Instead of a normal panel meeting on November 12th, the Social Media Club Phoenix will be joining a mixer at the AZ Entrepreneurship Conference. Many people in SMC are attending the conference itself, but everyone else welcome to the mixer free of charge at 5:30pm.  It is a great chance to network and chat with other local professionals.  Our panel format will resume at Jobing.com offices in December.

The conference (#AZEC09) will be at the Desert Willow Conference Center, 4340 El Cotton Center Blvd in Phoenix.  Hope to see you all there!

As we mentioned at the last Social Media Club meeting, there is an incredible number of great events coming up in the Phoenix metro area in the next month, covering ideas, new media, entrepreneurship, and much more.

Chuck Reynolds has put together a list of links, summary, and tags to help everyone keep track of all the things going on.  If you’re in the Phoenix area and want to connect with people doing exciting things and using Social Media in interesting ways, you should definitely check these out.

Check out November In Phoenix For Geeks

The notes from last night’s great “Your Novice Is Showing” discussion are posted in our Google Group.  A big thank you to everyone who showed up and participated in a very lively discussion.

Many people had ideas on different tools they use – please add them to the message thread in the Google Group to share with everyone. Also, Chuck Reynolds is going to make a post of all the events we discussed last night – which will also be in the group.  So if you haven’t joined the group yet, now is the perfect time!

The October 8th topic for Social Media Club Phoenix is “Your Novice Is Showing”, taken from one of the user suggestions in our Uservoice forum. This one is targeted a little more towards newer practitioners and discusses what are the common missteps made by new SM users and how to overcome them? What must you set up with your new Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn account to be effective?  And how to think like a seasoned SM user on these platforms.

If you’re a more seasoned SM user, please don’t stay away! We’re hoping to make this a very open discussion for sharing ideas and experiences, and everyone will benefit from more wisdom in the room.  The panel includes:

Moderator – Jack Smith,Social Media Barista – Social Latte, @jackalert

• Nick Bastian, Head Honcho – RailLife.com, @RailLife
• Calie Waterhouse, Community Catalyst – REtopic.com, & Marketing Specialist – USA-Skating, @cwaterhouse
• Katie Charland, Community Relations Manager – Raising Arizona Kids magazine,  @katiecharland & @RAKmagazine
• Diane Wallace, Publicist – snapfactory/ ASU Art Museum, @dianewallace & @asuartmuseum

If you have questions or ideas you would likes to see the panel address, leave a comment below or on the Uservoice entry for this topic.

Social Media 101

Once again Evo Terra is going to have a Social Media 101 class at 5:30pm, right before the normal SMC session.  His topic this week is Twitter, and how to get you tweeting like a pro while avoiding some of the more douchier moves others have made. His topics include:

• Why it’s OK to Friend people you aren’t friends with
• Why yes, all those fields in your profile are important
• A picture is worth a thousand characters
• The evils of auto-DMs
• Desktop & mobile apps to keep you sane

Feel free to come to either or both talks, at the Jobing.com offices!

SM101 got off to an auspicious start with Jeff Moriarty filling in for the esteemed but traffic challenged Evo Terra. Jeff gave the group of about 12 people an overview of Wordpress, including; hosting options, widgets, plugins and themes then left the crowd in the capable hands of Evo who presented ‘5 Simple Things That Make Your Blog Better’.

The main event, “Old Media using New Media” was moderated by Michael Barber with a panel of local media representatives and journalists who have experienced firsthand the challenges that traditional media has faced in the last few years. We covered topics ranging from personal safety and ethics policies to the difficulties overcoming corporate resistance.

We ran the twitter-stream for #smcphx on a screen in the room, and the backchannel discussion was both interesting and a source of questions for the panel.  It worked well, so we’ll give this a try at future events.

The detailed notes and contact for the panelists and moderator can be found in the SMCPhoenix Google Group.  Where you can also find additional resources, ask questions and look for ideas.

We have made a huge number of changes to the Phoenix area Social Media Club, but still a lot of people are not aware we even exist. For example, many attendees at the recent Social Media AZ (SMAZ) conference talked about the need for Social Media professionals to network more often – totally unaware that SMC meets every month. We all benefit  from hearing new ideas, experiences, and perspectives, so are hoping you can help us spread the word.

At Social Media Club we highly value collaboration. We aim to bring together people of different levels of social media experience with a variety of backgrounds to share their knowledge and expertise in all forms of conversational media. Since you are here we’re thinking that you probably get it. Do you?  If you do, then help us spread the word by sharing it with who you know: they can fan us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, subscribe via email, join our Google group and give their opinion on what they think we should be talking about next on UserVoice.

If you are finding this site for the first time, we meet the 2nd Thursday of every month at 6:30pm. If you can make it this week, September 10th, there is a fantastic panel on Old Media Using New Media that will feature several people from local newspaper, radio, and television outlets.  You can get links to the location under the Regular Meetings section on the right hand side of this page.

Thanks for helping, and hope to see you at an upcoming meeting!

We’re moving the site to a Wordpress implementation, and are working to get everything moved over. We apologize for the dust, but let us know if we missed anything!

The next Social Media Club is this Thursday, August 13th, and there will be another Social Media 101 session at 5:30, following by the main topic at 6:30 of Small Businesses using Social Media. The panel will be people who work for Phoenix area businesses with brick & mortar locations, discussing how virtual connections and tools like Twitter and Facebook have worked for them (and where they have fallen short). There is a wealth of experience and insight on this panel, so don't miss a chance to meet and learn from these local business people.

• Joe Johnston, Liberty Market – @realjoe
• Heather Cordova, Bookmans Entertainment Exchange, Web Monkey – @bookmans
• Kristen Esposite, Wildflower Bread Company, Marketing Manager – @wildflowerbread
• Jim Davis, Bobbies Flowers – @bobbies_flowers

This will be an open panel discussion, so bring questions and experiences from your own business to discuss with the panel and the rest of SMC.

Social Media 101

Before you jump in the social pool with both feet, you might want to test the waters. What are people saying about you? Where are they saying it? And what should you do when you find out? Find out the answers in 15 minutes. And come prepared with questions, as this is a beginner-friendly conversation.

The Social Media 101 session starts at 5:30 and is led by Evo Terra. It is entirely optional and you can just attend the main panel at 6:30 if you wish.

Stay Connected

Don't forget to join the SMC Phoenix Google Group to share what's going on in local social media and ask questions.

We had an excellent Social Media Club session, with Evo Terra's SM 101, then a panel on Educating Up The Ladder.

About
fifteen people showed up for the SM 101 session, and discussed how to
use social media to properly engage with customers, Facebook ideas, and
much more. Evo will continue to adjust the format and content based on
feedback, and will be offering it again before the August 13th SMC,
starting at 5:30.

The Educating Up The Ladder panel, moderated
by Tyler Hurst, featured representatives from a wide range of Valley
organizations discussing their challenges and issues in depth.
Highlights included which tools were being used, how governance played
a critical role, and what were the main concerns in each area.

For more detailed notes and contact information for the panelists,
please join the SMCPhoenix Google Group.  It is free, and a great
resource to ask questions and look for ideas.

Also please put in your vote for future topics in the SMCPhoenix
Uservoice forum. We're using this to help schedule future sessions that
are of interest to the community.