The Ocean Agency

With the explosion of Twitter and social media, came tweet ups and meet ups as people want  to solidify their online connections in real life.

If you’re reading this blog, there’s a good chance you have been to a meet-up or tweet up. Let me tell you something, I love meeting new people and I love social events, but generally, tweet up are pretty bland. You go and you talk about how awesome Twitter is, and sit on your phone tweeting the whole time, and never make any real connections.

The Social Media Club Chicago holiday party/event last night, showed me just how valuable and fun a social media event can be. Here’s what they did right:

1) Got big name speakers:

Erik Qualman . His videos and books do a great job of answering the question, what’s the ROI of social media? He gave an interesting speech. He really drove the point home that social media is not just a PR or Marketing tool — it touches ever facet of your business. I’ve seen both his videos, but it was awesome watching it with the man who created them.

Shel Israel pretty much wrote the book on Twitter. It was great to see him in person. One of my favorite things about Shel is that he feels no pressure to conform or find value in social media tools just because they are popular or catch on with the masses. Google Wave, Facebook Connect? He doesn’t like them because they don’t offer any real value to him personally. You really feel like you are getting his true voice and opinions. While he may be promoting his books, you also get a real sense of his personality (pretty sure there’s a social media marketing lesson in there somewhere).

2) Found sponsors that are passionate about social media.

Just as it wouldn’t make sense for Disney to sponsor the AVN convention, it wouldn’t make sense for a company without a social media presence to sponsor a social media holiday party.

A great example, including Ramon DeLeon and Domino’s as a sponsor.

3) Maintain a strong community, while still welcoming new members

This was my first #SMCChicago event and I was welcomed with open arms. Breaking into an established community is one of the hardest things to do, and it’s wonderful that I was allowed to. At the same time, they did a great job of rewarding their existing community members with raffles, prizes, and even quips in between presentations. This is a group that is passionate about social media, but also passionate about their existing community and friendship.

4) Focusing on fun in addition to networking.

While networking is obviously a draw, this event was first and foremost about celebrating with people who share similiar passions, and recognize the changing nature of the way we communicate. While, it’s exciting and challenging to explain social media to clients, sometimes you just want to hang out with people who get it.

5) Low price point

The low price point of the event allowed just about everyone and anyone to attend. From freelancers who use social media to promote their business to big time marketing agency owners who use social media for some of the largest companies, all were able to learn from each other.

The low price point made the event feel like a gathering of friends, rather than a pedantic high powered networking event that aimed to have marketers teach other marketers how to “powerfully leverage social media for online word of mouth”.While those high powered events are important,

I’ll take a social media event that focuses on friendship and community rather than how to generate social media ROI any day. Besides, as us social media users know, relationship building, networking and friendship are integral to achieving that ROI anyway.

Personal highlights:

Loved the ugly sweater contest, still a little bitter I came in second. I really enjoyed talking with Ramon De Leon, who made the fantastic point that “We need social media war stories not success stories”. I agree. We know its here to stay, most of us aren’t working with Dell or Comcast. Give us some war stories.

Meeting Barbara Maldonado was so much fun. Her energy and enthusiasm for social media really translates from the web into real life.

Tim Jahn is always one of my favorite people to see at events. He always has a smile on his face, and always makes me feel at ease at any social media meetup.

Of course, the moment when David Armano , a consistent SM thought leader who inspires me to work harder everyday, ran across the stage to use the restroom. Classic.

I would love to hear all of your thoughts on the social media club Chicago party, what did you enjoy? What could be improved?

Thanks to Interactive Amy, Barbara Maldonado, JWilly, and all the others who made the evening such a success.