Social Media Club Orlando Mini Conference #SMCORL Part 2

This is Part 2 of 2 in my series on Social Media Club Orlando’s mini conference this past weekend at Rollins College in conjunction with 2011 Florida DrupalCamp. A wealth of knowledge, tips, and networking was gained during this event. The hashtag for the event was #smcorl . Visit here to read Part 1 of 2 (morning sessions) http://wp.me/p10Pdu-8a

After a mad dash for food and a little time to enjoy the wonderful weather on the beautiful Rollins College campus it was time to get back learning.

Social Media in Government

Orange County commissioner Jennifer Thompson @jennthomp discussed social media’s role in the government and connecting with voters.

First she talked about how Orange County Animal Services utilizes social media sites, including YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, as exposure for a department that typically  under funded, especially with marketing dollars.  Plus, who doesn’t like cute animal pictures?

Check out http://www.orangecountyfl.net/SocialMedia.aspx for all the social media links for Orange County

She recommended this article in @FastCompany http://tinyurl.com/2ede6gc on How an Army of Techies Is Taking on City Hall

Did you know? As tweets, posts and instant messages outpace email as the favorite method of communication, Florida Sunshine Law watchdogs are keeping a sharp eye on the social media sphere. They want to ensure that all public records remain public and that they can be tied back to the public official who generated them. Data storage of all these different social media outlet can be a huge project for government offices.

SeeClickFix http://www.seeclickfix.com/citizens might be an app more government municipalities might be utilizing in the near future to local issues.

Social Media with Small Businesses

Next up was Joshua Johnson @JoshuaCJohnson to chat about social media for small business through the Disney Entrepreneur Center @DisneyEC . It is where business can get free one-on-one business counseling, and low-cost seminars, and high-impact networking opportunities to help them succeed.

One of the site he talked about was http://search.twitter.com/advanced which utilizes advance searches in Twitter to pull tweet based on words, people, places, dates, attitudes, and more. This can be a great way to find potential customers, see what’s going on in your industry, or find out who is tweet near your location on certain topics.

Another key resource for a professional and networking tool would be to use Linkedin’s power of groups. Linkedin always you to join a maximum of 30 groups = find 30 groups to join related to your field. Want to know more about groups http://learn.linkedin.com/groups/

Can you use YouTube to get attention, show a demo, or just be creative? Check out Blendtec – No! Not the iPad!

Non-profits using Social Media

Jordana Meade @JordanaEM of  Enzian Theater @enziantheater talked about using social media for marketing non-profits. She explained how there is a niche market for most non-profits who need to use social media to help connect brand visibility

She mentioned how important local bloggers are to push events for non-profits, such as treating them with free swag, food and drinks, and press credentials. Think I can get on the important blogger list?
I really liked the idea behind using volunteers to help with your social media to push your non-profit’s events, especially those with a passion and are social media savvy.

Just a quick plug – Laughs on the Lawn Coming Soon – Sounds like a good time to me with some classic flicks!

Social Media in the News Media

Next up John Cutter @Johncutter, Digital News Manager at The Orlando Sentinel & Gabe Travers @gabetrav, Digital Media Manager at WESH discussed how Local News and Social Media are connecting. This session really focused on how social media can be used as a tool for local news outlets to connect, reach out, and research what’s going on locally. Students interested in journalism should really take a look at their social media skills and networks to gain to good foundation in these areas.

News outlet are using social media to help seek out photos or people to interview on information on local events and breaking news. Even though photos are posted publicly on Twitpic or another platform media still researches to gain permission or the user and verify validity of posting.

Social Media is becoming a huge platform to help inform people of what’s happening in the world – what news outlet are you connected with via social media?

So what is the secret word to win the prize? MySpace!

Orange County Libraries uses Social Media

Last on my agenda was Lynette Schimpf from the Orange County Library System @oslslibrary discussing Managing Social Media at OCLS. This story was interesting because it started as a grassroots effort that was delegate to Lynette to find out what this Twitter thing was all about and how OCLS could utilize it.

One of the biggest thing is how to integrate social media management into other responsibilities, since it’s not just one person’s job when you don’t have dedicated personnel to social media. Another noteworthy setback for OCLS was loosing their Facebook page – which was created as a person, not a “Like” page. Make sure you are tying your “Like” pages to a real person’s account. Facebook is impossible to get a hold of and you will have to start all over with your following.

Overall this was a great event – especially for only $10! I met variety of my favorite fellow Orlando tweeters and a bunch of new one. Hopefully Social Media Club Orlando will be holding another event soon. I would love to see a few of the events come to Valencia to reach out to the educations and non-profits communities.

Find out more about SMC Orlando through Facebook http://www.facebook.com/SMCOrlando or Twitter @SMCOrlando

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