The second “un-conference” of its kind in Memphis, SocialCamp was an even mix of planned sessions and peoples’ choice, with topics ranging from SEO for Social Media, Facebook for Small Business and round-table discussions on topics like non-profit web strategies. Regardless of the specific topic, though, the overwhelming theme of the day was that social media is less about the internet and more about real life: the whole point is to connect. It’s not about being attached to your PDA or your iPhone (though we’ll admit that’s often a side effect); it’s about community. Whether it’s a business connecting to customers or a blogger connecting to an audience, there’s a community of real people behind those avatars.

The idea of connecting came up again and again: in the Grow and Foster Your Blog session, we learned about applications that can increase comments on blogs, allowing the blogger to return more comments, visit more blogs and create more conversation to yield repeat visitors. In The ‘Cheers’ Model of Marketing, we learned that, well, you want to go where every body knows your name. And in Don’t Be A Social Media Douche Bag, we learned that you’ve got to engage as a real person, or else you and social media have failed each other.

But really — in keeping with the theme of connecting — what gets us excited about SocialCamp is truly the social aspect: bloggers, marketing pros, SEO experts, web designers and avid tweeters meeting up and sharing ideas. Not only were some of Memphis’ best and brightest in attendance at SocialCamp 2, they fit into no one mold; the range of ages, professions and personalities represented inspires a lot of confidence in the future of the medium. We just hope we can have breakfast with some of them soon.

We love small businesses. No doubt you’ve noticed. This week’s closing of the Memphis High Point Coffee shops drove home just how much we rely on small businesses in our day-to-day life.

And, being that we work in an office, we’ve also noticed just how much we rely on coffee just to keep us going and productive.

"Hot Coffee 'City Limit'" by jimmywayne on Flickr

So we’re working on a panel of local coffee businesses and local social media practitioners, and we’re going to look into how the coffee businesses use social media to communicate with their customers and promote their brands – and help them develop new strategies to leverage those tools in the future.

We’ve got a few interested participants already, but if there’s a local coffeeshop or coffee roaster you’d love to see represented, drop them a line. Tell them how excited you are about SocialCamp, and how much you’d love to see them there. (Also, let us know, so we’ll be ready for them.)

And don’t forget to tip your barista. It’s a much tougher job than it seems.

But now, we’re bearing down on September, and that means that SocialCamp 2 is right around the corner. In fact, it’s on Saturday, Sept. 19. That’s only about two weeks away. If you’re already sure you’re coming, there’s no reason for you not to take advantage of one of the best deals you’ll find this fall.

If  you register for SocialCamp before Sept. 8th, you’ll get in the door for a lot less money than you will if you hesitate.

Here’s the deal.

If you’re coming as an individual, for your own benefit, your registration fee is $44.50. Unless you register now. Early Bird registration for individuals is only $39.50.

Save yourself  a few bucks, or go out for coffee on your way in on the 19th – you’ll still come out ahead with Early Bird registration.

And we’re not leaving out our corporate friends, either. If you’re attending as a representative of a company, your Early Bird Corporate Admission is only $49.50 for the full day.  If you hesitate, however, the registration fee is $74.50.

But please, don’t wait. Early registration ends on Sept. 8th. That’s only a week from now. Visit SocialCampMemphis.com to register.

After our usual announcements (which, by the way, included SocialCamp), we were treated to a special welcome from Shelby County Commissioner / founder and CEO of Flinn Broadcasting / radiologist Dr. George Flinn who had some kind, generous, and flattering words to everyone who takes part in the Social Media Expedition – and that includes attendees.

It’s easy to get so deep into what you’re passionate about that you lose perspective on how what you do affects the community around you. To be reminded that the relationships and communities we build bring noticeable good into Memphis was a powerful and empowering way to start the morning.

To have Dr. Flinn come and remind us of the good that we are all building is nice. But what would be nicer would be to pass on the good will – and to pass on his closing sentence, “Thank you for making Memphis and Shelby County great.” Seriously. Thank you.

What really made the September breakfast something special was the structure. Rather than have a single speaker, as usual, we embraced a show-and-tell format.

Each presenter shared a single topic, service, program, or idea for about seven minutes. One of the greatest things about gathering people together for is the wide range of experience, knowledge and curiosity that everyone brings to the breakfasts.

Our presenters were, in order, Blake Palmer, Beth Sanders, Matthew Crawford-Trisler, Jonathan Lyons, Dave Barger, and Robert Staub.

Palmer and Crawford-Trisler are both social media specialists at LunaWeb, though Blake will leave at the end of this week for CommercialAppeal.com. Sanders is a freelance design and social consultant. Lyons manages social media in the marketing and PR department for the Peabody Hotel. Barger is President and CEO of LunaWeb. Robert Staub is a small business success coach and host of the weekly Small Biz Show.

Blake Palmer Presenting the Yelp iPhone app

Between Blake Palmer’s talk about the emerging trend of augmented reality applications for smartphones and Beth Sanders’ run through of Evernote, the online/real world service that works as an augmented memory application, we were handed a very interesting view of the future in which technology will aid and combine human tasks and knowledge in ever more helpful, present, and intuitive ways.

Matthew Crawford-Trisler delivered an in-depth presentation about the need for and use of the Free Music Archive, a curated cache of Creative Commons-licensed music which, because it is free – as in both beer and speech – is a great resource for music to use in videos, podcasts, presentations, or to load up your iPod.

Jonathan Lyons talked about how he uses Social Media on behalf of the Peabody to build and expand upon existing relationships in the community, and to positively impact the image of the hotel among Memphians. He had to figure out how to promote the hotel without being spammy, create personal content, and navigate photography rights when covering events. He shared his experience with the blurring line between Returns on Investment and Returns on Engagement.

Dave Barger spoke about the trouble in looking at social media as a way to expand your business’ audience. While it’s possible, he notes that it is a big time commitment. If you’re just stepping foot in for the first time, it’s likely going to be best to focus on existing relationships. Facebook and Twitter are important, but are not the only answer.

Barger recommended the simplified blogging service, Posterous, to communicate with employees and clients alike, along with internal tools, such as Yammer or Socialcast. When it’s time to turn outwards, there’s always services like Ning, which are quite useful, but, Barger warned, only if you’re going to put the time and effort into making it a good resource before the doors are ever even opened.

Robert Staub has put a tremendous amount of effort into his latest venture, Small Biz Memphis, which launches Sept. 18th. The site, built on Ning, promises to be a valuable resource for small business information and for online business networking in a city where most networking is done face-to-face. By gathering as much information as possible about small businesses and events in one place, it promises to be a one-stop shop for small businesses in Memphis.

Each presentation went off without a hitch, and we felt honored to host such a stellar series of presentations. Dr. Flinn had it right when he thanked everyone who came this morning for making Memphis and Shelby County a great place. And once again, we’ll pass that thanks along. Thank you.

Tomorrow, we’re looking forward to the TwilightCamp for August at Bronte Bistro inside of Davis Kidd. The main topic of conversation is going to be the upcoming SocialCamp on September 19. If you want to get involved, this is a great chance to find out more, ask questions and make your opinion heard.

We’re also very excited to announce the speaker for September’s Social Media Expedition breakfast… you. Next month’s breakfast is an old-fashioned show and tell for anything and everything Social Media related that you’d like to share. We accept shiny new toy demonstrations, rants, tutorials and ideas. The only things we don’t accept are mean people and sales pitches.

We’ll be having 7 presentations by 7 people on whatever your able to share with the rest of us. We only ask that you email or call us (888-5862) beforehand, and arrive early enough that we can load your pc-friendly PowerPoint (if you have one) on our projector.

So show us what you’ve got! Whatever get’s you excited about Social Media is fair game, and we can’t wait to see what you have to offer.

The day was filled with home run presentations, great food, and a big crowd of extremely fun people.  By the end of the day, we had registered well over 100 SocialCamp attendees and even trended as the #1 topic on Twitter.

There was something for everyone to learn, with topics ranging from introductory 101 presentations, to meaty, uber-advanced discussions.  We saw several traditional presentations, as well as panels, core conversation groups, and quite a few spontaneous discussions.

Thanks to everyone who attended, and helped make this all happen.  The planners and volunteers put a lot of time into putting SocialCamp together, and we couldn’t have asked for a better crowd to attend.  We also had a bunch of wonderful sponsors aside from the Social Media Expedition.  Please go and check them out on the SocialCamp Memphis site.

If you were able to attend, leave a comment to let us know what you thought of the conference.  We plan on bringing more things like this to Memphis, and keeping our city on the Social Media map.  Next on the horizon, we have our monthly Social Media Expedition breakfast on April 1st at the University of Memphis Holiday Inn.  There will be more details posted on the Meetup site.

Here’s an ongoing list of blog write-ups from the event:

Skinny White Boy

The Displaced Texan

Team140.com

SocialCamp Memphis

The post "Geeks and Newbies Unite at SocialCamp Memphis" by lunaweb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Like the Expedition, SocialCamp will seek to address how Social Media plays into all facets of our lives, from business to family, and from faith to politics. It is an unconference focusing on Social Media and Social Networking.  Just imagine a convention where the morning is comprised of designated speakers/topics, and the afternoon is comprised of focused discussions and impromptu presentations that are decided on by the attendees.  There will also be core conversations, very similar to the ones we include in our monthly Expedition breakfasts.  Be sure to register for SocialCamp to reserve your spot.

Speaking of breakfasts, this Wednesday, March 4, is the 1 year anniversary of our Social Media Expedition breakfasts.  This one will be at the Crescent Club on Poplar, and will feature Lausanne Collegiate School’s Stewart Crais speaking on tactics for the safety of minors on Social Networking sites.  These breakfasts have grown tremendously over the past year, and the conversation has only gotten better.  This will be another great opportunity to see what the Memphis Social Media community has to offer.

We look forward to seeing all of our Expeditionary friends at both of these great events.  Come out and join the conversation!

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The post "SocialCamp Memphis a Week Away" by lunaweb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

TechFuel: Taking Startups to New Heights Organized by LaunchMemphis February 19th, 2009, 5pm-7pm Location: The Tower Room in Clark Tower (5100 Poplar Ave) Inspired by other networking events occurring across the country like Tech Cocktail, the LaunchMemphis TechFuel is designed for technologists, entrepreneurs, media (bloggers), and other business professionals to meet, and share ideas in a fun and open atmosphere. The event is open to the public. With the LaunchMemphis TechFuel we hope to see the Memphis tech community better connected. Follow @launchmemphis on Twitter

eMarketing Group Meeting Organized by Melanee Hannock Evening of February 26th Location: Quetzal The purpose of this group is to let Memphis e-marketing individuals meet each other to connect and discuss marketing topics that are relevant to the group.

Expedition Breakfast Social Media Expedition’s increasingly popular monthly gathering of Social enthusiasts and practitioners for a breakfast of networking, presentation, and collaboration. RSVP and addl. Info March 4th – Wednesday 7:30 – 9:30 UofM Holiday Inn Follow @smexpedition on Twitter

SocialCamp Memphis Organized by LaunchMemphis Evening of March 6th(mixer) and the day of March 7th(main event), 2009 Location: TBD SocialCamp, like BarCamp, is an un-conference; An open format event where programmers, designers and business owners can network and learn. A SocialCamp conference is unlike any other technology conference. Rather than being planned by a committee in advance, each community works together to create its own event. A SocialCamp generally has an underlying theme, but the individual topics and sessions are organized shortly before or even at the event. This enables SocialCamp to be much more than targeted to the needs of its community. Follow @socialcampmem on Twitter SxSW Interactive March 13-17th in Austin, Texas. Are you going? (see local forum)

Upcoming Events Quick List:

Thursday, February 5th – SocialCamp Planners (5:00) **

Saturday, February 7th – Business Boot Camp (all day) **

Thursday, February 12th – Twestival to raise money for water (5:00 until)

Thursday, February 19th – TechFuel Mixer **

Thursday, February 26th – eMarketing Group *

Wednesday, March 4th – Social Media Expedition Breakfast ***

Friday, March 6th – SocialCamp Memphis – Mixer **

Saturday, March 7th – SocialCamp Memphis – Main Event **

March 13th- 17th – SXSW South by Southwest Interactive (Austin, TX)

 * Organized by Melanee Hannock

** Organized by LaunchMemphis

*** Organized by LunaWeb, Inc.

Bookmark These: SocialMediaExpedition.com SocialCampMemphis.com LaunchMemphis.com TweetMemphis.WetPaint.com Follow @smexpedition , @socialcampmem, @launchmemphis

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The post "Mark Your Calendar – Big Upcoming Events" by lunaweb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.