David Murray thinks your business should be a resource and not just a source of information. What does your business think?
David led Social Media Breakfast Toledo last week in the beautiful Green Room at the Toledo Museum of Art. More than 50 other entrepreneurs, business people, and social media types gathered for a breakfast conversation.
Murray, Director of Social Web Communications for The Bivings Group of Washington D.C., said that the principles that govern online relationships are no different than the ones that govern offline ones. His talk was the seventh event in the SMB Toledo series, which began in 2009.
Social media might be characterized by a common set of actions rather than tools. Stressing about covering every platform from Facebook, to Twitter, to Flickr, to YouTube, to Ning, misses the point. Instead of shouting and interrupting, you should be monitoring, focusing, and building a conversation about you and your business.
Here’s your 4-point takeaway (in addition to breakfast):
We welcome SMB attendees from around the country to attend our mega Social Media Breakfast on Sunday, March 14 in Austin, TX, during this year’s SXSW Interactive!
Our first batch of tickets will be released at 2:00pm Eastern on Friday, February 26. Additional tickets will be made available throughout the week of March 1.
Event overview
Date and time: Sunday, March 14, 2010, from 10:00am-noon
SMB SXSW is free to attend, but you must RSVP in advance to reserve a spot and gain entry. You do not need an official SXSW badge.
We’ll provide the food and drink for the first 150 people. To get your hands on the grub, make sure to arrive early!
Follow us on Facebook!
Information about our speakers and other surprises will be shared on our Social Media Breakfast Facebook Page. Connect with us there, and Become a Fan!
Sponsorship by Tungle.me
Our venue, food, and drink costs are being coverd by Tungle.me, “your personal scheduling page.” Here is more about Tungle.me:
Making online media or tweeting about the breakfast? Please use the #SMBSXSW hashtag on Twitter and SMBSXSW on Flickr and other sites.
About the Social Media Breakfast
The Social Media Breakfast series was founded by Bryan Person in August 2007 and brings together social media practitioners and enthusiasts for mornings of eating, meeting, sharing, and learning. SMBs are now held in some 40 cities around the world.
Questions?
Please e-mail SXSW – AT – SocialMediaBreakfast – DOT com
Today’s meeting was held at Panera Bread Company. About 12 of us braved the weather to talk about our topic of the month “All about Twitter”. Our Twitter hash tag is #wacosmb
Caryn Berger Brown facilitated the discussion to answer questions posed by the group.
Why do I need Twitter to promote my local brand?
It helps let people know about your current projects, the type of work you’re doing and with whom you are working. It even allows you to “name drop”.
Tips to find local businesses to follow in the Waco area:
* Check out The Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce @WacoChamber on Twitter to find local businesses.
* Visit the Twitter sites of other local businesses and see who they connect with.
* Begin paying attention to the location of Twitter members.
How do I prevent information overload?
The most common answer to this was to “skim or fast scan” the list of tweets and mark the ones you want to read as favorites, then go back and read only those favorite tweets.
Use Lists to sort tweets. Filter your Lists to just what you want to follow.
You can also subscribe to Lists by other Twitter members. If you are subscribed to another member’s List, you do not get all of their tweets on your home page. You just have to access their List to read new tweets.
What’s the best Twitter App?
The favorites listed are not in order of preference, as the favorite app depended on the topic being discussed at the time.
PeopleBrowsr – Social Network Dashboard Tool that allows you to set extensive search parameters.
Seesmic – Dashboard tool to manage your Twitter.
MarketMeTweet – Brand your tweets, schedule your tweets to post up to one year later, Twitter management, and advanced search.
TwiDroid – Droid phone Twitter client app. It even keeps your place while reading posts, so you don’t miss any tweets.
Echofon – iPhone Twitter client app to manage your Twitter on the go.
PockeTwit – Windows Mobile Professional (PocketPC) platform Twitter client app.
Other Interesting Info from our meeting:
You can use apps to link your Twitter and Facebook pages, with posts going both ways or just from one to the other. Use the Twitter app on Facebook. Facebook Fan Page Posts can also be added to Twitter.
GoogleChrome now offers a Mac version, and a version for web developers is in development.
The Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce is working on putting together a class “How to Get Started On FaceBook and Twitter”.
Our fourth SMB event will be on February 26th at 8:30am at the new Cardel Homes Theatre. It will feature Warren Daly, who currently runs his own consulting and creative advising business. Warren will be sharing his experiences with us in social media as well as discuss why social media and blogs can help your business and the elements of a successful social media marketing strategy. Our second speaker will be John Robertson who is an Account Executive for Marketwire and will be speaking about change in the industry of communications. After the presentations look forward to getting to know our diverse group of members and becoming a part of the SMB community.
Who: Warren Daly, who currently runs his own consulting and creative advising business and John Robertson who is an Account Executive for Marketwire
What: Warren will be speaking on the topic of “Why and How Social Media Can benefit Your Business” while John will be discussing “Change in the Industry of Communications”
Where: Cardel Homes Theatre, 180 Quarry Park Blvd SE, Calgary, AB
When: Jan 26, 2010 8:30 AM
Why: Learning social media marketing and becoming part of the Calgary social media business community
If you have registered for the March Social Media Breakfast-DC, here is what we have in store for you! If you haven’t yet, there is a very convenient button at the end of this post After you meet our speakers, we are sure you’ll want to come!
Join us at Busboys and Poets (14th and V — U Street Metro) on Monday, March 1 at 8am. You are invited to have breakfast with the DC/VA/MD social media community and to share your thoughts about this month’s topic: Blogging The City. Our speakers will talk about popular sites and social media channels dedicated to aggregating the best (and warning us about worst) that DC has to offer. Come hear more about how our speakers are using the Web to help us make the most of what the district has to offeroffline.
Meet our speakers (the bloggers!)
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Tom and Tiffany Bridge are 2 of the several co-founders of WeLoveDC.com. He runs his own Mac IT consulting business, Technolutionary LLC, and she’s the Web Content Manager at the American Pharmacists Association. Both lifelong computer nerds, they’ve each been blogging since 2001 and joining every flavor-of-the-month social network ever since. Believing strongly that the couple who geeks together stays together, they can often be found IMing each other links on matching Apple laptops from either end of the same couch.
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Amy Melrose is the creator of Free in DC, a local Arts and Events blog where shares her inside view of DC as a rich, vibrant and creative community filled with fabulous things to do every day that don’t cost a lot! She began blogging in the fall of 2007 and works as a freelance business coach helping local businesses with messaging and new media. You can visit her site at freeindc.blogspot.com or follow her on twitter @FreeinDCBlog.
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Borderstan is a neighborhood news blog that covers Dupont-Logan-U Street. As it says on the landing page, “Borderstan is the crossroads of the Dupont Circle, Logan Circle and U Street neighborhoods.” The blog covers general neighborhood news, local businesses, arts, crime and dog-related issues. There is a particular emphasis on the 17th Street, 14th Street, P Street and U Street corridors. Borderstan has evolved from a purely public safety and crime blog that started in 2008 and was devoted to a tiny strip of the neighborhood around 15th Street. The co-editors are spouses Matt Rhoades and Luis Gomez. Rhoades works in corporate communications and Gomez is a self-employed photographer and photojournalist. Gomez has own photo blog, One Photograph A Day and their dog, Lupe is featured in If She Only Had Thumbs. As befits the name of the blog, they live on the cusp of the Dupont and Logan neighborhoods.
Want to get involved?
Please leave a comment or send a tweet using the #SMBDC hashtag or contact @smcdc via tweet, DM, email (socialmediaclubdc [at] gmail [dot] com) or pidgeon if you wish to be a “Head of Table” at our March event. Essentially, you are volunteering to ignite conversation at your table and let others pick your brain during the Breakfast.
Click below to register and feel free to leave your comments or reach out to us if you have questions, suggestions, if you would like to help with the event, and, if you would like to serve as a Head of Table.
There are only 42 spots left! We look forward to seeing you!
A special thanks to our event partner:
Tungle.me:
Tungle.me makes scheduling meetings easy–across organizations, calendar systems, and time zones. Tungle.me is a free personal scheduling application that eliminates costly double bookings, time zone mishaps, and the endless back and forth of finding a time to meet. Tungle.me synchronizes with leading online calendar systems and does not require registration.
This past Wednesday, Bellingham Washington had its first Social Media Breakfast meeting. Never heard of us? Well, we have a beautiful community of approximately 80,000 residents, about 1 1/2 hours north of Seattle and an hour south of Vancouver BC. We’ve got gorgeous Bellingham Bay, beautiful scenic mountains great for skiing and snowboarding, bountiful parks and hiking trails strewn across the city, and a very close-knit community that fiercely supports its local businesses.
Being in between two major cities has both advantages and disadvantages. We have quick access to two very different, very tech-laden communities. However, because of that we often get forgotten when conferences and speakers come to this part of the country. Well – we’re looking to change that!
Just within our city, we have many special interest groups that utilize and embrace social technologies: groups like the Bellingham .NET Users Group, Refresh Bellingham, and TAG – which is putting on a Social Media Conference on March 25th that I highly encourage you to attend if you live within a reasonable driving distance. Bellingham has a lot of very talented social media enthusiasts, as was demonstrated by our inaugural presenters, John Raasch and Maya Belka from Mindfly Website Design Studio. John and Maya presented on a great kick-off topic: finding your voice in social media. John discussed marketing and promotion concepts pre-social technology, while Maya discussed thoughts and best practices for being authentic through social channels both personally and professionally. Their presentation is available here – we certainly appreciate John and Maya taking the time to speak to our group and get the ball rolling for us. An attendee shared, “Loved the topic. Thought this was a great way to kick off the group and a great topic to get us talking about social media and our place in it.”
We had 35 attendees for our first meeting which was graciously hosted by Boundary Bay Brewery. Our morning was not without its glitches though, like any meeting! We had arranged for a continental breakfast of pastries, fruit, juice, and coffee to be brought in, but by 7:15am our caterer was nowhere to be seen. Our lovely Boundary Bay host Amy Jones left to try to find some last-minute solutions for this, and while she was out getting food some of the employees were kind enough to brew and put out some coffee and tea options. While it wasn’t exactly what had been planned, we are most appreciative of Amy and the Boundary Bay crew for doing what they could to ensure we at least had something to eat and drink. Thanks you guys! Lessons learned for future get-togethers for sure!
We have a special (surprise) guest presenter lined up for March and are really looking forward to pressing on with our meetings, whether they’re early in the morning or after-hours. Our community is excited about these learning opportunities and we hope to see even more folks at the next one!
We all have had one or two memorable experiences when it comes to the hospitality industry. So here’s your chance to hear from people who are powering the social media strategies from inside and outside of some popular spots around San Diego. So be our guest and come interact with a panel of hospitality insiders and enjoy some great food provided by Rayo Grill.
Cost: It’s FREE. There will be coffee, juice, pastries and even some special taste-testing delights; all courtesy of the Rayo Grill. Bring your appetite. PLEASE RSVP
What’s on the agenda?
7:30-8:00 – Food, Drinks & Networking
8:00-8:15 – Introduction & Foursquare-generated Top 10 in 10
8:15-8:45 – Social Media Panel on Hospitality featuring Hard Rock Hotel, Croce’s Restaurant & J Public Relations
8:45-9:00 – QA & Feedback in 5
Can’t be there in person?
#smbsd is our hashtag for all event content. Use this when posting your own content.
Rana Kay is the Director of Public Relations for Hard Rock Hotel San Diego. Located at the entrance of the Gaslamp Quarter across from the San Diego Convention Center, Hard Rock Hotel San Diego boasts an upscale, contemporary design, signature restaurants, a sophisticated nightlife, superior customer service and, of course, the distinctive thread running through all Hard Rock properties – rock ‘n’ roll.
Tania Garcia is the Director of Marketing for Croce’s Restaurant & Jazz Bar. Croce’s Restaurant & Jazz Bar has recognized that Social Media is a very helpful tool to reach out to fans and foodies alike. We have embraced Social Media and use it to create an instant connection to relay any exciting news, special events and promotions. It’s a great relationship builder, brand expander, and a instant customer service tool.
Kim Julin Guyader is a Founding Partner of J Public Relations, one of the top travel and luxury lifestyle public relations firms in the country. Kim brings more than a decade of experience creating, implementing and managing innovative public relations and marketing campaigns for top-tier clientele.
Rayo Grill is a fun experiment in hospitality, a stylish different menu, combined with a neighborhood bar feel, inside a known hotel brand. You’ll meet some of the people who believe the combination of the product & service they produce and an openness to social media will make this happen.
Cost: The event itself is free to attend, but attendees pay for the cost of their own drink and/or food. See the Mandonla’s Market offerings for coffee and pastries.
* 7:35-8:15am
Event begins. Food, drink, and mingling.
* 8:15-9:10am
Announcements and presentation from Talmadge Boyd and Weston Norton
* 9:10-9:30am
More mingling and wrap-up
Talmadge and Weston are also part of the crew behind the first-ever VideoCamp Austin, scheduled for Saturday, February 27.
Ustream coverage
Can’t attend the breakfast in person? With assistance from Brent Annear and Steve Levine from the Texas Medical Assocation, we’ll be Ustreaming the event beginning at 8:15 on Tuesday, February 23. Here’s where you can follow the live stream: SMB Austin Ustream Channel
About the Austin Social Media Breakfast
The Austin Social Media Breakfast series is organized by Maura Thomas and SMB founder Bryan Person; it brings together social media veterans and newcomers alike for a morning of eating, meeting, sharing, and learning.
Marketers, PR pros, entrepreneurs, business communicators, bloggers, videobloggers, podcasters, students, new-media enthusiasts, Twitterers, community managers, recruiters, online social networkers, etc. are all welcome!
Even though Social Media Marketing is all the rage these days, determining how to measure it is leaving quite a few folks…well, stumped. Tim Claytor, Sr. Partner Recruitment Executive, and Marcus Tewksbury, Director of Customer Intelligence, from Alterian will be enlightening us Thursday, February 18, on the approach, best practices, and even availability of measuring buzz online.
What’s on the agenda?
We’ll keep the event to 90 minutes, focusing on providing attendees with opportunities to meet each other, as well as hear valuable insight from our guest speakers.
7:30 AM Arrival, breakfast & networking
8:00 AM Announcements & introductions
8:10 AM Presentation by Tim Claytor & Marcus Tewksbury, Alterian
Presenting Sponsors:
Our sponsors help make this event free, ensure we have food, and a location to hold the event! Please visit their websites and read below.
Panera Bread (@PaneraBread) Panera has kindly agreed to provide delicious breakfast treats and coffee. With their recent opening of the Panera in Claypool Courts, the company now employs nearly 1,600 in the state of Indiana. Panera Bread is committed to offering great tasting, quality food and serves antibiotic-free chicken, whole grain bread, select organic and all-natural ingredients and a menu with zero grams added trans fat. At the close of each day, Panera Bread donates bread and baked goods to community organizations in need.
Rhythm! Discovery Center (@RhythmDiscovery) Rhythm! Discovery Center, a creative vision of the Percussive Arts Society, interprets the role of rhythm and percussion in music and culture through dynamic and engaging educational experiences. Interactive exhibits and participatory opportunities illustrate rhythm, its role in society, and its connections to daily life. The 15,000 square-foot facility houses three galleries and a hands-on area that allows visitors to play a variety of drums and percussion instruments. Rhythm! Discovery Center is located in downtown Indianapolis adjacent to the ArtsGarden and directly below Panera at the intersection of Illinois and Washington Streets.
12 Stars Media (@12StarsMedia)
And we’re thrilled to have 12 Stars Media support us in improving the quality of our Ustream broadcast, as well as the overall video production.
About the Speakers:
TIM CLAYTOR, Senior Partner Recruitment Executive (@clayman410)
Tim is responsible for new business development and applications thought leadership for the advertising agency and marketing services vertical. Alterian provides software technology addressing social media monitoring and text analytics, content management and optimization, multi-channel campaign management and database management platforms empowering real time consumer engagement.
Prior to Alterian, Tim was the Director of Business Intelligence at OMD Chicago (media planning, buying and strategy arm of Omnicom, Inc.). Tim served as the internal and external champion of fact-based media planning and strategy through the use of analytic applications. His primary role was ROI measurement and management as the internal advisor and conduit between account teams and clients. Analytic resources included primary research, syndicated/media research, consumer analytics and econometric modeling for marketing mix optimization. Clients included State Farm Insurance, H&R Block, Pier One, LifeLock and Busch Entertainment.
MARCUS TEWKSBURY, Alterian’s Director of Customer Intelligence. (@tewksbum)
In this role, Marcus provides a strong voice in shaping Alterian’s go-to-market social media strategy, as well as technical leadership in deploying our own tools to track and measure our success. Additionally, he is a regular author for their blogs, ebooks, and whitepapers and even hosts their new senior leadership podcast series on transformational marketing processes that can be found on Alterian’s site under Resources, or subscribed to at iTunes.
Prior to Alterian, Marcus spent time with Razorfish, CSC, a boutique CRM/BI consultancy, and coaching a girl’s softball team in Japan. Marcus has worked with numerous clients, including Coach, Hallmark, Hot Topic, Purina, and Walgreens, to build co-op marketing applications, deploy integrated marketing platforms and build marketing databases. He has seen his work in print or presented through numerous media outlets and events such as: NCDM, CRM World, DMA Monthly, and The Economist.
The next New North Social Media Breakfast will be held on Feb. 16, 2010 at Main Event Steakhouse in Little Chute, Wis. The event is sponsored in part by the local news team leading social media involvement in the New North, WFRV-TV Channel 5. The discussion will focus on the use of how social media is impacting the traditional media industry. Future locations will be announced a month in advance of the noted event dates.
Confirmed panelists for the event are:
Mark David Zahn - Creative Services, Woodward Radio Group Erin Davisson – Anchor, WFRV-TV Angenette Levy – Reporter, WFRV-TV Joel Christopher - Digital Content Editor, Post-Crescent
The New North Social Media Breakfast is provided to business professionals, both experienced and newcomers to social media, at no cost. Also, due to high interest, the New North Social Media Breakfast is implementing a new RSVP system for 2010 on EventBrite. To sign up for a breakfast, interested parties simply search “New North Social Media Breakfast” on EventBrite and order a free ticket.
Background: The New North Social Media Breakfast was founded in March 2009 by Dana VanDenHeuvel of Marketing Savant in partnership with Weidert Group, Inc. and Element. The group of local professionals meet monthly, rotating between Green Bay and Appleton locations, to discuss how social media is impacting their businesses. To cater to the diverse needs of this growing group of professionals, the New North Social Media Breakfast has burst out of the coffee shop setting and into the community. The breakfast will now be held at various local businesses each month with a panel that will discuss how social media is impacting their industry.
After you meet our speakers, we are sure you’ll want to come!
The next New North Social Media Breakfast will be held on Feb. 16, 2010 at Main Event Steakhouse in Little Chute, Wis. The event is sponsored in part by the local news team leading social media involvement in the New North, WFRV-TV Channel 5. The discussion will focus on the use of how social media is impacting the traditional media industry. Future locations will be announced a month in advance of the noted event dates.