“I am not a Web Guy”

Patrick Ruffini at TechPresident.com riffs on what Zack Exley wrote on his blog. When do we stop making the distinction between being an “Internet Strategist” and a “Strategist” or an “Internet Communications Director” or a “Communications Director”?

I’m guilty of this as well. Looking at my business card, it says “Social Media Strategist.” But what I do is end up helping people understand the new strategies, and how they can be applied in conjunction with more traditional media and communications techniques.

Zack says:

I’m not sure I’m ready to jump off this bridge, but, it is worth discussing in the context of Social Media. What do you think? Comment below, please!

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Social Media Club New York, 5/31

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!

SMC Austin to Explore Impact of Social Media on Politics

Will 2008 be the year that social media influences the outcome of the presidential election?

It seems that every serious contender is factoring social media into their campaigns. John Edwards twitters. Hillary Clinton chats. Most of them have MySpace pages and flirt with the blogosphere. Four years ago, it seemed revolutionary that presidential candidate Howard Dean was blogging, and raising significant amounts of money, online. Today no serious campaign effort is without a blog.

On Thursday, Social Media Club Austin will explore the role of social media in the political process and how it will affect the outcome of the 2008 elections. We have assembled a panel of experts that crosses the political spectrum as well as generations. After what promises to be a lively discussion, the attendees will break into small groups and brainstorm social media strategies for their assigned presidential candidate.

Here’s the lineup:

Moderator
* Mike Chapman, government affairs specialist and co-founding member of Social Media Club

Panelists
* Chris Leonard is the Governor’s point person on social media and technical communications. He has designed the Texas Republican Party’s websites, and been involved with the Governor’s blog, constituent mailings, etc.

* Sam McCabe is a student at Texas State University. He has his own political consulting firm, which has had a great impact on San Marcos and Hays County elections through the use of social media techniques in combination with traditional campaign strategies. Specifically, he has used Facebook, MySpace, and text messaging strategies to increase student voter turnout by more than 1,000 percent. (Yes, that’s one thousand.)

* Jon Lebkowsky is a social media pioneer. He has written extensively and has been involved with national efforts on behalf of political candidates and issue campaigns. He is co-editor of Extreme Democracy.

*Eileen Smith of In the Pink Texas uses her advanced journalism degree to skewer politicians and the political process in her always irreverent and sometimes controversial blog. The Pink Lady is the diva of equal-opportunity snarkiness, delivering her barbs with a generous dollop of humor.

If you’re reading this, you’re invited! The cost is $5, and pre-registration is recommended to reserve a place. Sign up here.

John Edwards has a twitter account

http://twitter.com/johnedwards

When we had our Social Media and Politics discussion in New York last month, this didn’t come up.

When thinking about how Chris views things like Twitter as EM or everywhere messaging, a candidate having a Twitter account makes perfect sense. Perhaps EM could even stand for “everyone” messaging.
(Note, this is not an endorsement of any candidate.)

UPDATE:
Hi, Howard Greenstein.
John Edwards (johnedwards) added you as a friend!
Best,
Twitter

Hmmm. Not politics as usual.

Do I now have to think about what I twitter?