Last Night at the Social Media Club “Out-Of-The-Box” Social

dellojoio — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 22:53:23 GMT

The dust settled across the room. Anticipation was in the air as the visage of "Chris," founder of Social Media Club, spoke from beyond the wall. The crowd anxiously waited to hear what this Orwellian person was going to say. The room was filled to capacity … twice, a pleasant surprise since no one really understood what the first meeting of the Salt Lake chapter was going to bring. @ThomAllen said it best during a Facebook chat: "not sure what to expect but I'm game for something new :)"

We were late, @deangirls and I, so we were part of the "standing room only". As I perused the crowed, straining to make my 5'6 ½" (yes the ½ inch is important) body taller to see people I recognized, it became apparent that this was the place where influential people in the Utah Social Media community were that night. Peering out of the corner of my eye I noticed the magnificent @RickGalan in his authoritative style @ replying me on his phone to glance over and say hello. I did … briefly, probably too briefly. I mean what do you say to a person that you stumble upon and follow on Twitter? Especially a person of influence? "Um … I follow you on Twitter." Was all that came from my mouth. Simple, straight and to the point. Friendly? No. But then again sometimes it's easier to be smooth talking in 140 characters than in person.

So Chris, the main SMC dude, finished up his little presentation. He was cool enough to have as a welcome/keynote, but I was anxious to find more people to follow, to get some information and actually put some of the thoughts and ideas we were to learn into action. The room dispersed and the whole motley crew moved downstairs. All of a sudden faces that I followed were alive and in person: @CarySnowden, @travelgirl521, to name just a few. And to see the herd move to the basement of "The Summit Group" was a little like watching the old R.C. Willey Memorial Day commercial: people rushing to get to the new thing. There was excitement in the air about what was next … but what was next?

After a few "Hellos" to those people we knew (the extraordinary @ThomAllen, mad shout out!). A person, I'm assuming a leader of the SMC, stood up and mentioned that we would break into 7 different groups to talk about Social Media: Newbies, Marketing, Development, HR, Non-Profit and two others that slipped my mind. I was stumped about where I was going. I could jump in Marketing, but it seemed that there were a lot of people in the marketing group. I didn't think that I would be of much help there. @DeanGirls was going to the Newbie class, so I figured I should do something different then her. I could jump into Development, but I wanted a different perspective then what I'm around every day (my company, Wasatch Development Studios, is a software consulting house). So I decided that I would jump into the Non-Profit for two (2) reasons: 1) I do a lot of work with various non-profit organizations so I thought I could help, and 2) It was all women (To be a geek in a sea of estrogen is a very powerful feeling, even if all of them were out of my league … and married).

The group's process went like this: 1) Read a scenario and 2) discuss different Social Media techniques to resolve the scenario. Our process went like this: 1) introduce ourselves and our organizations, 2) read the scenario, and 3) forget the scenario and ask what each person in the group was currently doing in the social media world. Which I think worked really well, because our scenario was pretty much, "You have a non-profit. How do you raise funds using Social Media?" It was much better our way because we could help the non-profits by giving useful ideas specific to what their needs were. And we had all sorts of entities there from Dancers, Mentors, Moms who wanted to find support organizations, and much, much more. (For those I forgot please message me and let me know!! http://www.twitter.com/dellojoio). Almost all the groups were on 'Da Book in various forms: Groups and/or Pages. So we had a brief discussion about the pros and cons of each. We then mentioned some of the applications that can benefit a page (such as My Blogs and Causes applications). I also piped in and mentioned that with the pages our organizations could create pay-per-click ads to target people during the "tax season" to remind them of the tax benefits of donating: "Need some additional tax relief? Remember the Children!!!!" – Link to your non-profit for donations.

We discussed for a short time and then came the "Okay people let's wrap up!" segment of the evening. Every group had a "spokesperson" that would deliberate the large ensemble about what the Social Media splinter cell discussed. Our moderator asked if I would be the spokesperson. I said "Sure." I wasn't really going anywhere and I like to hear myself talk … even when others don't. So the spokespeople talked about their scenarios. We all listened to see if there was anything that could impact our lives. For me, I was pretty aware of the technologies out there, but there were a lot of people who thought, "Oh …. That's a good idea. I need to remember that," which is what the whole evening was about: sharing information. Then it got to our turn.

So I need to take a quick aside. The whole evening I was tweeting (twittering? Posting? Updating? Texting the Bird?) away little things that I thought were interesting. As is the Twitter.com convention, I included the hash #smcslc in all of the tweets. While the evening wore on the group hosting the party had a TV monitor with http://search.twitter.com on and was refreshing the search so the new "Tweets" were put up on the big screen. Seeing this, and being the ego-maniac that I am, I saw my tweets and want to make sure I was always on the screen. So I continued to tweet away so that I wasn't being pushed off of the screen. The reason why I bring it up? I tweeted: "I'm gonna be the spokesperson for our group about non-profit. I hope i get refreshed on the bi g screen #smcslc". And just as I got up to speak … they refreshed the screen. I know at least one person got the joke.

So I spoke. We then concluded the meeting with a rousing version of Kum-Bye-Yah, Hugging your neighbor, and the obligatory sacrificing of a portable egg timer. Okay, so maybe we didn't do any of those things, but we did leave with a "thanks for coming" and a "mark next month" as well as "Get some pizza!" I stayed chatting for a while with this lovely woman (@mentors) from the non-profit circle, who's name I don't remember (all you white people look the same to me J ). We talked about views on social marketing and how it can help their organization. Some of her questions were very simple ideas and others where more complicated which got me to thinking about the meeting. Was it a good meeting? A worthwhile meeting? Or just a chance to meet people I only see virtually?

Here are my insights, take them for what they're worth:

Pros	Cons	Con Resolution
It's always great to see people in real life that you only know in a virtual world	Without structured time to meet everyone you never have a chance to meet as many people as you would like.	Possibly create a structured networking portion where you could meet and (more importantly) connect with those people
Seeing Chris the main SMC dude was really cool. It's great to have leadership be a part of the satellites	I got bored listening to his resume rather than his insights. A keynote speaker is great as long as they deliver "Meat" and not Fluff	If you are planning keynotes, bind their hands to a short presentation with guidelines. Enforce the information so people walk away with great insights.
Breaking into smaller focused groups to discuss is a great way to generate ideas and thoughts	There was no structure in the "group dynamic" so I didn't know if we were to introduce ourselves or start right into the discussion. I feel the introductions were important to who we were and our perspectives, but it took away from our time to be able to properly discuss the issue.	Possibly structure the group's time so that both items can be accomplished. Each person get's 20 seconds to introduce themselves, who they are and what they do. Then give the allotted time to the issue.
Tons of ideas flowing. Tons of good information. Tons of good people.	No way to capitalize on all of the discussions.	Possibly publish the list of attendees so we know who all was there. Promote Tweeting of thoughts and insights so people can garnish the information afterwards with the Hash search (#smcslc)
A great event that brought people together	I missed the focus of the group. Are we a networking group? Are we a problem solving group? Are we an information promoting group? Or are we just a bunch of people who like to get together?	If there is a focus possibly promote it better during the meeting so people can stay alert of what the reason for being there is. If there is no focus … possibly find a focus.

The whole evening was really fun. And as @DeanGirls and I drove back to Provo we talked about the evening and how it went. Both of us thought that it was a good time and that it would be something that was great to return to. In this day and age we need as much help as we can get to be better at what it is we're doing. Organizations like this allow the best of breed to come and educate the non-experts to a higher level. Let's keep it going and moving forward. Plus if I actually lose a little weight I might impress the "ladies of the non-profit." (New Years goal #1208). See you all next time!!

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Last Night at the Social Media Club “Out-Of-The-Box” Social

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