Louisville Discusses Selling Social Media

If you ever needed a Social Media Club event that really produced payoff on the “social” part, Tuesday’s February gathering — and first working meeting — of the Social Media Club Louisville was it. Our room at Ramsi’s Cafe featured a bar where patrons waiting for tables ate, drank and were merry and the normal front door where folks would step in off the street right onto what amounted to our stage.

We were social, alright.

In all seriousness, Ramsi’s was a fabulous location with great food, helpful staff and the kind of atmosphere you want for a loosely-formal gathering. We learned, however, we need a quieter room with more privacy. But we also learned something else: We need more space!

No fewer than 42 folks showed up for our gathering, solidifying our belief that the market is thirsty for a conversation about social media. Several folks had to stand during the presentations and our presenters — Brian Wallace, Aaron Marshall (pictured from @bdthomas on Flickr) and Nick Huhn — had to battle the distractions of a busy restaurant and not-quite-semi-private space to share our “Selling Social Media” topic.

Still, everyone seemed to come away with valuable information, new contacts and an enthusiasm for what we are doing. Brian presented a nice overview of social media and how to sell it to clients. Aaron Marshall lead a nice discussion of selling social media to C-level folks and bosses. Nick offered some well-thought analogies for selling and explaining social media to friends, family and folks. Kudos to our trio for their insights, their leadership and, yes, their perseverance.

With each meeting and conversation, Louisville’s social media community is growing and seemingly more excited about learning more. We’d like, however, to reach out to other chapters around the country and world and ask for your help. While our group consists of various disciplines (from entrepreneurs to software engineers to marketers and beyond) and different levels of social media understanding (beginner to expert), we are looking for outside input on future topics of discussion. Please offer suggestions here or by emailing us at smclouisville — at — gmail.com.

We thank you for your thoughts and are thrilled to add to our growing community of enthusiasts.

Social Media Club Cover Story In Louisville Biz Paper

Alas, here’s a great story about how the Social Media Club has garnered some fantastic attention from one of the old, traditional media outlets. We’d share that coverage with you, but we did mention it was an old, traditional media outlet, right?

Business First, Louisville’s weekly business journal, has a phenomenal article about social media and the Social Media Club Louisville’s first gathering last month in today’s issue. It’s a cover story, even! Here’s the link, but it goes to a teaser page where you have to subscribe to read. (Sigh!) We think they release the subscription requirement on Monday after the print issue has had the weekend to circulate. (Fingers Crossed!)

“(Broad) Banding Together” by advertising industry beat writer Terry Boyd discusses the founding of SMC Louisville and the challenge co-founder Todd Earwood and I have of uniting people of varying interests, backgrounds and disciplines to move forward as one group, unified in our quest for learning and growth. Joe Fowler, who drove nearly two hours from Glasgow, Ky., to attend our first meeting and is an active social news and bookmarking site user, offered a nice counter point to the marketing angle of the story as well.

Ultimately, what this article does is open a lot of the right eyes to social media. Business First is read by the C-level sect in Kentuckiana (what we call the Kentucky/Indiana region), as well as most any executive or manager from middle management up. Decision-makers were met with a cover story, above the fold (featuring a screen cap of our group’s blog at smclouisville.org) article about the world we champion. And there were some good nuggets there for them to feast upon.

Will we all be flooded with new business next week because of it? Not likely. But if social media needed a kick in the pants in Louisville, it sure got a good one today.

Louisville To Focus On Selling Social Media

Selling Social Media will be the topic of discussion at the February gathering of the Social Media Club Louisville. The group will meet from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2008 at Ramsi’s Cafe On The World at 1293 Bardstown Road (http://www.ramsiscafe.com or Google Map It!).

Three members of the group have graciously volunteered to lead our discussion, which will focus on selling social media to clients, bosses and CEOs and the public, media and more. Brian Wallace of NowSourcing.com, a full-service social media and reputation management consulting firm, will share his thoughts and expertise on pitching social media to clients. Clay Marshall, a social media specialist with Digital Business Solutions (DBS), will tackle the topic of convincing bosses and CEOs to buy in and Rick Redding of The Ville Voice (and LEO columnist) will offer his insights on selling social media through to the media, advertisers, media buyers, friends, co-workers and more.

We welcome input from other Social Media Clubs on topics to cover, resources to which we could refer and so on. This will be our group’s first real working meeting after January’s organizational effort which saw 33 individuals in attendance.

WHO: Social Media Club Louisville

WHAT: February Gathering

WHEN: 7 p.m. until 9 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2008

WHERE: Ramsi’s Cafe on the World, 1293 Bardstown Road, Louisville

WHY: To share, learn and grow as social media experts both individually and together

To RSVP (for a Ramsi’s head count), please email us at smclouisville — at — gmail.com. You can also join the discussions and activity on our Facebook group.

[tags]smclouisville, gathering, social media, selling social media[/tags]

SMC Louisville Hosts Inaugural Gathering

The Social Media Club’s new Louisville group will have its inaugural gathering on Tuesday, Jan. 22 from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. at the offices of Greater Louisville, Inc. (Chamber of Commerce). The group has been fast organizing and the agenda is still being finalized. We anticipate the meeting to be more of an organizational effort with a heavy dose of networking.

Anyone interested in joining us, please do. Our chapter has set up a temporary blog to help get the word out and centralize information (http://smclouisville.wordpress.com). We also have a Facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8343501382).

EVENT: Social Media Club Louisville Inaugural Meeting
TIME:  Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008 — 6 p.m. until 8 p.m.
LOCATION: Greater Louisville, Inc. (Chamber of Commerce) Main Conference Room, 614 West Main Street, Louisville, Ky. 40202
ADMISSION: Free. Snacks and beverages will be served. Adjournment for dinner/drinks at The Bristol (same building, on your own) at approximately 7 p.m.
LINK: SMC Louisville Inaugural Gathering

IMAGE: Louisville skyline from www.louisvillemetroguide.com

[tags]smclouisville, social media club[/tags]