SMC Seattle has a new home!

Social Media Club Seattle has moved to a new web site: http://smcseattle.com/

Please update your RSS feed and/or bookmark. Thank you!

SMC/OMS Meetup on 4/15 has MOVED locations!

We got a nice invitation from the folks at SEOmoz to join forces on the 15th, so we have moved our meetup to Elysian Brewing Company’s Capitol Hill location.

This location is directly below the SEOmoz offices, and they will be giving tours of the facilities to those that are interested. And to make the move a little more tasty, SEOmoz will be offering drink tokens to the first 120 people that attend the event. The tokens will be good for a pint of any beer Elysian sells.

So please join us and share social media best practices with other social media enthusiasts. Plus use this unique opportunity to talk with Aaron Kahlow from OMS, Rand Fishkin and other SEOmoz team members.

What: SMC Seattle and OMS April Networking Event
Who: Anyone interested in online marketing and social media
When: April 15 at 5:00-7:00 p.m.

The new location is:
Elysian Brewery Capitol Hill
1221 E Pike St. Seattle
PH (206)860-1920
http://www.elysianbrewing.com/Elysian.html
Please RSVP here: http://twtvite.com/6qaboh

About OMS: OMS, the premier educational event for marketing professionals, is coming to our neighborhood with its 11 City Whistle Stop Tour. Join your marketing peers as they share ideas, hear from expert practitioners, and learn best practices in the areas of: Social Media, Search, Email, Analytics, Behavioral Targeting, and Website Strategy. Learn more and connect with OMS on Twitter @OMSummit on Facebook under “The Official Online Marketing Summit” and on the web at http://www.OnlineMarketingSummit.com.

About SEOmoz: SEOmoz provides companies around the world with consulting, Internet marketing and search engine optimization services. Although our home offices in Seattle, WA serve as our base of operations, we’re frequently found globetrotting across the US, Canada & Europe. Our goal is to provide a high level of service and education to businesses, individuals, non-profits and government organizations so they can best leverage the unique reach of the Internet to increase visibility and achieve success.

Connect with SMC Seattle!
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=41266930517
Twitter: http://twitter.com/smcseattle
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1847359
Email: SMCinSeattle at gmail dot com

3 Sold Out SMCSeattle events in a row…Curious about how to sponsor one?

We’ve had amazing attendance at each Social Media Club event here in Seattle, from the first one in January to the latest in March. We’ve had the generous support of great sponsors like Spring Creek Group and Visible Technologies, Microsoft, and most recently H+R Block. So maybe you’re thinking: how can we get in on the action and sponsor one of these things?

Here’s what:

SMC Seattle holds monthly gatherings with 100-250 attendees. These events range from informal events, panel discussions and a speakers’ series discussing social media, and how businesses and people can best use the technology. Our sponsor plays an important role in the development of the events, and each event can be tailored to meet their needs.

Sponsorship Benefits:

• Sponsor logo visibility on all promotional materials for the event, including blog, Facebook, Eventbrite tickets, email invitations, advertising and marketing material.
• Access to attendee list before and after the event
• Visual presence of sponsors throughout the event venue (signage, marketing material, etc.)
• Sponsors can setup and man an information/sales booth if desired
• Product Demos at event are strongly encouraged
• An allotment of tickets to the event for sponsor’s employees
• Opportunity to speak during the event
• Favorable PR through tweets from SMC Seattle’s Twitter account (1000+ followers), email blasts, messages to members of our Facebook group (500+), plus other traditional advertising we do for the event
• Access to the online influencers of Seattle and the Northwest, both during the event and through the SMC Seattle network leading up to the event. This is your opportunity to reach the online influencers and have them talk, blog, and tweet about your company or product.

Sponsorship Cost:

2 sponsorship opportunities
• Venue fee + catering
• Drinks
The estimate cost is $1,500 each.

And a little bit more….

The goal of SMC Seattle is to build a community where diverse groups of people who are interested in social media can come together to discover, connect, share, and learn. The event attendees consist of journalists, publishers, bloggers, consultants, communications professionals, artists, amateur media creators, citizen journalists, teachers, students and other new media collaborators. Your sponsorship will reach a wide variety of influencers and contributors–just the kind of people you want to connect with.

We want to hear from you! If you want more information, here are the channels:

Blog: https://seattlesmc.wordpress.com/
Facebook Group: Seattle Social Media Club
Twitter: http://twitter.com/SMCSeattle
We use EventBrite for event tickets.

SMC Seattle – March Meeting Wrap Up

The third Social Media Club (SMC) meeting of 2009 was a success. The event was hosted at Sole Repair on Capitol Hill in Seattle and featured H&R Block as a sponsor.

Kevin Urie, SMC Seattle Founder, kicked it off and David Escobar of H&R Block kept it flowing.

At first when I heard H&R Block was going to speak I could not quite figure out what they could say. Well, I was pleasantly surprised and can report that H&R Block has a set of services that relates very well to many of the Social Media Club members. The services offered include help understanding the implications related to taxes for the self-employed and those thinking of becoming a free agent. They also offer help to maximize benefits and write offs available for those that have been laid off and how to itemize deductions related to job searches. Finally they discussed what the 2009 Stimulus means to us. All of this in less than 10 minutes. David spent time taking questions and talking 1:1 too. Great speaker, great sponsor, great information.

Thanks H&R Block and David Escobar.

	In fact, Social Media Club and H&R Block have teamed up to create the Social Media Tax Center and will host 10 meetings across the US. If you want more information for a meeting in your region check here. Each city will host a 15 minute Q&A session with additional time afterwards for one on one discussions based off the following short presentation H&R Block: Tax Tips for Consultants

The SMC Seattle events are always a lot of fun and a great chance to meet new people, catch up with friends, and even celebrate a birthday. Tamara Weikel was serenaded by the SMC Seattle crowd as they sang Happy Birthday to her.

Behind the Scenes

• Pictures – Tamara Weikel and Kevin Pedraja were snapping lots of pictures. Pics will be posted to the SMC Seattle Flickr site.
• Another SOLD OUT event – Thanks to Rachel Bergstedt and Joann Jen
• Live from Sole Repair – Brian Westbrook was live streaming throughout the evening

A few things I heard and saw tonight

There are a few people I always look forward to seeing. Shauna Causey of Comcast is one – she is always willing to jump in and help and she knows everyone. Another is Kenji Onozawa he always brings great ideas to conversation. I always enjoy catching up with TJ Sopher and Veronica Sopher too. Together they have a great perspective on the Social Media scene. I also got a chance to catch up with fellow surfer (real Ocean Waves & Interwebs) Charl Pearce and met a long time Microsoftie and fellow California native checking out the SMC scene – Markee Foster.

	“Social Media flattens the hierarchy  – tonight I met executives, interns, and students. I love it that everyone can bring something to the conversation.” Joann Jen (@joannjen)
	“I attend a similar event called the Art Klatch – also on Capitol Hill – and wanted to see how other groups interact and learn from each other.”  Paul Natkin – visual artist

It’s also great to see Warren Sukernek and Blake Cahill. Both work for Social Media Measurement firms – Radian6 and Visible Technologies, respectively – yet they are talking and chatting it up. They realize that the best way to work in Social Media is the BE SOCIAL & SOCIABLE. As I have often said – You never know when you might be working together … again.
 
Long Riders – People will come a long way for the SMC

• Leavenworth – I had the pleasure of meeting Geordie Romer at the last two SMC meetings. He may be the person that travelled the greatest distance to attend. He comes all the way from Leavenworth. In case you don’t know where Leavenworth is — it’s a few hours away and requires the navigation of at least one mountain pass (it snowed this week) and is fashioned after a Bavarian Village. It’s a beautiful weekend getaway. Geordie can help you find a place too.
• Mt. Vernon – John Moody comes from the gateway to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival where he is a Ruby on Rails developer. He came to the event to connect with people that are in the Social Media community — He came to the right place.

Thanks for all the hard work from the SMC Seattle board members for putting the pieces in place to make this event a success. A huge THANK YOU to the SMC members and the guests that attended the SMC Seattle March meeting.  We hope to see you in April.

What if you missed it?

If you could not make it tonight don’t worry. The next event will be in April. Details will be posted shortly. We hope to see you there.

If you CAN’T WAIT? — There is no need to wait until April – Check out what the SMC Seattle is up to on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

This is a guest post by Jeff Shuey – A SMC board member.

My First SMC Seattle Event

By Christian Nossum

I just got home from my first SMC Seattle event tonight. I went with an open mind and no idea of what to expect. All I knew was that H&R Block was the sponsor and that they were going to talk for a few minutes about taxes (and they actually shared a few useful tips!). The event at Sole Repair was packed: 100+ tickets were sold, and the drinks were flowing. The place was rocking, and everyone was networking and sharing. I had initially worried about attending another “networking” event where everyone’s trying to sell you something. Thankfully, SMC Seattle wasn’t like that. It’s just full of people that are genuinely interested in sharing and learning more about social media. I like that. I’m really looking forward to learning and sharing more at the next event. I can’t wait to implement some of the ideas I heard tonight. Oh, and look out for the Puget Sound Blood Center (@BloodCenter). They should have some interesting upcoming tweets and perhaps even a mobile tweetup/blood drive soon. Who wouldn’t want to see a vampire asking for your blood (it’s for a good cause!)?

Christian Nossum is a member of the SMC Seattle team.
Find Christian on Twitter @awesomenossum and his web site Deals in Seattle.

What’s H&R Block doing with Social Media? Cool stuff, it turns out….

Advertising Age just posted an article and a peek into what H&R Block is doing with social media this tax season–Inside H&R Block’s Social Media Marketing Blitz. Now H&R Block is sharing what they tried, what they kicked to the curb and what they learned in their efforts to use social media in a way that works.

Happily for all you social media geeks in Seattle, you can hear all about this adventure at our next Social Media Club meeting Tuesday, March 24th at the Sole Repair Shop on Capital Hill right here in Seattle.

More information, access, sign up, and the rest: get your info here.

See you Tuesday, March 24th, 6:30 pm at Sole Repair!

Join Seattle Social Media Club and H+R Block on 3/24–how perfect is that?

H+R Block and Social Media Club? Yeah, H+R has something going on with their perspective on social media, and you’ll want to learn about it on March 24th at Capitol Hill’s Sole Repair Shop at 6:30pm.

Join us and  meet other social media enthusiasts, bloggers, entrepreneurs and communicators at Social Media Club Seattle’s (SMC Seattle) March event. This month is all about networking, sharing best practices, and learning from each other. The last two events have been a huge success and based on demand, we know this event will fill up fast. This month’s sponsor, H & R Block will give a brief presentation on tax considerations for social media practitioners.

Get your tickets to this event here–don’t wait, last time we sold out pretty quickly.

What: SMC Seattle March Networking Event
Who: Anyone interested in social media
When: March 24 at 6:30 p.m. Hosted bar for the first hour.
Where: Sole Repair, a private event facility at 1001 East Pike in Seattle. (206) 979-SHOP.

About SMC Seattle: Founded in late 2008 by Kevin Urie, Social Media Club Seattle is a chapter of the national Social Media Club. SMC Seattle officially had its kick-off event in January 2009 and has since grown to serve 1,350 people on Twitter, over 500 on Facebook and numerous others on LinkedIn. The group’s organizers consist of bloggers, entrepreneurs, and business professionals from Spring Creek, Visible Technologies, 123SocialMedia, Ascentium and Comcast among others.
To learn more, connect with us at:
Twitter: @SMCSeattle
Facebook: SMC Seattle
LinkedIn: Social Media Club Seattle page
Blog: https://seattlesmc.wordpress.com/
Email: SMCinSeattle@gmail.com

SMC Seattle: 2/24, Chris Heuer and did we say Prizes? Yes we did!

As if having Chris Heuer hold forth on How to Make a Business Case for Social Media isn’t enough to get you to the Microsoft campus for our next Social Media Club Seattle get together, oh yeah, we’ve got prizes too!

Joel Postman has generously offered a copy of his recently released and well received book Social Corp: Social Media Goes Corporate. This is a “must read for any corporate communications professional,” (Brian Solis) as well as anyone else trying to figure the  ins-and-outs of leveraging social media for your company…and you could be the lucky duck who wins it!

See you there!

Social Media Club Seattle: 2/24 Event Streaming info

The ever lovely Danielle Morrill will be streaming tomorrow night’s sold-out SMC Seattle event hosted by Microsoft (mil grazie, MSFT!). You can catch the Live Stream of the event HERE. Also, the twitter tag is #SMCSea. Map and info on event HERE. And of course, don’t forget the post-event fun-n-games at the Redmond Matador, more info HERE.

Social Media Club Seattle 2/24 Event: the post-game plan

You were just thinking: hey wait a minute, 6:30-8:45 to mix it up with the SMCSeattle gang in Redmond? Waa, that’s not enough time.

Well, that’s exactly what we were thinking, too. So we’ve planned a post-event gathering at the nearby Redmond Matador (map below). Meet us there after the event for more liquid sustenance and networking!

Tues, 2/24 lines up like this:

When, Part 1: 6:30-8:45pm, Tuesday Feb 24th, 2009,

Where: Microsoft Redmond campus (Muchisimas gracias a Microsoft for hosting this SMCSeattle event!) (3900 148th Ave NE Redmond, WA 98052)

Who: doh…You! Also, Danielle Morrill of Seattle 2.0 will be live streaming the Chris Heuer and post-game event, so watch for that as well.

Tickets: $10, get ‘em here. Oops! All sold out!

When, Part 2: Redmond Matador for after-event fun and games. Be there.