SMC News: December 2008

December 19, 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:

Other conferences happening around the world we think you might be interested in:

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

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Social Media Now 12.7.08

December 7, 2008

Here’s what’s been going on in Social Media over the last week or so. Missing something? Email me or add your news in the comments section!

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Social Media Club: Chapter Launches

November 15, 2008

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 5pm 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:

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.

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Social Media Club: Weekly Chapter Call

September 30, 2008

Want to launch Social Media Club in your city, or have you started, but would like some advice on how to growth or manage the group?

We are getting requests daily to launch chapters in cities around the world, so we are scheduling a weekly call series for every Wednesday at 8:00am PST to review what it takes to launch a chapter and how to ensure success when you do.

As I mentioned in an earlier post today, one of the goals of SMC is to encourage the sharing of knowledge between the cities - I want Paris to know what is important to Chicago, London to know what Austin is talking about, New York to keep tabs on Kansas City, etc. - so you should keep in mind we are building infrastructure to help you not only manage the local chapter easily, but also to connect with the other cities and members. It is coming, I promise, but for now - things are done a little manually across various platforms (wiki, Facebook, Ning, the main SMC site). We will also invite local chapter leaders from existing Clubs to join in each week to share their insights of what has worked best and guide you along the way.

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: (641) 715-3445
Access Code: 509633#

We are also working on an official chapter launch guide, and have started to draft some items on the wiki. We encourage everyone to review these BEFORE you join the call so we all have a baseline to work from:

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.

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Social Media Club: A short history, a long and bright future

September 30, 2008

When Chris and I started Social Media Club (SMC) two+ years ago, we understood growth was going to be more organically based as there were only two of us working on the organization on a part time basis, and we needed to set up each city with a baseline infrastructure to ensure we met our goals of sharing best practices, establishing ethics and standards, and promoting media literacy around the emerging area of Social Media.

We could have followed BarCamp by posting a wiki page and leaving it open to anyone to host an event, whenever - but we wanted to make sure these events happened more regularly (monthly), they were both informational and socially based, and at the end of the day - the learnings would then be shared back into our community for the betterment of all. We realized early on, we needed to set some guidelines and then oversee the chapters to ensure we were meeting our goals. We had to manage it.

Fast forward to 2008: we are now a handful of people managing the global organization on a part time basis, and actively working towards hiring full time staff as we file our 501c6 and push SMC further into the global space. Thanks to the efforts of our local leaders, we have grown to over 25 active chapters with 10’s of 1000’s of people gathering around the world. Woot!

Now, with all the woot! comes the reality we have fallen short on some of our goals - primarily, not connecting the chapters as well as I would have liked, and we need to ensure the knowledge shared at SMC chapter events is then pushed back into the system so all can utilize. A large part of this is the infrastructure behind the scenes. Wikis are tough for some, Ning and Facebook are not the best storage sources.

In order for us to continue to grow and show value to the community - we need to finish building out the new portal that will make launching new chapters easier, finding events in your local community faster, allow communications with other members, and harness the knowledge produced at each event.  The last piece (knowledge sharing) is critical to me - when chapters are talking about a certain topic, we need to ensure there are digital scribes in the room who are then responsible for bringing that info back into the portal so other chapters can then use it for their chapters or members can read up on what is hot in that community. This requires someone managing the global calendar and then following up with each city the day after to make sure this is being done - this is a primary role for me to fill, and I hope to have announcements on this shortly.

We are also working on our Four Missions Project and are gathering volunteers to drive them forward: Media Literacy, Sharing Lessons Learned, Encourage Adoption of Industry Standards, Promote Ethical Behavior. If you are interested in helping on one or more, please add your name to the wiki and the project leader will be in touch with you.

SMC has been extremely fortunate over the last two years to have people believe in the organization and support it via paid memberships to allow us to continue to grow. To all of you who have contributed so far, thank you, thank you, thank you.  It means the world to us.

Stay tuned for more to come. As Timbuk3 likes to sing - SMC’s future’s so bright, we gotta wear shades…

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