Social Media Club Benefits Victoria’s Online Community
Here’s a comment I posted to my friend Raul Pacheco-Vega’s blog, Hummingbird604. He was asking for some more opportunities for the Vancouver online community to discuss at a deeper level the many issues our evolving use of social media raises. I’ll comment a bit more, but here’s what I posted following his article.
Has the Vancouver social media community considered starting a chapter of the Social Media Club? I know it’s “yet another thing” for many people, but its whole mission is to have these conversations, both in person and online. It has benefited the Victoria community enormously for these reasons:
1) The larger organization is a wonderful space to share local discussions and “lessons learned”, and the arrangement is reciprocal, with wider discussions seeding the local level too.
2) It encompasses the full spectrum of social media – not just blogging, not just the “flavour of the month” – and many of our discussions are applicable across platforms.
3) It is becoming a recognized brand in itself. As a communications professional engaged in social media, I’d like to visit chapters in other towns. Are there great people visiting Vancouver who are missing connections because they don’t know where to look?
Since Paul Holmes and I founded the Victoria chapter (the first in Canada!) six months ago, I have been continually amazed by the quality of discussion and the building of community that takes place when we meet. We’ve gone from 15 people to nearly 40 at the last event, and the momentum keeps building. We’re preparing for a very big event Sept 22nd, when we welcome n2y4 award winner Joe Solomon to talk about “Movement Building in a Connected Age”. That deserves its own post, so expect to see more here about that talk this week.
At the same time, meetups, tweetups, an Open Coffee group and DemoCamp all add to our knowledge base and our contact files. (For people who spend a lot of time behind screens, we sure like to meet!) At each event I’ve been to, I’ve come home feeling like I’ve shared a lot and learned far more.
Posted in Big Thinkers, Social Media How-Tos
September 2nd, 2009 at 12:34 am
I don’t know how I did it, but within one day of landing on Twitter, I found not only Catherine Novak, but Social Media Club.
To say that my life has taken an amazing new direction would be a slight understatement.
I appreciate the conversations at Social Media Club, in particular those involving the use of social media for social change, and best practices. Like Catherine, I agree that meeting face to face amplifies the discussion and reinforces the notion of the community we are in the process of building.
September 8th, 2009 at 11:10 am
This is great to hear that the club/meet-ups are having great success. I have yet to be to one, or have really heard of them before this post. I am curious to what you bring away from these meet ups? maybe that’s a bit to general what is the one thing you have learned about SM that has helped you the most?
I am also curious to what the general demographics of the meet ups are? 20-35 years of age? 40-60 years of age? Independent contractors? Freelancers?
Again though great to hear that SM is taking off in Victoria.
September 9th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Wow, lots to consider in your comment! Glad I was able to point out some of the places offline where the online community meets. I don’t have time to go to everything, so I can’t speak about the demographics of each group, but Social Media Club in Victoria, which is pretty heavy on the Twitter-philes, has had a range of around 19 – 65 and certainly the average age would be 30-something. The Meetup202 group of affiliate marketers was late 20s-early 30s. Open Coffee was a broad range – 20s to 50s. People come from all walks of life – though in Twitter there are probably more small business people than government workers. Maybe that’s because the government workers really aren’t supposed to use Twitter during the day! And small business owners have found it to be an effective way to converse with their audience.
What do I take away? The best, most thought-provoking conversations I’ve had in years, tons of new friends and acquaintances, practical tips for managing time and measuring effectiveness of social media tools, techie hints, a full social calendar… and on and on. What’s the “one thing” I’ve learned? People want to be listened to, and want to connect. We don’t have a lot of time and opportunity for that but deep down, we are the same kind of people as those who gathered around the campfire in the pre-industrial era. Tell me a story that makes me trust you, and learn about me.
Hope to see you on Sept 22nd at the next Social Media Club, Dave. And there’s Twestival this Friday, too. Local musicians – give it your review in your blog!
September 27th, 2009 at 7:50 am
Business Networking and Social Networking have a great deal in common. The web technologies used to support collaborative computing, applications that facilitate/enable work from home and workflow applications in general, are the same as those used to implement Social Networking capabilities.
Both will continue to grow.
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Hi Catherine,
With regard to Social Media Club Vancouver
Actually, Social Media Club Vancouver has existed since 2006.
Yes it is true that the group is currently not holding events.
A group of leaders including your friend and mine Raul Pacheco-Vega, myself and others are reworking the Vancouver group. We will be re launching in early 2010 with many of Vancouver’s Social Media Leaders and anyone else that is interested in Social Media Club.
Best Regards,
Mitch
November 22nd, 2009 at 8:26 pm
That’s great news, Mitch! There are a number of ways that people can meet up and discuss social media, but Social Media Club ranks very highly with me because they have set high standards for the organization – and still kept it a largely grassroots movement. I’ll be sure to come and give SMC Vancouver a visit in the new year.
December 2nd, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Thanks Catherine, I agree with your statement about Social media Club ranking high. We would love to have you come for a visit. I’ll keep you posted with events as they are planned. We have some top people on board and our first sponsor and plan to hold first event in January. I will also be coming for a visit to a SMC Victoria meeting sometime in the new year.