Social Media Club Louisville

The Social Media Club Louisville’s August Gathering is upon us. Please note that we’ve had to change our day for the month of August, so make note our gathering will be on Monday night, August 18, rather than our normal Third Tuesday schedule.

[flickr style="float: right"]photo:2569065126[/flickr]Please join us on Monday, August 18 from 6:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. at the Louisville Visual Art Association at the Water Tower for a presentation that will strike a chord with anyone who gets their news from newspapers, television stations, radio stations or magazines. Jason Falls will present, “Where’s My Audience? How Traditional Media Can Use Social Media To Maintain Relevance,” which will look at the downward spiral of the old guard media, the trend of citizen journalism and how some traditional media outlets are using social media strategies and tools to maintain a relevant connection with their audiences. The presentation will be a preview of Falls’s presentation in September at Blog World and New Media Expo in Las Vegas, Nev.

Please RSVP for the event via email (smclouisville - at - gmail.com) or via the event page on Facebook. The calendar item is also available on the SMC Louisville’s Google Calendar (below). Light refreshments will be served.

Special thanks to the Louisville Visual Art Association for hosting us for a second, consecutive month. The July event was well received by all and we’re excited to be back.

Next Tuesday, July 22, 2008 from 5:30-7:30PM, we’ll be having our first ever Social Media Club Louisville Happy Hour at Proof on Main.

It will be a relaxed, low key event with plenty of opportunity for conversation and socializing. Proof is offering 10% off drinks to Social Media Club Happy Hour attendees. Discounted drinks and chatting about social media make for a fine way to end a Tuesday so please come out and join us.

Social Media Club Louisville Happy Hour
Tuesday July 22, 2008
5:30-7PM
Proof on Main
702 W. Main Street
Louisville, KY

Subscribe to the SMC Louisville Google Calendar to stay up to date on all future events.

Last night’s July gathering of the Social Media Club Louisville turned out to be an interesting and engaging evening for all. Jake McKee took us through Lego’s path from old-school, corporate marketing to responsive, new media innovator with his presentation on how the company, once thought of as making a product for children, could build a community of adult brand enthusiasts by simply listening and opening themselves up to their rabid and loyal customers.

The evening was made extra special thanks to the generosity of two very important friends of ours. The Louisville Visual Art Association offered up the exquisite venue at the Water Tower for the event. Everyone seemed to agree that it was a perfect setting and as I said when thanking them, in places so sophisticated, I always feel like there will be a bouncer at the door to not let me in. Thanks to the LVAA, especially Ashley Cecil and Keith Waits, for making that come together.

We were also treated to some yummy hors d’oeuvres and catering service from Upper Crust by our friends at The Basement. Thanks to Kelli and Jacob for their generosity. Unfortunately, they had an important meeting and couldn’t make the event for us to thank them in person, but they’ll be back soon to talk to us about The Basement so we can thank them. You can always email either with your thanks, too. It’s kelli or jacob — at — the basement.tv.

And it was Maker’s Mark and Doe-Anderson that allowed us to bring Jake to town. We greatly appreciate what they have done in support of the Social Media Club Louisville as well. And, since I work at Doe and with Maker’s Mark, I’ll spare us additional gratuitous praise. Just know they made Jake’s trip possible.

For those in attendance, what did you think? Tell us in the comments what you learned, liked, disliked. If you have follow-up questions for Jake, put them here and we’ll see that he see s them and responds.

Thanks to all who made it. Here’s some event love:

My Plunge Into Social Media - Mary Cartledge Hayes
Shawn Morton’s Recap
Shawn Morton’s Pictures on Flickr
Michelle Jones’s Picture/Tribute to Smorty71 on Flickr
Aaron Marshall’s Pictures on Flickr
Social Media Club Louisville Meeting Tonight - Michelle Jones on Consuming Louisville
Social Media Club Louisville Event Tonight - Shawn Morton
Speaking At: Social Media Club Louisville - Jake McKee

Okay, how many of you can honestly say that having a technology-based, quiz bowl type competition to raise money for a good cause wouldn’t be fun? The 2008 Louisville Technology Acronym Bee is coming up on Thursday, October 23rd at the Mellwood Arts Center and the call for participants and sponsor donations is out. The bee is presented by and is a fund-raiser for the National Center for Family Literacy, a national non-profit headquartered here in Louisville.

Think spelling bee, only being asked what obscure technology acronyms mean. (All you geeks will be down with the bee. If you don’t consider yourself a geek, your IT guys and gals will totally dig this.) The winning team gets the LTAB Champion Trophy Cup, prizes and significant bragging rights. Louisville Geek Dinner will never be the same. Plus the event is an entertaining, fun time.

The donation levels include:

$550 – Silver Sponsor (One team of three people compete.)
$1,200 – Gold Sponsor (Two teams of three people compete and two tables for 10 more people at the event.)
$2,500 – Platinum Sponsor (Three teams of three people compete with three tables for 15 others at the event.)
$5000 – Title Sponsor (Teams of three competitive teams negotiable, tables for 30 attendees at event.)

Everyone gets food, beverages and participants get T-shirts. There are all sorts of other benefits for the levels of sponsorship. To find out more or to sign up as a team or sponsor, call or email Andrea Peters at NCFL at (502) 584-1133 ext. 131 or apeters – at – famlit.org. There is no official deadline, but there are a limited number of teams available, so sign up soon.

The event is the NCFL’s only local fund-raising activity. NCFL is a national non-profit uniquely focused on literacy support and programming for multiple generations. Their work has pioneered a family-centric approach to education reform. To date, the six-year-old event has raised nearly $80,000 to support the organization. Learn more about them on their website or their blog.

Disclosure: NCFL is a client of Jason Falls’s agency, Doe-Anderson.

This announcement came today from the Social Media Club’s national organizers and was posted on the national organization’s blog. We’re honored that Louisville is represented on the national body by SMC Louisville co-founder Jason Falls. Incidentally, our guest speaker Tuesday night, Jake McKee, is also on the board.

Social Media Club Forms Interim Board To Chart Strategic Direction And Advance Its Goals

The Social Media Club (SMC), a new media and advocacy organization focused on social media, today announced that 42 well-regarded industry leaders have volunteered to form an interim Board of Directors.

The new interim board has been charted to address several key organizational and strategic deliverables, including development of membership goals, acceleration of local chapter development, increase in adoption of industry standards and implementation of a new legal structure to enhance future growth.

New interim Board Member and Adjunct Professor of Social Media at University of Miami Alex de Carvalho said “Social Media Club is an important industry organization that has been working to establish social media standards and ethics. The voluntary participation of such noted industry leaders to further its mission is a clear indication of the Social Media Club’s value and contributions. I look forward to collaborating with the new interim board to progress the Social Media Club from being a ‘big idea’ to serving the community as a prominent agent of change.”

According to Chris Heuer, founder of Social Media Club and Partner at The Conversation Group, “The Social Media Club is honored to have so many accomplished and well-regarded industry evangelists come forward to lead the organization. While the interim board will focus on charting the organization’s future direction, our core mission will remain the same: promotion of media literacy; support of industry standards efforts such as Creative Commons licensing, Microformats, Data Portability and OpenID; discussion and promotion of ethical behavior; and sharing our knowledge among our members and the industry community at large.”

Co-Founder and Social Media Club President Kristie Wells added, “We are grateful to have received so much support from around the world over the past two years. With nearly 200 paying members and over 500 open members - we are deeply appreciative of the volunteer efforts to make the Social Media Club a success. With leading corporate members, such as Business Wire and SHIFT Communications, as well as dedicated individual professionals, the Social Media Club will continue to gain momentum and serve the greater needs of the industry while sharing our lessons learned along the way.”

The board will also focus on increasing its research efforts and strengthening relationships with other organizations such as the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) and the International Association for Business Communicators (IABC). The interim board’s work will be completed once the club reorganizes as a new entity, and holds an election amongst its members for a formal Board of Directors.

The newly named/appointed members of the interim board are leading social media analysts, bloggers and business leaders, and are as follows:

• Lee Aase - Social Media University, Global
• Rohit Bhargava - Influential Marketing Blog and Personality Not Included
• Richard Binhammer - RichardatDell
• Michael Brito - Britopian and Conversations Matter
• Chris Brogan - ChrisBrogan.com
• Mike Chapman - Austin Social Media Club and Every Dot Connects
• Megan Cole - MeganCole.org
• Alex de Carvalho - alexdc.org and Social Object
• Todd Defren - SHIFT Communications and www.pr-squared.com
• Serena Ehrlich - Business Wire
• Jason Falls - Social Media Explorer
• Maggie Fox - Social Media Group
• Jon Gatrell - spatiallyrelevant.org
• Howard Greenstein - HowardGreenstein.com
• Francine Hardaway - Stealthmode
• Josh Hallett - Hyku
• Annie Heckenberger - pikpr.blogspot.com and redspurs.com
• Chuck Hester - iContact
• Chris Heuer - ChrisHeuer.com
• Sherry Heyl - Mind Blogging
• Tara Hunt - HorsePigCow
• Bill Johnston - Forum One Networks Forum and Online Community Report
• Jennifer McClure - Society for New Communications Research
• Mike McGrath - Dogpatch Dispatch
• Jake McKee - CommunityGuy.com and Ant’s Eye View
• Gregory Narain - SocialTwister
• Lee Odden - Online Marketing Blog and TopRank
• Erica OGrady - ReinventingErica.com and Peanut Butter Media
• Jeremiah Owyang - Web Strategist
• David Parmet - Marketing Begins At Home, LLC and PerkettPR
• Jackie Peters - heavyBlog
• Doug Pollei - pollei.com
• Pierre-Yves Platini - Yoono
• Douglas Pollei - Pollei.com
• Connie Reece - Every Dot Connects and Austin Social Media Club
• Chris Saad - ChrisSaad.com
• Andy Sernovitz - Word of Mouth Marketing and GasPedal
• Brian Solis - PR2.0
• J.J. Toothman - jjtoothman.net and Red Pill
• Todd Van Hoosear - Tech PR Gems
• Des Walsh - Des Walsh dot Com
• Kristie Wells - KristieWells.com

About the Social Media Club

The Social Media Club centers on the sharing of best practices, establishing ethics and standards, and promoting media literacy with a focus on the emerging discipline of Social Media. The Social Media Club brings together journalists, publishers, communication professionals, artists, amateur media creators, citizen journalists, teachers, students, tool makers, and other interested collaborators who create and consume media and have an interest in seeing the industry improve and evolve. The Social Media Club provides a forum for diverse groups and individuals to discover, connect, share and learn about social media and to play a role in its future evolution.

To find out more about the opportunities in social media and connect with other practitioners, visit: http://www.socialmediaclub.org

Jake McKee, one of the foremost experts on on- and off-line community and brand ambassador building will be the featured guest and speaker at the July gathering of the Social Media Club Louisville on Tuesday, July 15. McKee, who blogs at CommunityGuy.com, is the principal and chief ant wrangler at Ant’s Eye View, a Dallas-based customer collaboration strategy practice. In a past life, McKee was the Global Community Relations Specialist for the LEGO Company, where he spent five years on the front lines of customer-company interaction. A well-known and respected social media expert, McKee is a highly sought after conference speaker and consultant.

The event will take place from 6:30 until 8:30 p.m. at the Louisville Visual Arts Association at the Water Tower, 3005 River Road at Zorn Avenue in Louisville. Complimentary hours d’ovres will be served. A cash beer and wine bar will be available. The evening is co-sponsored by the Louisville Visual Art Association and Doe-Anderson.

Those interested in attending are asked to RSVP by emailing us at smclouisville — at — gmail.com. And spread the word — it’s not everyday we get a chance to learn community building from an expert of Jake’s magnitude. Just please encourage people to RSVP via email.

Special thanks to Ashley Cecil and the staff of the Louisville Visual Arts Association and Doe-Anderson for their generosity in bringing Jake to town and providing such an exquisite location for our July gathering.

See you on the 15th!