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 presen

Through their use of Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and other social media tools, many local charities have spread their message, raised funds and increased public awareness of their cause in order to promote social change. In the hopes of spreading their stories and inspiring other philanthropic organizations to do the same, four local charities will be conducting a panel discussion at the Sacramento Social Media Club’s “Social Media Best Practices for Charities” on Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. at the Urban Hive. Moderated by Clay Nutting, director of Concepts 4 Charity and account executive for 3Fold Communications, the event will include panelists: Kate Towson, Americorps VISTA with Sacrament

Q. My 32 year old brother died recently in a motorcycle accident.  He doesn't have much in the way of assets but he does have a Facebook account with lots of photos and a Twitter account that reflects all of his musings.  Is there a way for me to get access? A.  The companies that have created the most popular places and tools for online expression have specific policies usually buried in "Terms of Service Agreements" and often involve some effort, like providing a death certificate. Facebook offers to "memorialize" the profile when an individual dies. It deactivates certain features and resets various privacy controls, converting the account to a place where friends can leave remembrance

Let’s face it; those of us that use social networking sites are pretty much addicted. Whether you are connected through Facebook or Twitter—or both—you have a pretty good idea of what’s going on around town. Businesses that have been paying attention for the past two plus years are aware of this phenomenon and have leveraged social media to broaden their reach to potential customers. Restaurateurs are no different. On Tuesday, the Social Media Club, Sacramento (@SMCSac) hosted the “Dining Social: Restaurants & Social Media” at The Urban Hive in midtown to discuss how local restaurants are using social media and the impact it has had on their business. Ashlee Gadd (@AshleeGadd), PR Manager

A speaker lineup to include Twitter co-founder Biz Stone kicks off the new format for Perspectives 2011, offering more businesspeople the opportunity to attend the region’s premier annual speakers forum. “As with so many things these days, it’s not business as usual,” said Sacramento Metro Chamber Vice Chair of Events and Sponsorships Kathy McKim of AT&T. “We wiped the slate clean and started over—re-designing a program from the ground up that will meet the needs of more businesspeople and provide a greater networking and educational experience. We are especially thrilled to have Biz Stone in our lineup this year for this reason.” Over the last decade, Stone has been instrumental in craf

What or whom are you influenced by when you are looking for a new product? It might be commercials, television shows, or maybe if you are like millions of other people around the world, you are influenced by bloggers. Gone are the days when you only read ads in the Sunday newspaper, or watch commercials on the television. Today many of us are being swayed commercially by social media, the internet, and other digital mediums. In fact, according to Marketing Charts.com, nearly 50% of blog readers say they purchase products mentioned in the blogs they read on a daily basis. That is quite powerful when you put it in perspective. So what about here locally? What kind of power and influence do

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 th

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

Hundreds of Sacramento locals gathered at the corner of J and 20th streets in Midtown Sacramento late Saturday afternoon as world-renowned performance painter David Garibaldi showed appreciation for Kings fans by featuring them in his “Be Heard” mural. Garibaldi requested photos of fans via Facebook and Twitter last week, and he chose 10 of the photos to display on his massive mural. “I’ve never done anything quite like this,” said the Sacramento artist. “I was honored to give something back to the Kings fans, who are the ones responsible for the team staying in Sacramento.” DJ Joseph One’s music echoed off the buildings and through the streets as crowds of people watched in awe and gos

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

It’s been nearly two and half years since we launched The Sacramento Press, and today we released a few changes (more than just the temporary purple color), one of which is removing the beta stamp from our navigation. What is a beta stamp, you ask? Well, since you can no longer see it on our site, I grabbed this screenshot of what it used to look like. Beta generally indicates that a company is still working out the kinks in their core product. But we finally are happy to say we feel pretty happy with what we have, so no more beta! Does this mean we stop working on new features? Absolutely not. We will in fact bring new and increasingly cool features to The Sacramento Press over the co

The Sacramento Kings Dance Team won NBA Best of the West due to social media. Check out my interview with Jennifer & Katie!   Check out my video -  

In between cheering, yelling and annoying the apathetic, so-called fan in Row F, Section 107, Seat 17 during the Kings game on Tuesday evening, I was caught up on my tweets when I saw that KHTK 1140 personality Carmichael Dave posed a question via Twitter (@CarmichaelDave) asking folks how much they would pitch in, not necessarily to save the Kings, but to show the Kings and the city how much the community really does want this NBA franchise to stay in town by building a new sports and entertainment complex. Shortly after scolding the lady next to me for reading a book during free throws, she abruptly nudged me and wondered aloud why was it okay then, for me, to be reading my Twitter feed

Do you love talking about food? Do you flip to the food section of the newspaper before even reading the front page? Is a trip to the grocery store an excursion? For all you foodies, bloggers and lovers of Sacramento’s restaurants and food: The Sacramento Bee and The Sacramento Press have teamed up to bring you “Table Talk Sacramento: The region’s food community comes together for an evening of lively discussion.” There will be two panels addressing different topics, including “What Sacramentans Eat” and the quality of local food writing. Chris Macias will moderate the food writing panel. Macias has served as the Bee’s food and wine writer since 2008. The panelists include: Niesha Lofin

Since it was first reported on radio station KFBK in January, the city has been waiting on pins and needles for an announcement from the National Basketball Association or the Maloof Family surrounding the fate of the much beloved Sacramento Kings. Two months have passed since KFBK's Rob McAllister reported the Maloofs were debating whether or not to move the Kings to Anaheim -- news that upset Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson and put plans on building a new arena within the city in limbo. The game of "Will they, won't they?" has been unbearable between city officials, sports fans and the talking heads of Sacramento television and radio, but it seemed as if an answer had finally arrived Th

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

As part of its 2010 Holiday campaign focused on fighting hunger, Walmart launched a Facebook campaign that invites fans to select the communities that will receive $1.5 million in grants. By visiting the campaign website and "liking" a community via their Facebook account, people influence which communities will receive the funds. The community with the most "likes" will receive $1 million to fight hunger; the next 5 highest scoring communities will receive $100,000 each. Why is this news? Because Sacramento is in now in 6th place which earns a $100,000 grant! With less than 48 hours remaining in the race, Sacramento's social media influencers are campaigning to keep Sacramento in 6th pla

Before he was a political activist and lecturer, Krist Novoselic was a founding member and bassist of Seattle-based Nirvana, one of the most influential bands in history. After Nirvana ended when lead singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain committed suicide in 1994, Novoselic became proactive in politics, using his celebrity to draw attention to his causes, which include promoting election reform and increasing voter turnout. Thursday night he spoke to a group of roughly 150 in the University Union ballroom at Sacramento State. Free and open to the public, the chiefly student audience was a mix of the politically minded and curiosity-seeking. “The last I heard about Krist Novoselic was that h

 It was testimony to the tenuous state of the Sacramento job market that a full house attended the Sacramento Social Media Club’s May event, “Putting Social Media to Work: leveraging social networking tools to find and fill jobs.”  The panel discussion, held at the Urban Hive last week, featured four local professionals speaking of their experiences and expertise using social media to implement and accelerate job searches. The overall message of the four speakers was that social media--Twitter, Facebook and the like--have the potential to vastly broaden the parameters of a job and/or employee search. Speaking from one side of the hiring table was Curt Cetraro, CEO of ConnectPoint Search

As a social activist in support of humane rights I first heard about Sacramento Press online via Twitter. Twitter itself has become more and more of a relevant form of social media and is now utilized by many. Social media online will play more and more of a major source of news, information and knowledge as time goes by and has greatly influenced the global culture. I believe it is important for there to be a real alternative to the relatively liberal Sacramento Bee and remember the old racist Sacramento Union, Now local news in Sacramento is dominated by the Sacramento Bee, though the Sacramento News & Review helps to coverage local news and other issues. So I hope that Sacramento Press