Social Media Club Louisville

Simply being present on the Internet is no longer enough. Just because you built yourself a website, created Facebook page, and started tweeting the day away doesn’t mean that anyone is paying attention. So how do you create buzz when there are millions of blogs to read, Facebook pages to ‘like,’ and Twitter handles to follow? The answer is good content. You need to give people something to talk about, which is why content marketing has become so important.

After the success of last year’s Social Media Bootcamp, the IABC (International Association of Business Communications) and SMC Louisville will be hosting this year’s 2010 Content Marketing Summit at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Louisville on September 21st. This year’s event will run from 8:30am until 4:30pm and will feature eight different speakers who will acquaint attendees with everything from developing a social media policy to email marketing to building and executing successful content strategies. Speakers include:

• Joe Pulizzi of Junta42
• Mike Lewis of Awareness
• Mike Schechter of Honora Pearls
• Greg Cangialosi of Blue Sky Factory
• Susan Gosselin of Vest Advertising
• Amy Mengel of readMedia
• Chris Baggott of Compendium Blogware
• Jason Falls of Social Media Explorer

To see a full schedule and more information about conference topics, click here.

Free Wi-Fi, sponsor information booths, and a great lunch buffet will be available to attendees. You do not need to be a member of IABC Kentucky or SMC Louisville to attend, but the $99 early bird price is for members only. Non-members can attend for $149. Both prices are good until Sept. 7, so be sure to reserve your spot for the Content Marketing Summit today!

Ask any knowledgable marketer or technologist today what’s next and one of the most common answers you’ll get is “mobile.” Social Media Club Louisville will focus our August event on understanding more about mobile marketing as we present a panel discussion of the industry, how companies can utilize mobile marketing to connect with customers and even some lessons learned from experienced mobile professionals. The event will take place Tuesday, August 17 from 6:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m at Ice Box Co-Labs at 217 East Main Street. Hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar will be provided, courtesy of Verizon Wireless.

The panel will feature moderator and experienced mobile strategist Chris Bergman from Wiseacre Digital; Robert Strojan, CEO of mobile application company Blackout Labs, Brian Raney of Awesome Inc., a business incubator that hosts mobile marketing developer events and Ben Loetz, data sales manager for Verizon Wireless. The discussion will focus on the state of the mobile marketing industry, what’s in store for the future of mobile marketing, how companies can leverage mobile marketing to drive business and the successes and failures of the panel participants in their mobile marketing experiences. The discussion will include information and insight on SMS/text messaging, mobile websites and mobile applications popularized by the advent of smart phones.

The evening is being presented by Verizon Wireless which will have several models of their latest line of phones, including the new Droid X, on hand for participants to experience. There will be informal networking both before and after the panel discussion, which is scheduled to begin approximately 7 p.m. The event is being hosted by Ice Box Co-Labs, a new co-working environment in downtown Louisville.

Attending the event is free, but Social Media Club Louisville does ask participants to RSVP to ensure accurate head counts for space, seating and food purposes. You may RSVP below:

Just wanted to take the opportunity to thank those who came out Tuesday for the Social Media Club Louisville’s Mid-Summer Tweet-up. About 50 folks came and enjoyed some networking time and got an up-close look at the new Droid X from Verizon Wireless. Big thanks to Verizon for sponsoring the event (and for the yummy appetizers … almost said ‘apps’ which would have been confusing. Ha!).

I’ve been experimenting with Whrrl, a location-based platform like Foursquare only built on storytelling. Here’s my Whrrl album from the event.

We’d also like to thank Patrick O’Shea’s downtown for hosting us. It was great to get together and catch up with everyone. We’ll have an announcement soon on our August and September events.

Ahh, the Ides of Summer. Or something like that.

Join Social Media Club Louisville Tuesday night, July 20 from 6:30 until 8:30 for a mid-Summer Tweetup at Patrick O’Shea’s (the Downtown Location) at 123 West Main Street. Appetizers will be provided by Verizon Wireless and the new Droid X phones will be on display for us to tinker with.

There will be no formal presentation, but do come out and celebrate a fun summer evening with your SMC folks, network a bit, trade business cards and we’ll fill you in on what’s coming in August and September for more learning and networking opportunities.

Please RSVP using the Twtvite for the event, just so we can get a head count for food purposes! See you there!

Facebook is all the rage and the author of a new book that dives deep into Facebook as a company and a social phenomenon is coming to Louisville next week!

David Kirkpatrick, author of The Facebook Effect, a new book which details Facebook’s founding and explores its impact on our world, is coming to Louisville and speaking at the Louisville Free Public Library’s Authors at the Library series next Wednesday, July 7 at 7 p.m. ET. Kirkpatrick had exclusive access to, and cooperation from, Mark Zuckerberg himself when writing the book. The talk will give us an opportunity to look at Facebook from a high level to better understand how to use it for our businesses. We strongly encourage you to attend, though this is not an official SMC Louisville event.

The talk is free and open to the public, but you need to have tickets reserved for spacing purposes. You can call 502.574.1644 or fill out the ticket request form at the Library’s website here.

More to come  on July and August events soon. Stay tuned!

Thursday night’s Social Media Club Louisville gathering featured a very enlightening talk from Trazzler CEO Adam Rugel that touched on everything from the future of social media to implementing Facebook’s new like and friend visit functionality to your corporate website. We were honored to have Rugel pay us a visit. He was in Louisville to announce the winners of Trazzler’s Louisville writing contest.

Adam was kind enough to share his slides, which are embedded below. Thanks to the 40 or so folks who came, to 21C for hosting our gathering and to both the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and Red7E for their help in coordinating the event.

Silicon Valley start-up CEO Adam Rugel will join the Social Media Club Louisville’s May meeting to discuss a variety of topics, ranging from running a social media start-up to what the future of social media holds to his company, Trazzler, a travel-based social networking site. Rugel will join SMC Louisville president Jason Falls for an open discussion that will include questions from the audience. The event will be held Thursday, May 6 from 6:30 until 8:30 p.m. at the 21C Hotel, 700 West Main Street in Louisville.

“Trazzler is emerging as an important player in the travel social media space,” Falls said. “The site is doing a contest to drive more activity from Louisville and when we heard Adam would be coming to town to select a winner in the contest, we jumped at the chance to have some time with him to talk Trazzler, Web 2.0, start-ups and more. This is a unique opportunity to get a peek behind the curtain at the types of websites and social networks we’re all trying to figure out.”

Trazzler, which includes Twitter founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone among its investors, is Twitter like in that it asks the question, “Where do you want to go?” As you participate in the site, it learns your preferences, trips you’ve taken, attractions you’ve visited and recommends future excursions. You can also get suggestions and share recommendations with others on the network.

The site features user-generated stories and reviews of trips, tourist attractions, hotels, restaurants and more. It’s contest for Louisville will reward the most voted upon story about a Louisville-based attraction with a two-night stay at 21C, a $200 gift certificate to any of the 40-plus Louisville Originals restaurants and two tickets to Actor’s Theatre. Trazzler will also have an Editor’s Choice award that will give winning participants a free-lance writing contract with the site.

For more on the Louisville contest and to enter, visit the contest page on the Trazzler website.

To RSVP for the evening with Adam Rugel, please use the Eventbrite form below. NOTE: You do not need to print a physical ticket to attend. Just RSVP for a food/beverage head count.

Instead of a formal gathering this month, Social Media Club Louisville is honored to have been invited to Derby City Espresso for some afterwork drink specials (both coffee and adult beverages) this coming Tuesday, April 20, 2010 from after work until we all leave.

Derby City Espresso is at 331 East Market Street downtown, so many of us can just swing by on our way home. They are also active on Twitter and can be found online at DerbyCityEspresso.com.

Come by and gather informally for some networking, relaxation and yummy beverages and bites with your Social Media Club Louisville folks.

See you there!

Hilary JM Topper, author of Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Social Media (but were afraid to ask), will speak at the Social Media Club Louisville’s March gathering. While she won’t cover literally everything you ever wanted to know about social media in her talk, Topper will no doubt impress you with her insights into applying old-school marketing prowess to new-fangled social communication tools and tactics. The event will take place from 6:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, March 23 at the Louisville Visual Art Association at The Water Tower. The event is free and open to the public. Hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar will be offered.

Topper has nearly 30 years of public relations, advertising and marketing experience. In March 1992, she founded HJMT COMMUNICATIONS, LLC, the Public Relations, Event Planning, Social Media & Graphic Design Agency. She’s worked on such high-profile accounts as Kinder-Care Learning Centers Inc., Jell-O, GLAD Wrap Bags, PRESTONE II antifreeze and Dove Beauty Bar.

Beyond the aforementioned Everything You Wanted to Know…, Topper is a writer for BlogCritics.org, The New York Enterprise Report and has her own blog, HilaryTopper.com.

From Jay Garmon, board member of the Social Media Club Louisville:

“There aren’t very many seasoned marketing professionals who have transitioned from traditional to social media communications. Hilary Topper has done it, and she’s written a playbook on how to make the same leap yourself. There so much that’s different about handling public relations, brand-building, and customer service today than even five years ago, and our members are going to get a crash course in the new rules of the game.

“Plus, it’s a Tuesday, so nobody’s going to miss any NCAA Tournament games.”

RSVP with the form below and join us to finally answer all those dirty little social media questions that’s you’ve been too embarrassed to ask. We won’t judge you. Promise.

As promised, here’s the presentation from Tuesday night’s Social Media Club Louisville event with Lee Odden of TopRank Online Marketing. Enjoy!