The Patriots and Giants will be lining up on the 50 yard line, but the Super Bowl’s MVP – social media, got into the game weeks ago. Here’s a look at what’s going on in the streets and on screens. How has social media affected your Super Bowl experience so far?

Live from Super Bowl Village

With the Super Bowl buzz building to a loud crescendo, I had to see for myself what in the world was going on in Indianapolis. So, I did – on Groundhog’s Day.

In a trip that lasted 10.5 hours, include 7 hours of driving, I experienced first hand the excitement, energy and enthusiasm in the air. Strolling around on a blazingly sunny and unreasonably warm 60 degree day, I encountered a street party that went on for blocks and blocks.

What I most wanted to see, I didn’t get to: a 2,800-square-foot “Super Bowl Social Media Command Center” staffed by folks ready to answer questions coming in via social networks.

I did, however, score a live interview from Radio Row in Super Bowl Village with producer Ted Gregorek.

Super Fast Super Bowl Village Wi-Fi

Ever been to a tech event where you can’t get a signal? Me too. Knowing that thousands of people would want to connect simultaneously, I planned on having a weak signal on the street – not so in Indy. Thanks Verizon!

“Superbowl XVLI in Indianapolis will be the first-ever with widespread 4G and WiFi access. Verizon Wireless spent $160 million on cellular technology in Indiana in 2011. Most of the money was spent building new cell towers but some was targeted specifically at upcoming Superbowl XLVI.”

Super Bowl Ads, as seen on TV and . . .

“Running a Super Bowl ad will cost $3.5 million for a 30-second spot, not including production expenses. 80% of Super Bowl ads will feature social and/or mobile app integration.”

“The Washington Post said this year’s game will be the first ‘second screen’ Super Bowl, since advertisers, the football industry and others will all be trying to get your attention via other venues when you’re not focusing on your television.”

Social46 Bands Together to Back Up Super Bowl Host Committee

Thanks to Chris Theisen, for reaching out on behalf of Social 46. According to Jay Baer, also a Social 46 member, this is “a group of social media representatives selected to help make Super Bowl 46 in Indianapolis the ‘most connected’ Super Bowl ever.” Jay’s post is required reading for any event organizers considering recruiting social media ambassadors.

Here’s Chris Theisen‘s video tour . . .

Super Bowl Coverage Brought to You by Google, YouTube and the NFL

Check out Google’s Super Bowl Game Day dashboard.

Browse YouTube’s Super Bowl Ad Blitz channel.

Watch the NFL’s Super Bowl coverage via live stream on your mobile device.

How about you – how many screens will you be watching during the game?

Image: copyright 2012 by Barbara Rozgonyi from the Super Bowl XLVI collection, which includes a fun Super Bowl Village zip line video.

Michael Jackson: “You got to be startin’ something.” In 1996, I started a group called IWOW, Independent Writers of the West. In 2008, a small group of folks, including me, started Social Media Club Chicago’s Chapter. Now, it’s time to start something completely different . . . and that’s DIF. Why DIF? Why now?

DIF stands for Digital Innovation Forum. Like others who write about and proselytize about the future of social media, I believe that the future is beyond, or ahead of?, social silos.

The future is driven by collaborative digital innovation.

While there’s so much conversation around what social media tools to use and how to measure [almost] everything, at the heart of the hunt is a search for what’s really working – and why – right now.

That’s where DIF comes in. Right now, this whole concept is a bit fuzzy. The focus comes in when people get together and talk about what’s really happening in 3D: in real life, onscreen and in between.

If you know me, you know I’m fond of describing myself as “an alien whose spaceship has come in.”

Most of the time people who live on the edge, like every early adaptor, mature two years or more before everyone else gets to what we consider to be familiar territory.

But, that’s changing. As technology, people and communications converge, the lead time between what’s next is shrinking from years down to months, weeks, days, hours or minutes.

At this moment in time, there’s nothing like DIF in DuPage County – that I know of.

Why DuPage County?

Because that’s where I live.

Actually, I live smack dab in the center of one of the richest and most progressive counties in the country – in terms of technology, probably not politics.

We moved to DuPage County in 1996. My company’s local client list includes our village’s school, government, library, chamber and economic development corporation – along with retailers and non-profits. Event production includes the first local Idol competition. Last summer, we managed the social media for JazzFest Glen Ellyn. We all thrive on collaboration and that’s why I’m so excited about watching DIF come alive.

Special thanks goes out to our client, Illinois Institute of Technology’s School of Applied Technology for providing meeting space and computer lab access.

Digital Innovation Forum Event Details

Date: March 10, 2010

Time: 7:30-9:30 am

Location: Illinois Institute of Technology School of Applied Technology 201 E. Loop Road Wheaton, Illinois

Tickets: $5 for community conversation, $25 includes LinkedIn Lab and Learn Session

Digital Innovation Forum Registration http://budurl.com/difdupage

Contact: CoryWest Media, LLC 630.207.7530/voice/text, @wiredprworks on twitter.com

It’s new. It’s now. It’s DIF.

Mixing socializing with programming and a live learning lab, Digital Innovation Forum [DIF] breaks the traditional networking world mold into a 3D [digital, dynamic and direct] experience.

If you’re looking for a place to connect with other social media enthusiasts where you can:

1. exchange digital innovation ideas

2. learn more about how to get social media to work for you and your business, and

3. grow your community connections in 3D

DIF is it.

Launching on the eve of South by Southwest Interactive, a five-day conference in Austin, Texas, DIF DuPage is a community think tank that focuses on content and community development via social media, mobile and interactive platforms.

Convene. Connect. Converse.

7:30 – 8:00 Breakfast and Socializing

8:00 – 8:30 Program and Community Conversation

8:30 – 9:30 LinkedIn Lab and Learn

“LinkedIn Power Profile Strategies: How to Go from the Sidelines to Superstar Status” led by Barbara Rozgonyi, LinkedIn author in “Success Secrets of the Social Media Marketing Superstars”

DIF is starting out in DuPage County, but I’ve already had a request from Arizona to listen in. You’re welcome to join us, too.

Here’s the album I was listening to as I wrote the DIF news release. . .

What does Digital Innovation mean to you?

In Chicago, the social media scene sparkles with tweetups, parties and events – year round. So that you can live and learn vicariously, I’ll be covering how social media comes alive for brands and bloggers at events like Sauza’s Chicago Ladies Night In.

Thanks to Beth Rosen of 4 Keys Media, this event’s organizer, for the invitation and the opportunity to cover the event here and on my food, event and travel photography site, thesociallens.com.

Disclosure: As a guest, I received limo transportation to and from the event, food and drinks at the event and Sauza gold and silver to take home. Guests appeared on the live broadcast with Chef Marcela.

Brands and Bloggers Social Media PR Party Recipe 10 Ingredients

1. Make an Irresistible Offer

How would attending a tequila party benefit my readers? I asked this question before I accepted the invitation. Because this is a business-based blog, there isn’t much occasion to mention alcohol of any kind here and in social media updates. When I found out that the event included cooking demonstrations, I – personally – was in. I love to cook and watch professional chefs in action. Now, how to bring in the business angle? That’s how I came up with the PR=Party Review concept. How would adding more details increase your event’s response rate?

2. Book a Celebrity

Chef Marcela Valladolid, host of Food Network’s show, Mexican Made Easy
is a rising star, yet is personable and approachable. Sauza sponsored the event and Chef Marcela’s appearance. Booking a celebrity brings a star quality to your event. Who would you invite?

3. Mix Education with Entertainment

Chef Marcela talked about the tones of tequila, elevating it from an ordinary margarita mix ingredient into a spirit with history, character, taste and purpose. I can’t count the number of people I told about Chef Marcel’s tequila turkey infusion recipe. How can you or your products go from ordinary to remarkable?

4. Make a Go-Getter Guest List

Think about who you would like to attend and cover your event. Who would be on your A-list? How would you find them?

5. Serve fabulous food and drinks

Starting with crunchy deep fried olives, my new favorite appetizer, Chef Marcela introduced her recipes in stages, demonstrated how to make them and answered questions about cooking techniques. How would you demonstrate what you do – and make it interactive?

6. Livestream on Facebook

A dedicated camera crew, and on set lighting throughout the location, took this event’s live stream to a more professional level. Although I invited my network, friends and family to watch online, I’m not sure if anyone did. Still, the concept of a live show on Facebook is really intriguing to me. This is one hot topic we’re talking about with our clients. What kind of show would you host?

7. Deliver Door-to-Door

Limos picked up guests in groups, allowing for time to chat, eliminating the need for a designated driver and insuring that guests would arrive and leave on time. Partnering with a limo company as a sponsor gives them visibility and offsets the transportation costs. What kinds of transportation would you arrange for your guests?

8. Niche Match

One of Sauza’s markets is women, make that women in book groups. Our book group sampled a Sauza drink at our meeting this month. How can you match a niche with your product?

9. Lavish Location

Thanks to Stacey Roney of Beauty on Call for inviting us into her fabulous home. Built by her husband, the home is an elegant modern masterpiece, which was the perfect backdrop for a Ladies Night In celebration. Where would you host your event?

10. Make it Spread-able

First, you need a hashtag, or an identifier that marks social mentions, like #ChiSauzaLadiesNtIn. Photographers will bring their cameras and create sets like this one,
Chicago Ladies Night In with Chef Marcela and Sauza #ChiSauzaLadiesNtIn

Food and entertaining editor Jen Luby of Second City Soiree wrote about the recipes and invited her readers to inject some Mexican flare into their holiday menus. MJ Tam of Chicagonista covered the girlfriend angle while Nicole Yeary Nicole Yeary‘s ladies night in storify coverage blends photography and social media updates into an all-in-one post.
Some #chisauzaladiesntin guests tweeted and others like Amy Hesser posted event updates on Facebook. Community contributions spread the word about the event in progress and posts like this one add post-event dimension.

This post’s image credit: c2010 Barbara Rozgonyi for thesociallens.com from the 2010 brands and bloggers collection.

How did these party recipe ingredients inspire you?

Yes, that is me with Southpaw, who represents the Chicago White Sox on twitter, at games and community events. Taken at the Eat.Drink.Tweet. event at US Cellular Field in June 2010, this picture is one of many from my Chicago White Sox Tweetup Album. Thanks so much to Amy Jensen Martin of Digital Royalty for inviting me to represent Social Media Club Chicago on this panel and to Alana Golob, also of Digital Royalty, for being the event coordinator.

What an honor to sit alongside Brad Boron of NHL Chicago Blackhawks; Amy Jensen Martin of Digital Royalty; Sarah Evans of Sevans Strategy and Mark Teahan of Chicago White Sox. Scott Reifert, vice president of Chicago White Sox communications, moderated the panel discussion. In this video, we talk about how we got into social media.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXMWAyNLOs0

Another question was about a social media success story. As the other speakers before me quoted numbers and great success – you would expect that from @nhlblackhawks – right?, I wondered what I could add. After all, the numbers from my client’s success stories didn’t add up that high and SMC Chicago’s members spill over into the 2100s, not into five or six digits. So, I brought the numbers down, way down into the smallest, most personal interaction: one to one. Because, to me, it’s the smallest of interactions that can have the biggest effects.

When I traced how I wound up sitting between Brad and Amy, the source came back to an invitation on Facebook from Sarah to attend a party at The Wit on a rainy January Saturday night in Chicago. I wasn’t planning on going. I emailed the invitation to a friend and suggested she go. It sounded like fun, but I had other plans. She called me right away – what time do you want me to pick you up? I went. I met Amy and two other moms from my town, which is 22 miles west of Chicago. The image I’m using now on my social networks is from that night. Five months later, Amy called. Six months later I was on the Eat.Drink.Tweet. panel. Today I’m writing a post about it.

How can the next social media interaction you take lead to a success story for everyone? Where do you get your social media inspiration?

Image gallery: Southpaw with Barbara Rozgonyi; social media moms including Xan Pearson and Amy Hesser at The Wit tweetup – and Barbara Rozgonyi, Amy Jensen Martin, Sarah Evans and Duong Sheahan – also at The Wit.

Thanks to Steve Stokes of Stoked Studios for covering Social Media Club Chicago‘s first anniversary event on October 22, 2009. Many people asked about how they could watch the video of the panel discussion about community and social media – click here to go the video.

SMC Chicago President, Jeff Willinger of RightPoint Consulting moderated the panel discussion. Thanks so much to our panelists: Ramon DeLeon of Domino’s Pizza, Sarah Evans of Sevans Strategy, Gerald [and Olivia] Haman of Solution People and Katy Lynch from www.whereivebeen.com.

First anniversary sponsors included Synovate, Kimball Office, Dominos and Garrett Popcorn. Thanks to ArtistsHouseMusic.org for providing video hosting.

Video coverage of prior Social Media Club Chicago events . . .

Were you there? What did you think of this event?

Disclosure: Barbara Rozgonyi is the founder of Social Media Club Chicago.