understand, but can sell, albeit in much smaller chunks.
Sphere: Related ContentQuick 5 minute Audio - “What is Social Media?”
December 22, 2006
Ramon Ray of SmallBizTechnology.com did an audio interview with me (scroll down a little bit) on the floor of the NY XPO last month. The audio quality is a little scratchy because it was a trade show floor of over 10,000 people, but you can find me answering some basic questions around “What is Social Media,” “Why is Social Media relevant to a small business person” and “Are Blogs just for Geeks?”
Sphere: Related ContentSocial Media Club NY January Meeting
December 14, 2006
Our next meeting will be January 23rd at Fleishman Hillard.
Here’s the link to register.
We’ll be accepting topics for the agenda over on the Wiki page.
I hope to see you there!
Sphere: Related ContentEngagement in Media…
November 27, 2006
In preparing for tonight’s meeting of Social Media Club NYC, I got an email from Nick Givotovsky who pointed me to this piece on engagement.
In it he has this quote: ““Engagement is turning on a prospect to a brand idea enhanced by the surrounding context”. He goes on to show, in my mind, how traditional models tend to have a serious problem with the ’surrounding context’ part, but how the new, interactive media present more opportunities.
His line of thinking is quite relevant to the Social Media space. Glad he’ll be joining us tonight as we discuss “Why people share” and other relevant topics. (There are a few spaces remaining, registration closes at 12 noon).
