Coming up on March 21 from 6:00-8:00 p.m at Catalyst Ranch., Social Media Club Chicago is hosting an event that will be interesting to anyone who wants to know how to grow a community around a cause. Promising to be an inspiring, and informative event, here are the details from Social Media Club Chicago.

The speaker, Jonny Imerman, is the founder of Imerman Angels. While fighting cancer at 26 years old, Jonny had loving support from family and friends, but never met anyone his age who was a cancer survivor.  In 2003, Imerman Angels was founded to connect each cancer fighter to one survivor who is the same age, same gender, and someone who has already beaten that particular type of cancer. If you’re in the Chicago area, register for social media for social good today with Jonny Imerman today.

Social Media For Social Good: Strategies For Nonprofits, For-Profits & Agencies

WHY IS THIS EVENT DIFFERENT?

Are you interested in social media for social good?  Want to hear something different than the “usual” social media advice?  Join us for an interactive evening and a unique presentation!

Social Media Club Chicago presents an evening with Jonny Imerman, founder of Imerman Angels. During this live interview, he’ll answer questions about how he’s successfully integrated social media while also creating a strong offline presence, international awareness and live events of all types and sizes over the last 9 years.  Imerman Angels utilizes everything from Twitter & Facebook to T-shirts and wrist bands.  The big difference: He not only built Imerman Angels fast but it’s been built to last and is still growing – and he’ll share how in an interview with Mark J. Carter.

During the interview Jonny and Carter will talk about:

1. Creating a results driven social media presence for nonprofits
2. Creating powerful collaborations: the ups and downs (and do’s and don’ts) of partnering with for-profit companies for social good campaigns
3. Jonny’s advice for what you and your company or nonprofit can do in today’s business world to utilize social good the RIGHT way for the RIGHT reasons (and get real results)… and what NOT to do when working with charities that actually hurts nonprofits.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

• Nonprofits: Learn something beyond the usual advice “set up a Facebook page and raise some quick money”.  You’ll hear real world, proven strategies that you can take back to your organization and use the next day.
• For Profit Companies: Learn how “social good” and social media mix into your for profit marketing plans and bridge the gap between “making a difference” and “making a dollar”
• Agencies: Learn new ideas and ways to integrate social good into your current client projects and how and when to pitch “social media for social good” to gain new clients.

Jonny Imerman: Jonny Imerman is the founder of Imerman Angels. While fighting cancer at 26 years old, Jonny had loving support from family and friends, but never met anyone his age who was a cancer survivor.  In 2003, Imerman Angels was founded to connect each cancer fighter to one survivor who is the same age, same gender, and someone who has already beaten that particular type of cancer.

Mark J. Carter: Founder of ONE80; connecting the worlds of nonprofits and for-profits to create cause marketing campaigns & events for business authors, corporations and community causes.  Past projects range from organizing the first Chicago Twestival and founding Networking For A Cause to running book launches for Tim Sanders (“Saving The World at Work” and “Today We Are Rich”).  Current projects include marketing and sponsorship campaigns for Dreams For Kids (501c3) and working with the Founder of TED Talks on his next game changing conference.

Date: Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Time: 6:00pm- 8:30pm

Location:  Catalyst Ranch

656 W. Randolph Suite 3W

Chicago, IL 60661

Tickets: $10 Advance/$20.00 at the door Price includes: Program, Domino’s Pizza by @Ramon_DeLeon and drinks.

Social Media Club Chicago relies on sponsors to provide quality events for social media professionals monthly. Our sponsors receive exposure to thousands of connectors via email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Plancast and more! If you are interested in sponsoring a future SMC Chicago event, please contact Jeannie Walters at jeannie@360Connext.com.

 SMC Chicago Board Members

-  Barbara Rozgonyi [@wiredprworks], Founder

-  Jeff Willinger [@jwillie], President, Chicago SMC chapter.

-  Amy Korin [@interactiveamy], Coordinates Volunteers 

-  Tim McDonald [@tamcdonald], Manages Communications

-  Jeannie Walters [@jeanniecw], Oversees Logistics

-  Carolyn Martin [@cm_socialmedia], Online Marketing

Contact:

-  http://smcchicago.org

-  smcchicagonews@gmail.com

-  @smcchicago on twitter

-  @www.facebook.com/SMCChicago

- 630.207.7530 or 312-970-0846

 SMC Chicago Chapter

Social Media Club’s primary mission is to expand digital media literacy, promote standard technologies, encourage ethical behavior and share best practices. We bring together journalists, publishers, communications professionals, artists, amateur media creators, citizen journalists, teachers, students, tool makers, and other interested collaborators. Essentially the people who create and consume media who have an interest in seeing the ‘media industry’ evolve for everyone’s benefit. We are more than just USERS, we are the reason the tools exist – we are the people who communicate our thoughts and ideas near and far. Join us and let’s shape the future together!

They’re the connectors, the cheerleaders and the calendar operators who keep the character in communities. With a myriad of events, people, places and things represent, for a Chamber of Commerce branding and marketing is a multi-tasking adventure.

Recently, I was asked how CoryWest Media develops our Chamber of Commerce social media marketing strategies. Here’s a 20 point checklist you can use to get started, improve or assess your social media marketing program in action.

Social Media Marketing Strategy 20 Point Checklist for Chambers of Commerce

1. Capture the current conversation online by searching for the name of your community + Chamber of Commerce on Google, Google+. YouTube,  twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

2. Assess your current communications to see what can be repurposed via social media. For example, your email newsletter can be broken up into blog posts, sponsors can be recognized in tweets and events can be promoted via a Facebook page.

3. Clarify communications, public relations, marketing and sales goals. What do you want to achieve: gaining and retaining members, raising awareness, forming partnerships? Stay focused so you can measure results later.

4. Identify target talkers and existing communities on established sites. Where do your people congregate? LinkedIn and Facebook will probably be the front-runners. To tap into these social networks, recruit social media ambassadors that have high visibility and strong connections.

5. Evaluate your online social media position. Where are you on your community’s radar? Can and do people find you from your Chamber blog or site? How do you compare to other organizations?

6. Determine your value. What will you bring to the conversation? How do you fit into your community’s life? Will you be a community events aggregator, problem solver or something else?

7. How will you contribute to the online conversation? Set interactive communication goals for each audience [we will watch for ________, respond to ___________ and inform about ___________]

8. Select keywords and craft key messages, based on the conversation that’s already going on out there. Use your town, Chamber, Chamber of Commerce, special events, etx.

9. Design an interactive communications planner by channel, community, frequency, priorities and responsibility so that time is managed well. Consider hiring an intern to support your social media activites.

10. Ensure that someone will [always, always, always, always, always] be watching and responsive. You can set up this service using HyperAlerts.

11. Automate, without being robotic if possible, across multiple channels. Use Hootsuite to schedule your Chamber’s social networking updates and monitor community conversations.

12. Produce and share engaging content that may include success stories, pictures, videos and survey results.

13. Start a group on LinkedIn that leads into a membership site that gets you closer to prospective members.

14. Be the leader that people want to follow because the Chamber is their source for information about the community.

15. Build relationships with champions, ambassadors and evangelists in businesses, education, government and healthcare.

16. Be where they can find you – consider advertising on key sites or sponsoring events that link social media back the Chamber.

17. Measure results and track stats that help you modify your marketing, sales and communications systems with Google analytics, Facebook and LinkedIn insights, or one of the free social media measurement tools.

18. Re-Align communications accordingly to make sure that your posts are engaging your audience.

19. Shift with your people by liking and commenting on their updates throughout social media.

20. Shepherd and follow them everywhere. You represent the community in real life, why not be the keeper of its keys online?

Over to you . . .

How do you commune with your Chamber of Commerce community?

Searching for a qualified and experienced Chamber of Commerce speaker, consultant or workshop leader? Need ideas? Let’s talk: 630.207.7530.

Photo Credit: Barbara Rozgonyi for thesociallens from the 2011 Glen Ellyn Jazz Fest Collection

Winner of five Academy Awards, including best picture, director and actor, “The Artist” is the first silent film win an Oscar® since 1929.  Check out eight social media marketing ideas inspired by the movie.

1. Actions speak louder than words

“He’s all talk and no action.” Does this sound like anyone you know? This film takes the dialogue away and replaces it with action set to a soundtrack. The friend who first recommended this movie to me, whose first language is not English,  liked it because language skills were not necessary to enjoy the movie. How do you use actions in your business?

2. Listening is overrated

Because there’s no dialogue in a silent movie, you don’t have to listen to follow the story. At a recent social media event, an hour passed with no one mentioning listening. When we got to the questions section, someone noted that the panel hadn’t mentioned listening. Isn’t listening important? Of course, but it’s not the only strategy you need to be successful.

3. Get a dog in on the act

Uggie the dog, who was much more than an adorable canine sidekick in the movie, made it onto the stage and had his own coverage throughout the season. Check out two examples of how to bring dogs into blogs: Why Asking Permission is for the Dogs [featuring a French bulldog] and 7 Things Service Dogs Know About Social Media [featuring a Texas pug].

4. Think local, reach global

Even though this movie was filmed entirely on location in Hollywood, today the Chicago Tribune reported pride sweeps France over wins for “The Artist.” Why? Their people made the movie and Jean Dujardin accepted the first best actor win for a Frenchman. It’s even better when people in two countries can celebrate a win.

5. Make a comeback

George Valentin, the lead character, was a movie star who fell out of favor, but he came back. Set popularity aside and go for visibility with close connections. Social media is not about fandom, it’s about relationships.

6. Take a risk

Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood executive who brought a black-and-white silent film from France and saw it win five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, described “The Artist” as a million-to-one shot that celebrates risk-taking. How do you know when you’re playing it too safe?

7. Go retro

In a day when 3D is all the rage, who would think a black and white silent movie with a soundtrack would be a top contender? One simple way to go retro is to use filters in instagram.

8. Make people joyful

When people feel good, they like to talk about it. People enjoy sharing happiness and joy. Quotes and pictures bring out emotions. Please share yours in the comment section.

Photo Caption: Oscar®-winning director Michel Hazanavicius, accepts the award for Best Motion Picture of the Year during the live ABC Television Network broadcast of the 84th Annual Academy Awards® from the Hollywood and Highland Center, in Hollywood, CA, Sunday, February 26, 2012.

Let’s talk! Which one of these insights stands out for you?

Public relations and social media is the fourth episode in the social media marketing video series.

Looking for video tips? Check out these three in a guest post, originally run here in April 2011 by Bob Tripathi, the Founder & CEO of Internet Marketing Training company Instantetraining.com.

3 YouTube & Video Marketing Tricks You Should Not Miss

by Bob Tripathi

YouTube has changed the video landscape with user generated video content and as a result grown so fast that it prompted Google to pay $1.5 billion to acquire the company.

According to ComScore, in March YouTube drove about 143.2 Million unique viewers with an average user spending 275 minutes watching videos on YouTube.

If YouTube were a search engine then it would be the second biggest search engine after Google.

On YouTube, a video can go viral almost instantaneously, if optimized correctly, and generate huge amount of video views. So I met up with Greg Jarboe, Author of “YouTube & Video Marketing: An Hour a Day” and trainer for our upcoming Social Media for Business training workshop to get his insights on optimizing video.

Based on my conversation with Greg Jarboe here are my top 3 takeaways:

1. Embed Video in a press release

Greg narrated the story of Journalist Jill Carroll of Christian Science Monitor who was held hostage in Iraq and was going to do an 11 part series about her experience.

While promoting this 11 part series for Christian Science Monitor they came across some video outtakes of Jill Carroll’s interview video with ABC News. While going through the footage, Greg and team came up with the idea of embedding the video in a press release to give people a feel of what was coming.

Two things they did were:

1) They hosted the video on YouTube and

2) embedded the video in the press release.

Turns out Greg and team were stunned at the number of views their video got on YouTube and the buzz generated through the combination of video and press release.

The point is lot of us are announcing news through press releases almost regularly but not leveraging video. I would say if you can create a press release then you can also create a video.

2. Do Keyword Research on YouTube and not on Google

[I love this one! - editor]

Search engines play a huge role in driving quality traffic that converts. This is due to the fact that search is mainly used when the customer is closer to the purchase decision mindset. As a result, optimizing text in a document or the text surrounding the video can be huge.

On YouTube that means optimizing video title, description, and inserting the right type of keywords as tags.

A common fallacy for search and social marketers is to go straight to the Google keyword tool and use the same keywords that they would use for optimizing non YouTube related content. Instead, Greg suggests using the YouTube keyword tool. This way you get keyword intelligence based on what people are searching for on YouTube.com and not on Google.com

3. Share your video on social media

Besides optimizing your video by using right keywords in tags, description, and title, your video will rank higher in YouTube results if you have a high number of video views and ratings.

This, in YouTube’s eyes, is the popularity factor and one good way to kick start this process is sharing the video with the group you are already popular with. That would be your Facebook friends, Twitter followers, LinkedIn contacts, and so on. This way your video starts getting some traction with video views and with proper optimization as described above hopefully it will start ranking higher on YouTube.

Thanks so much to Gary Bohringer of Bohringer Creative for producing the series. Since its beginnings in 1993 Bohringer Creative has focused on personal service.

How do you incorporate public relations into your social media – or vice versa?

Search engine optimization and social media is the third episode in the social media marketing video series.

Thanks so much to Gary Bohringer of Bohringer Creative for producing the series. Since its beginnings in 1993 Bohringer Creative has focused on personal service.