Social Media Club Louisville

Best-selling author Emanuel Rosen will be the special guest of the Social Media Club Louisville for the organization’s April gathering, Tuesday, April 14, 2009 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. ET at the Louisville Visual Art Association at the Water Tower. Rosen is the author of the national bestseller, “The Anatomy of Buzz” and his latest effort, “The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited” and is an internationally-renown expert on word-of-mouth marketing.

Emanuel Rosen, author of "The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited"

Rosen is appearing at the event as part of his national tour to support “The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited.” The effort adds nearly two-thirds new material to his original best-selling work with more in-depth coverage of social media as a supplement to word-of-mouth, or buzz. Admission is free. Complimentary hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar will be available.

“I’ve read both books and would recommend them to marketers of all walks,” said Jason Falls, president of SMC Louisville. “For those interested in social media, consumer-centric public relations and community-building advertising platforms, ‘The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited,’ is a must-read and Emanuel Rosen is a must-meet thinker.”

Rosen is touring the country on the National Outdoor Leadership School’s tour bus. The NOLS is a not for profit educational institution that takes people of all ages on remote wilderness expeditions, teaching technical outdoor skills, leadership and environmental ethics in awe-inspiring locations around the world. The tour bus, central to the NOLS’s word-of-mouth marketing efforts, is featured as a case study in Rosen’s new book.

The NOLS bus is powered by recycle vegetable oil and solar power. It has been traveling the country spreading the world about NOLS and alternative energy since 2004. More more information about the NOLS, visit http://www.www.nols.edu/about/. For more on the bus, visit http://www.nols.edu/bus/bus_activities.shtml.

To learn more about Emanuel Rosen visit him on-line at http://www.emanuel-rosen.com or follow him on Twitter at @EmanuelRosen.

WHO: Emanuel Rosen, best-selling author of “The Anatomy of Buzz” and “The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited”

WHAT: Social Media Club Louisville’s April Gathering

WHEN: 6:30-8:30 p.m. ET, Tuesday, April 14, 2009

WHERE: Louisville Visual Art Association at the Water Tower, 3005 River Road, Louisville

WHY: Learn about word-of-mouth marketing and the anatomy of buzz from a world-renown, best-selling author and expert.

Please RSVP using our Eventbrite form below:

Join Social Media Club Louisville’s March gathering for a helpful look at smart marketing in a recession using social media. Brendan Jackson of Creative Alliance and internet marketing consultant Nick Huhn will take you through ideas, strategies and tactics of marketing your organization in tough economic times using social media. Learn how to achieve marketing success with tightened purse strings and conservative budgets.

As an additional bonus, representatives from H&R Block will be on hand to give tips on filing returns and discuss implications of the new federal tax incentive program. H&R Block is a national sponsor for Social Media Club.

Join us on Tuesday, March 24 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Louisville Visual Art Association at the Water Tower. Free hors d’oeuvres and a beer and wine cash bar will be available throughout the evening, courtesy of H&R Block. The event will also feature networking opportunity.

The event is free and open to the public.

WHO: Social Media Club Louisville

WHAT: March monthly gathering - Smart Marketing In A Recession With Social Media

WHEN: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 - 6:30-8:30 p.m.

WHERE: Louisville Visual Art Association at the Water Tower, 3005 River Road

WHY: Learn strategies and tactics to market intelligently in a recessive economy.

Please RSVP your attendance by emailing us at smclouisville - at - gmail.com.

Image via WikipediaWhile in Lexington, Ky., recently to present to the Lexington Ad Club, Nick Huhn and I met Brian Raney of ApaxSoftware who is actively involved in something very interesting and exciting called Startup Weekend. It is a national event that brings together the smartest and most creative people in multiple industries (web design, engineering, software, marketing, medicine, art, etc.) to share ideas and launch companies in the course of 54 hours.  By Sunday evening each of the self-selected groups will present their alpha version company to the rest of the attendees which will include local political leaders, multi-million dollar company founders and more.

The event minimizes formal structure to allow for maximum creativity, conversation, and productivity.  It will be coming to Lexington for the first time November 21-23, and will be held at Whitehall Classroom Building on UK’s campus.  The cost is $40 for the weekend and includes food and a T-shirt.

You can sign up here.

RSVP and get more information from the Facebook event here - http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/event.php?eid=33516827207

Online forums and message boards are often ripe with knowledgeable and enthusiastic users who are true influencers on the Internet. But communicating with those influencers can be risky for brands, organization or marketers unfamiliar with the unwritten and sometimes quirky rules of engagement in such communities.

[flickr style="float: right"]photo:2891175016[/flickr]Patrick O’Keefe, author of “Managing Online Forums,” and owner and founder of the iFroggy Network, will discuss these niche communities and how to approach them as a user, marketer or potential manager, in a web teleconference presentation to the Social Media Club Louisville. The teleconference will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 21 as part of the SMC Louisville’s networking event from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at The Louisville Visual Art Association at the Water Tower. O’Keefe’s teleconference is scheduled to run from 7 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. The rest of the event will be informal networking for those in attendance.

Several copies of O’Keefe’s book will be given away as door prizes. Refreshments will be served. The event is free and open to the public.

Add this event to your Google Calendar here:

Patrick O’Keefe is a writer, web developer, and community administrator who has been managing online communities since 2000. Beyond just being the administrator, however, he’s spent substantial amounts of time contributing to communities from all angles, as a member, staff member and owner. He founded and owns the iFroggy Network, an Internet network featuring several communities, including SportsForums.net, KarateForums.com, phpBBHacks.com, CommunityAdmins.com and PhotoshopForums.com. He writes for multiple blogs, including ManagingCommunities.com.

For more information, contact Jason Falls at (502) 815-3257 or email smclouisville — at — gmail.com.

IMAGE: By Wendy Piersall on Flickr.

Image via Wikipedia

Monday’s sneak preview of my upcoming panel presentation at Blog World & New Media Expo to about 60 folks in attendance at Social Media Club Louisville offered an interesting discussion afterward. Much of the reason I gave it was for people to shoot holes in it and help me identify gaps in thinking so it would be better for Las Vegas.

Terry Boyd, the advertising beat writer for Louisville’s weekly business journal, Business First , offered perhaps the most pointed criticism of the offering. He said I hadn’t offered a shred of empirical evidence that social media use by media members can prove itself in the bottom line enough to sustain the business of journalism. And his criticism was spot on. So, in an effort to fill that gap and supply him with that proof for a story he is working on about social media and the media for next Friday’s edition of the paper, I called on some of the folks I highlighted to answer his question. As we discuss them here, I’ll have much better material to give you proving that Boyd’s attendance Monday was invaluable to us all.

One case study and the first post in my Social Media Explorer ongoing series from August 11 highlighted the innovation and citizen journalism efforts going on at the Cincinnati Enquirer. James Jackson heads the online components of what they do and is a well-respected innovator in the online journalism space. When I called upon Jackson to offer Boyd some arguments for a provable business model based around citizen journalism, user-generated content and social media, he electrified my inbox (if that’s possible) with a response I have to share, almost verbatim:

I’d like to expound on this because I, like others here, are intensely passionate on this issue. Cincinnati.Com and other Enquirer Media properties are doing exceptionally well in terms of audience and market share, given the economy and current trends, and it’s only because of how committed our entire company is to the philosophy of meeting users’ needs (which, inherently, means empowering users to become publishers and to control their media experience).

User-generated content and social media go hand-in-hand. You can’t achieve the potential of UGC without social media tools to allow people to take control of the content they submit. And UGC is critical to the long-term survival of mainstream media, because:

1. UGC works and is very attainable. The audience is willing to produce it, en masse, and not only to use it but also, in certain circumstances, even to pay for it.
2. UGC allows a media or non-media organization to capture the local reality in ways that are simply impossible for a traditional newsgathering organization. Any hesitation that any traditional media operation has about UGC needs to be overcome if that organization is going to survive. Professional newsgatherers often poo-poo UGC as being lower quality, but the reality is that while quality is lower, it’s often good and sometimes higher – and, besides, users are smart and they can pick whose content they want to read.
3. UGC enables new products that otherwise couldn’t be produced profitably.
4. UGC drives Web traffic, increasing visits, views per visit and dwell times.

Here are some specific examples of social media/UGC initiatives that generated profit for us in 2007 and 2008. We’re not allowed to disclose revenue figures, so instead I cite other numbers:

Capture Cincinnati

Capture Cincinnati was a local photo-sharing Web site whose best photos were featured in a popular book we published, Capture Cincinnati, in the 2007 holiday season. The initiative was a huge success, with 1,020 local photographers uploading 11,891 photos. The community cast 333,211 votes to identify the best photos to be included in the book, generating 1,000,126 page views in a matter of weeks. We’ve sold about 5,500 copies of the coffee table photo book, which includes a DVD and has a retail price of $39.95.

CaptureCincinnati.Com is 2008 is already an even greater success. So far, 11,473 photographers have submitted 21,449 photos, and the community has cast 851,694 votes, generating 1,984,707 page views in the last 12 or 13 weeks. Based on all this, we’re sure the 2008 edition of the book will also be a good seller in local bookstores.

Another interesting point: Although the 2008 iteration of the Capture Cincinnati project is even stronger than last year’s, with usage and contributions way up, we’re not yet promoting it aggressively in print or online. This shows that you don’t need print to reach the digital native, young professional audience. What works best is viral marketing, word-of-mouth and promotion through social networking sites. Most of the users are becoming engaged through Flickr, Facebook and other viral means.

Michael Perry, who led CaptureCincinnati, also has done various other similar projects, such as two popular recipe books in which all recipes were submitted by CincyMoms.com users.

User-generated content in general

Enquirer Media, which publishes the Cincinnati.Com Network of Web sites, has had a very strong commitment to user-generated content for many years, and was an early pioneer in UGC, multimedia, reverse publishing and more.

Since we started counting UGC in 2006, Cincinnati.Com has published:

• 1,017,031 total user-submitted items, which includes:
• • 82,837 photos
  • 63,622 stories and reviews
  • 795,057 forum posts
  • 75,496 blog posts, messages and other interactions

• We’re aggressive about publishing UGC. User-submitted content appears within:
• • Web: 250+ online products
  • 233 online community sites (http://www.cincinnati.com/getlocal/)
  • 5 distinct Web sites
  • At least a dozen other specific Web products
  • Print: 38+ print products
  • Our two dailies: Cincinnati Enquirer and Kentucky Enquirer
  • 28 free weeklies
  • 6 twice-weekly editions of Your Hometown Enquirer
  • 2 monthly magazines
  • Various specialty publications

Here’s a key page people see when they submit content:

http://cincinnati.com/share/

The numbers above don’t even include a lot of things, such as letters, obituary guestbook comments, content submitted with various contests, etc., etc. If we took the number of photos, stories and reviews above – 146,459 – and tried to imagine having professional reporters and photographers generate that content for our Web and print products, clearly we would fail.

In this respect, UGC is not a ploy to get users to produce content so that we can cut expenses. Rather, it’s a strategy to acquire content unlike anything mainstream media have ever published in the past – the kind of highly localized content it’s traditionally impossible for anyone (including Google or Yahoo) to get.

To reiterate, the 288 products I cite above wouldn’t even be possible without UGC/SM.

Niche Web sites

We publish a variety of niche Web sites that meet the needs of very specific audiences, such as local moms, visitors from out of town, young professionals, the local theater community and volunteerism stakeholders.

The best example is cincyMOMS.com, and I think someone else plans to email you about that.

One example is nkyHELPS.org, a new local Web site that helps organizations to recruit volunteers and donations, and helps community members to become engaged with local volunteerism. The site, about six months old, serves 130 organization and has recruited and placed 483 volunteers for 191 Northern Kentucky volunteer opportunities. The site also drove 2,448 visits to participating organization’s donation forms as well as 6,977 visits to the Web sites of participating organizations. nkyHELPS.org is possible because 100% of its content – volunteer listings, events, organization profiles, etc. – are community-submitted using UGC and rudimentary SM tools.

Another example is a Young Professional section in CiNWeekly.com. Produced in partnership with the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber’s HYPE initiative (which is all about “harnessing young professional energy”), the site generates content from young professionals sharing photos, stories and events to promote their organizations.

UGC/SM make all of these niches possible.

Web traffic

For digital products, generating page views is key because it not only increases advertising inventory, but also page views inherently correlate with the size of a site’s audience and the extent to which the audience uses the site. We have found that UGC/SM are much in demand by the audience: In 2007, Web pages with UGC generated 28,550,263 views for the Cincinnati.Com Network (out of 454,339,743 total views). While that was only 6.3%, it was 6.3% we otherwise wouldn’t have had.

Some of our niche UGC areas also have impressive statistics that are very unlike the usage patterns of traditional mainstream news-oriented Web sites. For example, due to moms talking inside cincyMoms.com, we have a secondary evening primetime every night from 10 p.m. to midnight, a daypart that is commonly up 75% over last year as a result. Also, in various places within the Cincinnati.Com Network of Web sites, we notice that views-per-visit and reading times are much higher on UGC pages than on non-UGC pages.

So we have our first example and answer to the question, “Can social media, user-generated content and citizen journalism be used to sustain the media business?” It appears that it can if done correctly. We certainly thank Jackson for not only answering the question of Mr. Boyd with this in-depth response, but for allowing us to see it here as well.

What I’d like to know from you after reading all that is what more can we ask to prove it? We respect the fact these organizations don’t disclose their revenues. We can assume if they weren’t making money they wouldn’t be doing it, but are there more pieces of evidence we could glean to see a web-first focus sustaining a media entity in the evolutionary world in which we live? What else do you want to know? Ask in the comments.

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.

NOTE: This post is cross-posted here and on SocialMediaExplorer.com.

In January, Todd Earwood and I officially founded the Social Media Club’s Louisville chapter. We had about 35 people show up for our first meeting. Since then, we’ve met monthly and had a great time learning and growing our networks together.

[flickr style="float: right"]photo:2510810016[/flickr]Last night was our May gathering and the format was an open discussion. I started the group of 25 folks off with a general topic: What do you want to get out of the Social Media Club?

What ensued was a vibrant and involved discussion from some amazing people, some new to social media wanting to learn, others deeply nested in the web social computing can tangle you in. I told them the informal steering committee I’d put together for the club was challenged with coming up with programs for a wide net of folks. Our audience ranges from complete noobs who would struggle to even define social media, to experts in the field; and from developers, programmers and software engineers to marketers, PR folks, to small business owners and venture capitalists. Bottom line: It’s hard to figure out what’s best to cover.

But last night opened our eyes to a great deal of clarity. We have a mission. We have a purpose. And our group, I think, defined it.

The Social Media Club Louisville’s mission is to educate the community about social media and social media tools to improve and enhance its member’s productivity, connectivity and online experience. In doing so, we also evangelize the use of social media for both business and personal success.

That is what I heard last night. Those in attendance (below) can certainly chime in via the comments to ensure we all contribute to that definition, but evangelizing social media seemed to be the consensus. And, even if you are trying to look at SMC involvement as a business opportunity, it makes sense. If more people adopt social media, there’s more of an audience to reach, more potential clients to recruit and the like.

And what a convenient time to get this message from the members! Social media enthusiasts in Indianapolis and Charlotte have contacted me recently wanting to know what I did to start SMC Louisville. Andre Natta, Ike Pigott and my former peeps in Birmingham are dreaming up un-conferences and WordCamps and the discipline is growing elsewhere also.

As we sit here today, we are all on the forefront of what I believe will be an explosion for the social web in the next five years. More and more case studies are going to come down the pike to give even the most fearful and conservative of businesses the value proposition they need to say, “yes,” to what we are recommending. As social media thinkers, enthusiasts or even just interested parties, the time is now. But that time is what we make of it.

Today you should show someone how to use RSS feeds. You should explain the usefulness of Twitter. You should illustrate the value in sharing bookmarks socially to someone who still uses browser favorites. You should help someone find their ideal blog topic.

Teaching social media benefits you. It gives you a broader network of individuals to choose from, brings expertise in areas outside the bounds of our own to our friends lists, our communities. It provides greater depth and breadth to conversations. It might even connect or reconnect you to old friends, classmates and even family members.

And for those of you in the social media business, it puts you in the position of expert to people who might one day be in need of more experienced thinking or strategic planning for social media programs.

Part of our discussion led us to wonder what nursing homes would be like if we could teach all those patients who go through life with a sense of loneliness how to use social media to connect with each other or their families. Imagine how impactful we could be!

But we only can be if we stop talking to each other and start showing the rest of the world what social media is. Get out of the echo chamber and show your mother how to find you using tweets and “@” signs. Find a friend and show them how to cut down on surf time by subscribing to RSS feeds.

More importantly, join the Social Media Club in your area. If there isn’t one, start one. If you want to know how, ask. Or check out the national organization’s blog or wiki.

Educate + Evangelize

It’s going to take an army of us to push this ball up the hill. But there is a summit and the other side is going to be fun to see.

Those in attendance in Louisville last night included:

Out of town guests Kathy Isenberg of the National PreCast Concrete Association; Jim Brown of EverEffect, Josh Mitchell of Riakt Studios and Kelli McLemore, Jacob Leffler and Brian Phillips of The Basement Design + Motion, all of whom were from Indianapolis; Mainstay Doug Petch from Winchester, Ky.; Ashley Cecil of the Louisville Visual Art Association; Beth Blakely of VibrantNation.com; Nick Moorman, an intern at CNET and his lady friend Kyle; Holly Johnson and Peter Stone of the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival; Michelle Jones of ConsumingLouisville.com; Aaron Marshall of ChurchSMO and TechSMO, Mike Foster, Clay Marshall and D.B Wright of DBS, Veronica Combs of MedTrackAlert; John Hicks, a local web developer working with Brick House; Rande Swann of the Fund for the Arts who graciously provided us with ArtSpace as a venue; and Brad Sidio, Heather O’Mara and Sarah Bevin from the Kentucky Opera and Louisville Orchestra. (Brad and Heather also helped us set up and tear down the space and served as hosts … much appreciated!) Kentucky Opera and Louisville Orchestra.

[flickr]set:72157605168548012[/flickr]

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.

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

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DahrQLGhK0[/youtube]

PART 2

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37S5WKJL85g[/youtube]

PART 3

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZRiq0GzApg[/youtube]

PART 4

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvo0HOMlwPM[/youtube]

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.

[tags]smclouisville, social media club Louisville, social media, blogging, expert blogging, blogs, bloggers[/tags]

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?)

[flickr]set:72157604159138121[/flickr]

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![tags]smclouisville, smc louisville, social media club, Louisville, networking, CNET[/tags]