I wanted to take this chance to pimp out a new video podcast created by some buddies of mine here in the Kansas City area called Life In The Tubes.
Life In The Tubes is a video podcast that talks about social media and cloud computing. The crew is comprised of Tom Jenkins (techguytom), Brian Caylor (Caylorb), and Chris Duckett (Duckett1221).
In the first episode they discuss the following topics:
As with anything new there are gonna be some growing pains, changes, and mistakes but this is a great group of guys with a passion for what they are talking about so give them a few episodes and I am sure you will be happy with the knowledge and information you will get.
Recently all of us social media types got together for our monthly breakfast and we had a great turn out and some great conversation.
If you are in the Kansas City area and a user, fan, or just interested in social media please join us…its free to everyone, casual and very laid back.
Introductions at breakfast
Upcoming Events
Dec 5th - Our next breakfast meetup (time and location TBA)
Dec 18th - Social Media KC Christmas party (time and location TBA)
Jan 22nd - Next evening event with a speaker (time and location TBA)
As you can see we have some events coming up in the next few months but they are still in the early stages of planning. We have a few groups getting together to iron out the plans for each of the events.
Sponsor/Hosts?
Are you a local company that would like to host/sponser the group or a meetup? please feel free to contact me and I can get you together with the right people to speak with…..any help or venues that we can get are always appreciated.
We are also currently working on getting a new website/blog setup but for now you can visit us at socialmediakc.com
I have added two new places on the web that those who are part of the Social Media Club in Kansas City or those interested in getting more information on events and such can visit.
First I created a Facebook group for all to join. Facebook is one of the biggest social networks out there right now so it just seems like a given to put something on there to keep in contact with each other as well as to find new social media types out there that my not know we even exist.
Second I created a Flickr group after we discussed setting on up to host all the pics of events we have had or for future events to share with all.
This is all for now….keep your eyes on your rss feeds as there are many projects in the works as well as some kool events coming up in the social media kc space.
Its that time kids when all us social media types get together for breakfast. This month we are gonna meet at the First Watch in Olathe (11/7).
If you get a chance please join us as we always love new faces and if you been to one before come back as we would love to chat some more. It is open to anyone so don’t feel like you are not welcome.
Think we are gonna start meeting around 7:30 and will be hanging out for the morning so if you cant make it early then come by a little later.
Is your company looking to jump into the social media arena? Do you need some guidance? Maybe you are in the midwest and looking for some local companies who can help you jump onto the scene? Well if you are then you are in luck as I have a list of 3 companies that could be great resources for you.
The first two are located in my city of Kansas City and they are The Social Lites and Ideas and Angles. The other is out of Des Moines and they are known as Lava Row.
The Social Lites (Blog) Jennifer Bailey, Christina Maki, and Shelby Garlock
Great ladies who have a passion for what they do. I actually recently did a video of Christina’s presentation at Highlight Midwest you might want to check out.
Ideas And Angles (Blog) Zachary Cobb, Chris Culbertson, and Aaron Henderson
As with The Social Lites a group of great guys who really have a passion for social media.
Lava Row (Blog) Nathan T. Wright and Hillary Brown
Of the three I have to say I do not know the Lava Row gang as well but from the feedback I get from others they have a great reputation and would be another great resource.
There you have it a great starting point if you are looking for some companies that can help you get started with social media and if you are a local company in the midwest a great way to promote a local product.
Know of any other Social Media Strategist here in the Midwest that could be added to the list? Leave a comment and we can get a nice list going.
For my second presentation from Highlight Midwest I have on from Christina Maki of The Social Lites who did one titled - “Messages, Membership, and Money: Growing Your Non-Profit With Social Media.”
Some great advice for all the non-profit organizations out there. Check out her presentation below.
Note : I noticed after I posted the video that on the intro screen of the video I have Socialites when it should be Social Lites. just wanted to note the mistake.
update : i fixed the spelling mistake in the video.
This past week I had a chance to go to the first Highlight Midwest (and sure not to be the last) here in Kansas City which highlighted developers, entrepreneurs, social media, new media, ect. in the Midwest (mainly KC, Omaha, and Des Moines) in an effort to bring the community together and show the midwest is more the just a bunch of flyover states for the east and west coast.
The end result was it was a total 100% success….I met all kinds of great people from throughout the region getting to see some great projects in the works, ideas of the future, and was able to network and add some new people to follow throughout the interweb.
As I had mentioned early this is clearly an event that will happen again and you can bet I will be there…already there is some great media out there highlighting the events of the day including pictures, video, and blogs. I thought I would highlight some of them here in the post as well as I plan to post some videos up here on the site of some of the presentations I went to as well for you to enjoy. I hope to get my hands of the video from the panel at the evening session and share atleast a link if not the video embedded (keep your eyes out for that).
In closing I just want to thank everyone who was in charge of the planning of this event, thank you to all those who came not only from the kc area but for those who traveled from omaha and des moines, and thank you to all those who are out there in those cities and others in the midwest showing that the midwest is a place where tech/social media can be born and can have the same impact of those from both coasts!
After all the events were over and we were all traveling back to our homes and such the question was asked where do we go from here? What do we do to keep this great thing called Highlight Midwest going? How do we help it grow even more?
We’re following each other on twitter now, let’s take that a step further and start reading each other’s blogs. Do a little exploring on people’s twitter profiles and find blogs/sites that interest you. Add at least a few of the people from each city to your RSS reader.
1. Don’t just subscribe, but commit to reading their blogs.
2. Don’t just read, take it up a notch by commenting on their blogs.
3. Don’t just comment, share their blogs with your network by tweeting about their posts.
4. Don’t just talk up their blogs, ask them to do a guest post on your blog.
5. Shake it well, repeat.
What can you do to help the midwest tech community grow and become even better!
Thats right kids a new episode of The Social Geeks Podcast is live for the taking. I didnt make it till about the last 5 min of the show due to being at Highlight Midwest all day but I did jump on when I got home and was able to say hello to everyone as well as pimp out the day I had at Highlight Midwest.
Its that time again and a new episode of The Social Geeks podcast is live. This week we switched over and started using talkshoe so that we could have people listen in live to the show as well as give us real time comments and maybe even join in! So make sure you watch my twitter stream and I will let everyone know when we are recording and you can join in on the fun.
Have you ever wanted to find entries across the social web on a certain subject or keyword? Wanna see what maybe is being said about you or your brand? Enter Social Mention.
Social Mention is a social media search engine that searches user-generated content such as blogs, comments, bookmarks, events, news, videos, and microblogging services.
Services that are used in searches with Social Mention include:
* Google blog search
* Twitter
* Delicious
* FriendFeed
* Flickr
* Digg
* YouTube
