Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "sacramento social media club"

Social Media Best Practices for Charities draws crowd

2011-11-15T15:26:09Z

The Urban Hive was filled with nearly 100 representatives from local charities and non-profits at the Sacramento Social Media Club’s “Social Media Best Practices for Charities” last Tuesday.

The event, hosted by Clay Nutting, director of Concepts 4 Charity and account executive for 3Fold Communications, inspired attendees to use social media outlets, such as Twitter, Facebook and Youtube to spread their message, raise funds and increase public awareness of their cause in order to promote social change.

Panelist Julie Bornhoeft, director of development and community relations for WEAVE, Inc., advised the audience that beginning to use social media is quite simple – you must have a presence, be genuine and have a goal. Panelist Misty Avila, eAdvocacy coordinator for Aspiration Tech agreed.

“When you’re a person online, you get why you’re online. When you’re an organization online, you have to have a goal,” Avila said. “If you don’t have a goal, it’s not a problem, but how do you know if what you’re doing is working?”

When organizations develop social media goals, often their focus is on their number of followers. Panelist Chris Brune, director of creative services at Macer Media (Sacramento Press), for the Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services, said focusing on that is a mistake.

“The quantifiable measure is often how many followers you have. I hate that. Dislike,” Brune said. “We’re saying it’s quality not quantity that matters.”

For panelist Kate Towson, Americorps VISTA with Sacramento Steps Forward, said her main priority in social media use is sharing.
After recently learning the beauty of retweeting and sharing the material of others, Towson said she now shares what other people are talking about and they share what she’s discussing.

“When you congratulate your partners on the work they do, it really reflects well on your agency,” Towson said. “It would come back to me, because folks would share what I’m talking about. It’s definitely karma right there.”

Although it may seem intimidating to begin social media, Brune said you just have to jump in.

“You can’t break Twitter – just start your conversation with whoever it is that will listen,” Brune said. “If you have an inkling of faith in social media, I think you should just go for it. It’s really that simple. You just have to start.”

In an effort to help charities begin or improve their social media presence, the Sacramento Social Media club is hosting a social media tune-up workshop tonight at the Urban Hive from 6-to-8 p.m. At the tune up, 20 local charities will be matched with marketing practitioners and agencies for one-on-one reviews.

For more information about tonight’s tune up, email smcsacto@gmail.com. To see more from the Social Media Best Practices for Charities panel, check out the Sacramento Social Media Club’s Ustream page to view the video.

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About the Social Media Club: The Sacramento Social Media Club was founded in March 2009 by local social media activists. Its monthly events bring together journalists, publishers, students, communicators and other interested collaborators to facilitate discussions about the key issues facing our society as technologies transform the way we connect, communicate, collaborate and relate. The Social Media Club’s primary mission is to promote media literacy and standard technologies, encourage ethical behavior and share best practices. To find out more, join their groups on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

About the author: Brittany Wesely is the Associate Community Benefit Health Specialist for Kaiser Permanente, and a member of the all-volunteer leadership team for the Sacramento Social Media Club. Follow her on Twitter @brittanywesely.

Twitter, trunk of the tree for #HereWeBuild

2011-06-10T07:12:58Z

What began with an adult beverage and a frustrated Twitter post quickly led to a series of grassroots efforts to keep the Kings in Sacramento.

Radio personality Carmichael Dave, founder of #HereWeBuild, was relaxing in his backyard when he discovered that the Anaheim City Council had voted to pursue efforts to bring the Sacramento Kings to Anaheim.

“I thought this is frustrating and I’m ticked off and I want to let people know,” Carmichael Dave said. “So I tweeted out, ‘Carmichael Dave votes one-to-nothing to issue $200 into a fund to build a new arena. Whose with me?’”

Then the explosion happened which soon resulted in the HereWeBuild, HereWeStay and SacDeflated.com campaigns, and their spinoff campaigns HereWeSit and HereWePurple.

Founders of the movements spoke Thursday evening at the Sacramento Social Media Club #HereWeMeme event at The Citizen Hotel in Sacramento.

“Meme is basically a trend associated with something happening on the internet,” Laura Good, executive director of the club, said. “We wanted this event to focus on just that.”

Approximately 150 social media enthusiasts and Kings fans attended the event where they heard the stories of the major contributors to the campaigns, and learned how to apply similar strategies.

“We were just a bunch of regular people who saw what was happening and wanted to do something,” Carmichael Dave said.

Event panelist and blogger James Ham said the success of their campaigns couldn’t have been accomplished without the efforts of everyone involved.

“No matter what we did, we did it together,” Ham said. “We didn’t model our plan after anything, we just knew something bad was going to happen if we didn’t do something.”

With the help of their efforts leveraging on blogs, digital billboards and Twitter, enough public pressure was built in the community to result in the Kings staying in Sacramento for another year.

Matt Graham, marketing and fleet director for Jiffy Lube, followed the progression of Carmichael Dave’s tweets and the many pledges by the community in the first few hours. Graham quickly knew he had to act, pledging to be a major financial contributor to the HereWeBuild campaign.

“I felt that (pledging) was the only way to continue the voice and the passion of the efforts,” Graham said. “While we acted nimble and quickly, we were not prepared. But sometimes you just need to react, so that’s what we did.”

To watch the video of the event, visit http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/15279047.

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About the author: Brittany Wesely is a member of the all-volunteer leadership team for the Sacramento Social Media Club. To find out more about her, visit her website or follow her on Twitter @brittanywesely.

What is Social Networking Really Worth?

2011-05-28T00:47:29Z

Mark Bean, the managing director of C7, and Josh Hilliker, the director of social media at Intel-GE Care Innovations, sat on a panel moderated by 3Fold’s Gordon Fowler to discuss whether or not social media’s return on investment (ROI) is measurable. Turns out, it is.

As was revealed over the course of their discussion, there’s a plethora of tools out there for everyone to track just how effective their social media presence is. There are a lot of dated measurements (i.e. number of clicks or time on site), but they don’t quite carry over into social networking very well. Some of the newer tools include Hootsuite and Tweetdeck for the smaller businesses, or Radian 6 and Crimson Hexagon for the bigger brands and enterprises, and everybody who’s anybody uses Google Analytics. Regardless of whether your business is big or small, the fact of the matter is that different people will want to track different metrics based on what their overall goals are.

For example, let’s say you wanted to see if your social media presence was getting you more sales. You would have to track the amount of money and/or time you’re investing in your online networking, and simultaneously track the amount of sales your accruing, then compare the numbers to see if there is an increase in sales or not. If the increase in sales is unsubstantial or nonexistent, then maybe social media isn’t the right marketing tool for you!

If you find yourself in a lost-cause situation, the whole panel agreed that you should own up to your mistakes. Be open, transparent, and completely honest with the people who actually did invest time and effort in your endeavors. If you do that, you have the potential to mend what damage you’ve done, and maybe even come out on top.

But how do you measure whether or not you’ve come out on top? It’s true that not all of the benefits social media offers can be directly linked to financial gain. A lot of the benefits lie in the idea that you’re building a brand while simultaneously building a strong relationship with your customers. The goal in many cases is not necessarily higher sales, but greater interaction between you and your fans. Hilliker explained the 90:9:1 rule: 90% of your followers are just lurking about, 9% will pop in and contribute every now and again, and 1% are super-evangelist-advocates for your cause. Success can be found by moving some lurkers into that top 10%, and getting real conversations going.

Conversations are fantastic for helping out your brand, but at the end of the day marketing is about whether or not a dollar changed hands, says Fowler. Let’s face it; social media is not the end-all-be-all of marketing techniques. It certainly can play an integral role in connecting with your fans and broadening your base, but it should be part of a larger strategy. Just because social media offers a lot of promise doesn’t mean you should completely abandon the pursuit of more traditional techniques; there are probably some pretty good reasons why such successful brands still use them. But as Bean points out, "Twitter is like the new dial tone" - you're expected to be there.

Click here to watch the whole Sacramento Social Media Club panel discussion.

Is Social Media Making the World a Better Place?

2011-05-16T16:37:02Z

UC Davis law professor Anupam Chander spoke to a large crowd at the California Museum on Tuesday, April 19th about the role social media has played in the recent uprisings around the globe, and how it could be a key player in making the world better.

Just prior to the professor taking the stage, a wonderful meet-and-greet was held in the lobby of the museum. Politicos, business leaders, media experts, teachers and others chatted over mouth-watering hors’doeuvres provided by Blue Prynt and wine provided by Grace Patriot Wines. Professor Chander was there to discuss a new paper that he had recently published called Googling Freedom. His presentation came in three parts: (1) is social media even related to the uprisings or is it just hype; (2) the two possible futures of the internet; and (3) the responsibilities of internet-based companies moving as they expand.

A writer at Mother Jones once said, “Twitter bears about as much responsibility for the Egyptian uprising as George Soros, Mrs. O’leary’s cow, and the flying spaghetti monster.” However, Martin Luther was able to fully vet his concerns on a singular piece of parchment, subsequently creating an entire religion with the use of the printing press (an early communications technology). And when there have been rumors of rebellion, dictators have commonly flipped the internet “kill switch” in the hopes of quelling their peoples. Now there are a multitude of options undermining the efficacy of “kill switches,” and social media platforms can still reach the rest of the world despite these efforts. Just the idea that the internet is one of the first things targeted at the beginning of a rebellion should be indication enough that it plays a key role in removing a dictator from power.

As Professor Chander sees it, there are two potential ways this internet expansion can go: the perfection of a “surveillance state” or the perfection of a “global sphere of rational discourse.” The first option, while possible, is looking more and more unlikely. Social media is pushing the world toward option two, where everyone everywhere has access to real-time on-the-ground information from around the world. This has been the case in several instances in the recent past, and hopefully will continue and expand as we move forward.

As the companies who run these websites move forward, what should be the guiding principle of their business strategies? In the past, it has been the maximization of shareholder wealth. Companies are increasingly worried about their public image in an age of increased transparency, and so the at-all-costs method of increasing wealth may not work for much longer. Now companies are more likely to be moralistic in their decision-making, and make efforts to be seen as improving the communities in which they operate. Not to worry, shareholders – you’re still number one, but society will now come in at a much closer second place.

Professor Chander closed with some Q&A, and then, as is the tradition of the Sacramento Social Media Club, a door prize raffle was held. Door prizes are donated by local businesses and organizations and the prizes included free California Museum annual memberships and Jiffylube gift certificates.

The Social Media Club will be hosting their next event this Tuesday, May 17th at The Urban Hive beginning at 6:30 pm. "Social Media ROI: Is it Measurable?" will feature a panel of social media experts who will weigh in on best practices and new methods of measurement. For more information or to register for this event, click here.

About Sacramento Social Media Club
The Sacramento chapter of the Social Media Club is part of an international organization of more than 100 active chapters around the globe hosting conversations that explore key issues facing our society as technologies transform the way we connect, communicate, collaborate and relate to each other. Founded in April of 2009, Sacramento Social Media Club (SMCSac) has become the centerpiece for regional gatherings surrounding the subject of social media. SMCSac is devoted to expanding media literacy, sharing lessons among social media practitioners, encouraging adoption of industry standards and promoting ethical practices though discussion and actions. Additional information about the Sacramento Chapter and upcoming events is available at http://www.facebook.com/SMCSAC.

Social Networking "In-Real-Life"

2011-02-21T02:19:12Z

Social media enthusiasts from around the city gathered Tuesday night at The Urban Hive for the Sacramento Social Media Club Relationships and Social Media presentation.

With Valentine's Day just behind us and the ever-increasing role of social networking in our day-to-day lives, relationships via the online frontier was a timely topic for discussion. Four speakers headlined the evening, and the audience was filled with some of Sacramento's most active facebookers and tweeps.

Up first at the podium was independent marketing consultant Paul Ardoin, who discussed facebook privacy settings and how to manage them. "facebook is a for-profit entity; every decision facebook makes on your privacy, they are thinking not about you, but about their revenue stream." Paul suggests checking your facebook privacy settings regularly to make sure they're still to your liking. He also recommends creating friends lists to take advantage of facebook privacy granules, especially if you have a boss who likes to critique your facebook activity.

Lanette Capellas, Staffing Director for The Agate Group, then discussed social media from an HR perspective. Layoffs are increasingly due to social networking negligence, and an overzealous willingness to share. One of her main points: think before you post. Is venting about a bad day at work worth losing your job over? Lanette thinks not, and most are likely to agree. If your fingertips get the better of you and you end up saying something you regret, thank goodness you took Paul's advice and already divvied up the permissions on your friends list.

Feel like your friends list isn't long enough to divvy up? Not to worry, "strangers are friendships waiting to happen," says Laura Good, executive director of Social Media Club Sacramento. Sacramento twitter use is ranked fourth in the nation. Utilize that to your advantage and engage people on social networks in order to realize the real-world potential of a virtual friendship. You can also use hashtags (e.g. #smcsac or #sacbeerweek) to find events going on around town. Laura also recommended MeetUp and Couchsurfing for connecting with like-minded people in town

If you just spent Valentines Day hopping from venue to venue and you still couldn't find your sweetheart, maybe an online dating site should be your next stop. MetroSpark.net is a locally based internet dating site that provides personally tailored classes to help your outward presentation match your inner self. Amar Dhariwal, founder and current CEO of the site, also discussed an array of other online dating sites and even the new generation of mobile dating apps that include geolocators for singles out on the town.

The night concluded with a raffle; the prizes included tickets to B Street Theater, Esquire IMAX, the Sacramento Zoo, California Lecture Series, de Vere's St. Patrick's Day in the Park, and the Sacramento Kings vs Clippers game. Food and beverages provided by Chick-Fil-A Arden Fair and The Sacramento Press made the after party all the better. You may watch the video of the presentation on the Sacramento Social Media Club's uSteam channel. “Like” their Facebook page to stay tuned in for information on future events. The club is also active on Twitter.

Focus on Social Media and Your Business Could Miss the Mark

2009-12-14T22:24:18Z

If you have been reading about communication and marketing tools over the past couple of years you are aware of the proliferation of new devices and platforms for marketing to and establishing community with existing and prospective customers. Studies continue to show that growing numbers of people are adopting the use of social networking and micro-blogging platforms for personal use and to “follow” or “fan” their favorite businesses. Social media will continue to grow and offer businesses perhaps the greatest value in time and investment to reach customers and successfully track the results of their efforts. Read this: your business needs a presence in social media.

As growing numbers of consumers and the businesses looking for their attention continue to migrate to online interactions there are some important thing for small businesses to keep in mind.

A significant portion of the population is not participating in social media

Our tendency as small business owners is to play to the crowd, appeal to the masses. Utilizing online tools whether they be social networking, a website, or an e-newsletter provides you with the ability to observe and track the response to your efforts. However, consider these statistics:

The following are those adults that participate in social media with a status update service:

37% of 18 to 24 year olds

31% of 25 to 34 year olds

20% of 35 to 44 year olds

Pew Research on Internet and the American Life August 18 – September 14 2009

While these are certainly some impressive numbers, it is not quite yet a majority of adults. As more businesses vie for the attention of these adults the online marketplace will grow more and more saturated and will require a more astute business owner. Consider the results of 50 percent of small businesses marketing to 40 percent of the adult online consumers (statistics regarding SMBs online from Internet2go and Merchant Circle study HERE).

Here are some tips for business utilizing social media:

Seek interactions that will drive foot traffic

This is likely an obvious tip, but necessary nonetheless. Networking and marketing online can lead to a great deal of interactive business. It is important to consider how through the use of interesting promotions or partnership you can bring people to your site. This could easily be accomplished through the hosting of a community event. Businesses are encouraged to make their space hospitable to community groups for gatherings. Recently I attended a panel discussion hosted by the SacPress at the Urban Hive. The Urban Hive has been a regular host for such events which helps make it a continually convenient location for freelance, creative, and solopreneur types looking for a collegial work environment. I would also point out the wisdom of the Sacramento Press utilizing other communal spaces for their events.

Another local business, Bella Fiore florist in Fair Oaks, recently had an in store contest that resulted in an online drawing. Guests who attended their recent artist showing during 2nd Saturday looked to an online announcement for the winner. A reverse of this would also be advised- have online submissions for an in-person drawing (must be present to win). Businesses would be advised to engage in these types of promotions that endeavor to create real world interactions.

Meet the people that you network with online – offline.

Social networking presents a variety of opportunities to interact with other business owner / managers. These relationships can be valuable as you consider opportunities for partnerships and cross promotion. Look for community events, trade associations, or affinity groups where you have the opportunity to meet these potential partners in person. Later this week I will be looking forward to an event co-hosted by the Sacramento Social Media Club and SacTweetUp. The annual holiday party, the HoliTweetup hosted at the Park Ultra Lounge (props to another small business opening its doors to community groups) will be an opportunity for professionals whose primary connections exist online to network in a personal environment.

Find unique ways to establish community with offline customers.

Remember all of those customers that are not engaged online. Customers who are not engaged online can often feel alienated if they are left out. Activities and promotions aimed at interacting with customers in a more traditional fashion can help your business build loyalty amongst these customers. This can be an important part of engaging customers in the way of their choosing. If you have customers that take business updates online, that is where you should make them available. Similarly, be sure you continue to cater to customers who may be more comfortable with collateral materials and the occasional mailer.

Have any other ideas about how businesses can target non-internet customers? Who do you see doing a great job at mixing their online with real world interactions? Name some names.

Making Video Social featuring Justin.TV

2009-06-12T19:58:07Z

SACRAMENTO, CA–June 11, 2009–Online video–and its increasing value as a powerful social media tool–will be discussed at the next Sacramento Social Media Club event, Making Video Social, scheduled Tuesday, June 16, 2009 from 6:30 – 8:30 at Peppers.TV in Mather, CA.

What do the following three things have in common: Tiger Woods, Domino's Pizza and Airplane Passenger Safety Briefings? They've all used video to communicate in the world of social media.

The free event, sponsored by Peppers.TV and Photographer Link, will include discussions led by Evan Solomon of Justin.tv and Mike Henderson from Twelve Horses. Discussions will cover:

* Effective strategies for incorporating live video into the marketing mix
* Gaps in the real time web that video fills and other mediums miss
* Examples of compelling live video usage in social media
* 10 easy tips to shooting better video
* Successful client case studies

There is no cost to participate, but we request that attendees register for the event online at: http://smcsac0616.eventbrite.com/. Space is limited, so those interested in participating are encouraged to RSVP today.

For those not able to join the discussion in person, the event will be streamed live online at http://www.ustream.tv/smc-sac. Online viewers will be able to pose questions to the panelists just like the on-site participants.

Speaker Information:

Evan Solomon, Justin.tv

Evan is the Vice President of Marketing at Justin.tv , the largest live video on the Web with over 500,000 broadcasters and 40 million monthly users. His responsibilities include user acquisition, business development, product direction and communications. Before joining Justin.tv Evan was a Senior Associate at SutherlandGold, a boutique PR firm focused on consumer technology startups. At SutherlandGold he worked with Xobni, Scribd and other venture-funded startups.

Evan has a Finance degree from the Stern Undergraduate School of Business at New York University.

Mike Henderson, Twelve Horses

Mike Henderson, an Account Executive at Twelve Horses, a full service interactive agency, will share his hands-on experience successfully integrating podcasts and video into social media and brand development campaigns. Mike will share proven case studies and his use of video for several clients including Alpine Meadows.

Social Media Club brings together journalists, publishers, communications professionals, artists, amateur media creators, citizen journalists, teachers, students, tool makers, and other interested collaborators. The Sacramento chapter was founded in 2009 by local users of social media. You can follow the Sacramento Social Media club on Twitter , Facebook , and Linkedin.