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Jun 10 / Jeff Moriarty

Top 5 Best & Worst of Valley Social Media

Francine has done a fantastic job starting the local Social Media Club chapter and running it for so long, but while she has handed over the reins to me for the summer I'd like to try a few things to see if we can reinvigorate involvement. My goal is to reach out to people who have not attended in a while, and get in a wider mix of people than the "usual suspects" that often show up.

To start with, we've set up a SMC Phoenix Google Group to allow people to provide input on upcoming topics and follow-up on previous ones.  It is open to join.  You can also now follow @SMCPhoenix on Twitter.

Clarifying the Scope

There is an enormous wealth of SM knowledge and experience in the Valley, yet it tends to collect in small groups (tribes, communities, whichever…) SMC can help cross those groups to share best practices, new ideas, and creative methodologies unique to the different groups.
SMC should support the social media professionals and practitioners in the Valley, to give them a common area to discuss their challenges. People new to SM are welcome to participate and share their ideas and challenges, but introductory questions about SM are better handled in a different forum.

Tweaking the Format

Rather than single speakers, use a panel format where 4-5 topic experts discuss a given topic then open it up to the audience. This provides a wider range of perspectives, and if the presenters are chosen for diverse perspectives we should get some strong discussion.

Limit introductions of the audience to name and role to save time and limit self-promoting. Encourage people to participate in the many-many discussion with the panel and not a one-many discussion during introductions.

Actively solicit topics, and recruit people to set them up.  Have 2-3 months planning at a time, with different people driving the agendas.

Trying it out…

We're giving this a try for the first time tomorrow night at the June meeting, with the topic of 5 Best/Worst in Valley Social Media. If you haven't attended in a while, please come down and give your input on this and future ideas. 

We would love to have your voice as part of the discussion!

~ Jeff Moriarty

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    • http://www.socialmediaclub.org/ Kristie Wells

      Jeff,
      These are all great ideas, and what we like to see happen in every SMC chapter.
      A couple of tips from what we do in San Francisco:
      Group dynamic – Our participants do range from very new to Social Media to those who have been blogging, videocasting and building communities for 10+ years. Their backgrounds are as diverse too: We have professionals from Marketing and PR, Technologists, Educators, Government workers, Lawyers, Pharma/Health advocates,e tc.
      We are working to reach out local organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce and the Small Business Administration to bring more folks in and contacting local schools (Journalism and Marketing departments) to see if they wish to join us.
      Build a nice diverse mix of folks in Phoenix. I would just encourage the newbies to SM to be able to ask their introductory questions – maybe designate one ‘more experienced’ person per month to hold a 15 minute Q&A before/after the event.
      Format – we alternate each month. We have one speaker, then a panel. Last month it was a world cafe styles event where everyone broke into groups. I say play with the format, mix it up a bit.
      We also stopped the intros at the beginning of the meeting and instead host a happy hour/mixer 30-45 minutes before each event *and* have people mingle afterwards. While I love knowing who is in the room beforehand, it just started eating up too much of the event time. We find people like the mixer and can meet 15-20 people easily before the event even starts (maybe open doors at 6pm?).
      Hope some of this helps. Excited to see what you do with SMC Phoenix this summer and if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to kristie [at] socialmediaclub [dot] com!

    • http://www.socialmediaclub.org Kristie Wells

      Jeff,
      These are all great ideas, and what we like to see happen in every SMC chapter.
      A couple of tips from what we do in San Francisco:
      Group dynamic – Our participants do range from very new to Social Media to those who have been blogging, videocasting and building communities for 10+ years. Their backgrounds are as diverse too: We have professionals from Marketing and PR, Technologists, Educators, Government workers, Lawyers, Pharma/Health advocates,e tc.
      We are working to reach out local organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce and the Small Business Administration to bring more folks in and contacting local schools (Journalism and Marketing departments) to see if they wish to join us.
      Build a nice diverse mix of folks in Phoenix. I would just encourage the newbies to SM to be able to ask their introductory questions – maybe designate one ‘more experienced’ person per month to hold a 15 minute Q&A before/after the event.
      Format – we alternate each month. We have one speaker, then a panel. Last month it was a world cafe styles event where everyone broke into groups. I say play with the format, mix it up a bit.
      We also stopped the intros at the beginning of the meeting and instead host a happy hour/mixer 30-45 minutes before each event *and* have people mingle afterwards. While I love knowing who is in the room beforehand, it just started eating up too much of the event time. We find people like the mixer and can meet 15-20 people easily before the event even starts (maybe open doors at 6pm?).
      Hope some of this helps. Excited to see what you do with SMC Phoenix this summer and if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to kristie [at] socialmediaclub [dot] com!