Our June meeting covered a requested topic from our Uservoice forum: Comparative SM Models. We were asked to take different types of companies and delve a little deeper into how social media could be used to address their specific needs and challenges. To that end, we created four very different business profiles, which you can review here, defined their goals and explained their challenges for our panelists.

Our first business was a start up looking to not only expand their business but also expand their customer base into a different demographic. Pat Harter gave us some tips and tricks to get a fledgling business off in the right direction; how to manage your web presence and maintain your identity and how you could use YouTube and internet based radio program to implement a focused communication campaign.

Next up Heather Herr took us through how you’d approach a new brand being test marketed locally. Heather’s solutions focused on not only building brand awareness and achieving the test marketing goals but also positioning the brand for its next stages of release; how to use Facebook as a primary portal, creating outreach programs to build brand ambassadors and how a video platform such as 12seconds could be used to capture consumer thoughts, opinions and testimonials.

Our third business on the agenda had a different problem – how do you use Social Media to create a community based program for a larger corporation to effectively change public opinion. Jenn Maggiore discussed how best to tap into LinkedIn to build partnerships with local municipalities and how traditional public relations strategies can be combined with tools like Twitter and Facebook to reach your audience, assuage fears and educate the population about your business.

We closed out the evening with a non-profit organization looking to build awareness of services, increase their volunteer base and donations. Chad Swaney gave us some strategies to meet all the needs of this non-profit; using Facebook as a content tool to reach potential clients as well as volunteers, focusing your event based organizing around Twitter and build additional event buzz in the community by leveraging geolocation applications like Foursquare to generate interest through event check-in’s and badge rewards.

We covered a ton of ground on how to take your marketing strategies and apply them through the use of social media tools. While no single tool is the panacea for all businesses, matching the right tools with your goals will make all the difference on how successful your strategy is. Many thanks to our panelists for providing us with a wealth of ideas and taking the time to explain the thought process behind their solutions.

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The January 14th topic for Social Media Club Phoenix is a Facebook Deep Dive, which has been our most requested topic in our Uservoice forum.  We have a fantastic moderator and panel to top it off, so highly recommend you make it down if you are serious about using Facebook.

WAY BEYOND THE WALL: Tips, Trends, & Tactics for Winning Facebook Marketing

Facebook isn’t a site, it’s a platform for publishing, customer service, and e-business. And, it’s constantly shifting and morphing. This expert panel will discuss all the new Facebook developments, and how to leverage them successfully in 2010. From Facebook Connect to applications, from social gaming to new contest rules, this fast-paced roundtable will dive into the deep end of the Facebook universe.

If you have specific topics you would like to cover, leave a comment here or on the Uservoice entry.

Moderator:

Panelists:

• Scott McAndrew, Director of Strategy, Terralever (www.terralever.com) @scottmcandrew, scottm@terralever.com
• Chris Sietsema, Director of Interactive Marketing, Off Madison Ave (www.offmadisonave.com) @sietsema, chriss@offmadisonave.com
• Katie Van Domelen, Social Content Manager, Sitewire (www.sitewire.net)  @ktvan, kvandomelen@sitewire.net
• Jeff Widman, Founder, BrandGlue (brandglue.com) @glue, jeff@brandglue.com

Social Media 101

Evo Terra will be hosting Social Media 101 at 5:30 — sharp! This month Evo will tie into the Facebook theme with Facebook Privacy. This is an incredibly important topic for brands and individuals alike, so highly recommended!

Because he only has about 45 minutes for the class plus a Q & A session, please be on time. The class will end at 6:15, giving everyone plenty of time to make it to the main SMCPHX meeting that starts promptly at 6:30.

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

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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!

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