May Gathering Focuses On The Conversation

Image via WikipediaThe May gathering of the Social Media Club Louisville will take place on Tuesday, May 20, from 6:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. at ArtSpace on the second floor at 323 West Broadway, between the Brown Hotel and Brown Theatre. The format will be a round table/group discussion about issues in social media, feedback and dialog about SMC Louisville to date and ongoing and any other relevant topics YOU bring to the table.

The format was inspired by a Social Media Breakfast Shawn Morton and I attended earlier this month in Cincinnati. With no constraints on the topic and just some general steering from Albert Maruggi, the group talked at length about several different topics and on several different levels. It was good discussion for those just starting in social media understanding and those who have been doing it a while. And don’t worry, we’ll not spend the whole time in formal discussion. There will be plenty of time for informal networking and socializing.

We are now tentatively planning on providing food and drinks at this particular event, as opposed to what was in the group email. We’ll update the blog and send another note out once we have that solidified. Until then, plan on coming fed or perhaps joining a few of us for dining afterwards somewhere nearby. The original plan was a matter of budget, not facility. You’re more than welcome to bring refreshments to the meeting.

We would like to thank the Fund for the Arts for use of ArtSpace. They have generously provided the meeting space for us. I’d anticipate a few folks from the Fund will attend, so be sure to not only thank them, but help them learn what we’re doing. Social media can be a powerful mechanism for connecting them to new audiences, young and old. And a special thanks to Heather O’Mara from Kentucky Opera for facilitating the arrangements with the Fund. She came to her first SMC Louisville event last month and immediately jumped in to help. Thanks, Heather!

For questions, feel free to email us at smclouisville — at — gmail — dot — com.

Expert Blogging Panel: The Videos

Image by @bdthomas via FlickrTuesday night’s expert blogging panel was yet another resounding success for the Social Media Club Louisville. An unofficial count of 55 people attended to hear Chris Pearson, Rob May, Michelle Jones and me share thoughts and experiences on blogging. Our co-founder, Todd Earwood, saved the day for those of you either not in attendance or in the back of the room (I promise we’re trying to find a more suitable venue for meetings).

Here are the videos, chopped up for ease and distribution of time commitment. Come back often to see them all if you can’t squeeze them all in now. And do scroll down for some great photos and links to other posts talking about our panel.

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

PART 4

Give it up for Earwood!

Photos can be had from Ben Thomas here.

And here’s some reaction from others:

1. Social Media Club Louisville: Meeting 3 Review - Roger Bauer’s recap from Zing
2. SMC Louisville April ‘08 Event Recap - Smortilicious offering from Shawn Morton
3. Social Media Club Louisville Videos - Scott Clark beat me to posting these … damn him.
4. Where I’ve Been - From Todd Earwood (and boy, have we been wondering)
5. SMC Louisville, See Me Being Dorktastic - From Michelle, who either isn’t or isn’t the only one.

Technorati Tags: smclouisville, social media club Louisville, social media, blogging, expert blogging, blogs, bloggers

Community Communications Event Monday, SMC Gathering Tuesday

Just a note to let everyone know of an additional learning opportunity this week, in addition to reminding everyone of Tuesday’s April Gathering of the Social Media Club Louisville.

One of our charter members, Aaron Marshall of DBS, will be part of the panel at Community Communication’s, “Social Media, Social Networks and Social Change” luncheon Monday. The event is from noon until 2 p.m. at Webster University’s Adena Center (Zorn and River Road) and is detailed here.

And Tuesday night will be our regular monthly gathering (Have you remembered “Third Tuesday” yet?) featuring an expert panel on blogging. We’ll meet from 6:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. at Fox and Hound Grille and Pub next to Oxmoor Mall. If you haven’t RSVP’d, please do so via email at smclouisville — at — gmail.com or on the Facebook group. For more on the panel, check out our announcement post here.

How exciting is it that five months ago, people in Louisville weren’t talking about social media much, and now there are  back-to-back days with learning opportunities? Can’t wait to see you Tuesday. Be sure to go out and support Aaron, plus see what the others have to say Monday if you can.

SMC Louisville Presents Expert Blogging Panel

The April gathering of the Social Media Club Louisville is set for tax day, Tuesday, April 15, so file your returns early and come joint us for a panel discussion sure to inform and entertain.

“I’m Totally Blogging This!” — An expert panel discussion on blogs and blogging will be the focus of the SMC Louisville April gathering. Join us as several successful local bloggers discuss everything from content generation to link building to monetization. The gathering will be at Fox & Hound Pub & Grille, 302 Bullitt Lane (Behind Kohl’s next to Oxmoor Mall) (Google Map It), in Louisville, Tuesday, April 15, from 6:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m.

Panelists Include:

• Chris Pearson - Personified.com (Best Damn Blog On The Planet)
• Rob May - Coconut Headsets.com (formerly of BusinessPundit.com)
• Michelle Jones - ConsumingLouisville.com
• David Finch - DavidSFinch.com, BusinessPundit.com
• Moderated by - Jason Falls, SocialMediaExplorer.com

Whether your interest is in personal, group, business or other blogs, you’ll learn best practices, successes and failures, tips and tricks and more from Louisville’s finest.

Food and drink will be on your own. The panel will begin around 7 p.m. and last 30-45 minutes. The rest of the time will be reserved for networking.

See you on Tax Day!

Socialized!

What a blast we had at the March gathering of the Social Media Club Louisville. Rock Band, Wii Sports and cold beer … what else do you need? Oh yeah, there was networking, too.

We had a blast and met some new folks tonight. I’d list them all, but I think Shawn Morton will do us the honors over at Smorty71.com, so we’ll just link to him. (He fulfilled the promise. Gratuitous linkage here.) Here’s Smorty’s photo set from the event. (How do you like this Flickr plugin?)

Michelle Jones has some more images under her “smclouisville” tag.

Special Thanks to CNET for not only hosting us, but providing the food and beverage for the evening. Go there, sign up, check out all their cool content. We love CNET!

Technorati Tags: smclouisville, smc louisville, social media club, Louisville, networking, CNET

Let’s Get More Social, Less Media, For Now

Since our adventure into social media began with our inaugural gathering in January, I’ve continually solicited feedback both generally at meetings and via club communications and individually with folks involved that I know and trust. The one thing that continues to come up is that not enough people feel like they know everyone. So instead of programming something for March, let’s just get to know each other.The March gathering of the Social Media Club Louisville will be an evening of networking, informal content producing (I’ll interview people for our blog, my blog or even your blog if you like!), game playing and general get-to-know-you goodness. Our friends at CNET have graciously extended their gathering space as a venue, which includes Wii, X-Box and PlayStation3 set ups for the gamers in the club. We’ll have some informal dinner and snack options (suggestions are welcome) as well.

Hopefully, the fun and frolic will better enable us to connect to one another. We’ll concentrate on continued learning in April and may even use March to gather suggestions from everyone on what we want to explore next.

WHO:  Champions of social media and those wishing to learn

WHAT:  March Gathering of the Social Media Club Louisville

WHEN:  Tuesday, March 18 (Third Tuesdays, remember?) from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m.

WHERE:   CNET,  1630 Lyndon Farm Court, Louisville, Ky. (Off LaGrange Road between Whipps Mill and Hurstbourne Parkway) (Google Map It)

WHY:   To network, mingle and have fun

For more information, email us at smclouisville - at - gmail.com or subscribe to the RSS feed of our blog.

Technorati Tags: smclouisville, social media club Louisville, social media, CNET

Putting The “Social” In SMC Louisville

If you ever needed a Social Media Club event that really produced payoff on the “social” part, tonight’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 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.

What can we do to top our first real meeting? (Okay, besides get rid of the Barflies and the pedestrian traffic?) March awaits and (thank you Clay) we need to know what is next on the agenda. Tell us in the comments A) Shall we do a breakfast meeting, luncheon or post-dinner gathering; B) Where you might suggest we have it and C) What is next on the topic front?

The conversation is yours.

Some Links (send me yours and we’ll add them):

Michelle Jones’s Flickr Set
Scott Clark’s Flickr Set
Ben Thomas’s Flickr Set
Kat French’s Review
Shawn Morton’s Excellent, Link-Filled Recap
Brian Wallace’s Wisdom & PowerPoint (Lots of folks asking for this after his presentation!)
Jason Brown’s Reaction & Discussion Of Black Hat Principles (Very Interesting Perspective)
Nick Huhn’s Thinking Man’s Lemonade Stand Analogy

Brian Wallace Featured On WebProNews

Another SMC Louisville member interviewed at our inaugural meeting in January is featured this week on WebProNews. Brian Wallace of NowSourcing.com chats with Mike McDonald about social media. Kudos Brian!

A Fantastic Day For Social Media

Today’s Business First cover story about social media was, without a doubt, more than we could have ever imagined. Terry Boyd couldn’t make our first meeting last month. He called me the following Friday to follow up and see if anyone showed. Obviously, he was impressed with the turnout and fascinated with the subject matter that unites us all: social media.

Having worked in public relations and journalism for over 15 years now, I’ve learned that your first reaction to stories is always on the negative side, even if it shouldn’t be. You wish they had interviewed more of the people involved, that they’d offered more links to many of our companies’ websites or blogs, or that they gave WebProNews the appropriate credit for that goofy picture of me. But after your initial reaction settles a bit you realize what it means: This was a fantastic door-opener for the conversation about social media in Louisville and the region.

Talking to Todd Earwood tonight, he said it best:

“This is the perfect publication and the perfect audience to read this. The people who read Business First are the people we want interested in social media. Granted, they’ve got a long way to go before the ‘get it,’ but this puts it in front of them.”

I would add that it probably puts social media in front of many of them for the first time.

Terry Boyd is a friend in the media for us. If you get a chance to meet him at some point, or you know him, be sure to thank him for turning the legacy media eye on us new media folk for a little bit. He truly is fascinated by the world we’re playing in and may even wind up coming to many of our meetings.

Congratulations are in order for Todd and Joe Fowler for representing us well. Anyone who read the article knows now that Joe is skeptical and leery of folks like me (who work at advertising agencies) but having that counterpoint is what captivated Terry so much and led to a larger piece than we expected. I’m always for balance in the discussion and even agree with Joe that marketers must learn to play by the rules in social media or they won’t be welcome.

While I’m excited to hear what our three February discussion leaders have to say about selling social media in a couple weeks, I think we’ve gone a long way to the possibility of doing so in this market with this article.

Technorati Tags: smclouisville, social media club louisville, social media, Business First, Terry Boyd

SMC Louisville Featured In Business First

Just a quick post to give everyone the link to our COVER STORY in today’s Business First. They want you to subscribe online to read the whole thing. The issues hit news stands today. Todd and I will try to summarize it and our thoughts as soon as we can get hold of the full copy!

Click here for the teaser on Business First’s website.

(LOOK! Our blog is on the front flippin’ page! How cool is that?)

The article was written by Terry Boyd. I can’t wait to read it! In fact, I’m going to go buy a copy right now.

And sometimes, you just have to write a little extra to ensure the graphic hanging off the bottom of the post doesn’t mess with your layout. Okay, now I’m going to buy my copy.