Social Media Club Orange County

It’s important to know your strengths and weaknesses that being said: I’m not a writer each of these little babies will have their own unique twist to them. I’m an A-V nerd that sometimes takes great pictures. I mostly let my photos and videos do the talking.

Social Media Club was great! it was a panel discussion. There was food and drinks and talking about why it is super important to start a club.

panelist include: @TedNguyen@BryanElliott @NealSchaffer

Host :@MorganB

A lot of different topics were brought up:

• Why a Social Media Club?
• Setting yourself apart from the pack, both in business and personal accounts.
• When do you tweet and tools to help you tweet.

here is a great blog post about that day by Debbie Miller

https://twitter.com/smcoc

Social Media Mastermind Orange County

Hosted by @topbrokerOC in Costa Mesa, CA .The event is heavily retweeted by its followers. At first glance one might mistake this event for a real estate/mortgage industry tweetup, but I can assure you it is not. This tweetup is for like minded individuals to learn how to implement and utilize social media, at any level, they welcome anyone!

I was in the company of different people from all walks of life, highly professional business owners, big and small, willing and ready to cultivate strong personal and professional relationships using social media. They talk about everything not just social media; technology, target consumers, tips, how to’s. I think what sets this group apart from some tweetups Ive been to is that they are very goal-oriented people working towards a common purpose.

http://twitter.com/smmoc

2009′s tweetups

Last year, I went to 3-4 tweetups, a few that stand out are the Disneyland tweet up at Disney walk in Anaheim, going to a press event/panel discussion for SoCalBio.
And going to Social Media Club’s Government 2.0 Panel discussion meeting Ted Nguyen and Morgan Brown, who both are very active in creating and attending tweetups, to now a year later those relationships I created a year ago are being rekindled.
As an early adopter of twitter (circa 2007) most of my friends are in that small group of movers and shakers. Paving the way for the masses. Educating the public about the changing world around them. This is just my contribution in the movement. It’s up to you whether you want to be a part of it or not.

Brief description of my past tweetups

The Disneyland tweet up at Disney walk in Anaheim

was put together by Tawny Press (OC TweetUp Founder) at Disney walk in the jazz café, it was a group of bloggers that had no business agenda at all! it was a meet and greet event, no pressure. I had a lovely light dinner and I was happy meeting anyone. It was a relaxing free for all of; who are you? what do you do? and what are you about? It was a strictly a social event. I met people that Ive never met before and added them to my twitter followers that night.

Press event/panel discussion for SoCalBio
Was a teaching event for people in the medical profession. That had never even heard of twitter. And were curious about this new form of media and how social media could help them interact with ill patients. It was rather moving that a group of doctors and surgeons were curious about my little world of technology

OCTA /Social Media Club’s Government 2.0 Panel discussion
Was also a panel discussion, but it had to with introducing twitter and the other various tools like tweetdeck to city representatives, and various other community organizations that these people of the infrastructure could use to keep their fingers on the pulse of a growing technology.

*MOST tweetups will have there own photo sets on on my flickr account to the left, which will contain a brief description of the event

I will be blogging more about 2010 events later.

Why a Tweetup Blog?

If you don’t already know, Twitter is a quick way of broadcasting a 140 character message to your friends and others via text message, IM, or computer. Most of the time this is fine, but sometimes you’d like to meet the people you talk to in person, either for professional reasons, or just because you’d like to get to know them better.
Tweetups are in person meetings for Twitter users. They give you a chance to meet the people you interact with on a daily basis, connecting, sharing and collaborating with people that share your interests.

I started going to Orange County tweetups in Summer 2009. I was immediately hooked. At the time I didn’t realize it but these meetups would leave a lasting impression on my psyche. I promised myself that next summer, I would try and go to as many tweetups as possible.

You are probably asking yourself why.

When I started going to tweetups it was to come out of my shell. Being stuck in a college setting didn’t offer a real world view of what was waiting for me outside the institutional walls. For me interacting with people from different industries gave me a chance to see the economy through the eyes of someone who, say, has been working in that industry for 20 years, gaining their firsthand knowledge and experience. It was as if though I had 100s of mentors willing and ready to share their thoughts and ideas of everything from the economy to how to conduct business in the Social Media space, and how to interact with technology on a personal and business level.

The one thing we often forget in the Social Media space is the human element. For instance, if you use Twitter you have already noticed that when you tweet with people you’ve met their tweets come alive; you imagine how they would say them out loud, and their facial expressions as they say them. This becomes a force you cannot ignore, giving that tweet extra power and meaning. Well, whatever you are trying to do in the Social Media space, the people you meet at these events make your online persona come alive. Your persona and your influence now have meaning, but most importantly, you have greater meaning.

While Twitter has always been one vessel of communication, it has never been a major force in communication. It leads to phone conversations, emails and face to face interaction. Tweetups facilitate a higher level of connection, and these connections leave a lasting, meaningful connection.