Are you sick of hearing my opinion on everything and anything related to social media? I hope not because you have three more chances this week. Somehow these all landed in one week. If I had an agent they would probably tell me I’m at risk of over exposure or something. Really I’m just excited to hang out with so many cool people.

#SocialMedia

This Tuesday I will be hosting the #SocialMedia Twitter chat at 12:00 EST 9:00 PST. You can follow along here #SM55 or on the #Social Media site.

The topic is: How do you manage the effectiveness of your social programs? (READ MORE)

Social Media Breakfast Bellingham

On Wednesday night I’ll be speaking to Bellingham’s Social Media Breakfast (yes a Social Media Breakfast at night - that’s just how they roll). If you’re in the area you can pick up your tickets here.

My topic is how to use social media as a catalyst for economic development.

Maybe I should have warned them that this is what happened the last time I talked about local economic development?

Social Media 201

Thursday I’ll be attending the Social Media 201 event in Redmond on Microsoft’s campus. I somehow managed to be the lucky guy that gets to be on a panel with Shauna Casey and Heidi Miller.

The panel is entitled: Social Media Next Steps.

It’s going to be a busy week, be sure to join tomorrows tweetchat and if you’re at any of the other events make sure to stop me and say hi.

Join us on the New Comm Biz Facebook Page or follow along on Twitter.

Why Every Small Town Should Throw a Social Media Event

LEGO PartyI’m a total sucker for economic development initiatives. Since my days running TechBoise, helping start IgniteBoise and in general being involved in helping get the Boise tech community up and running, I really appreciate the effort it takes to build a thriving business community.  Today I’m at the Social Media Conference North West in Mt. Vernon Washington. Unlike many of the events I’ve been at lately there aren’t any A-list bloggers, no one’s speaking about their latest book on social media and there are real businesses (you know the kind with real revenue) trying to figure out if their coffee shop should have a blog or how best to use Facebook.

Here at #smconfNW every breakout session is packed. They have a sellout event for the second year in a row. In fact every social media event I’ve been to since 2008 is always at capacity. Every event sells out, especially the smaller local ones.When I talk to my friends from different businesses I hear the same thing, every business conference is about social media right now or social media is a major theme.

Yes there’s a lot of hype but social media is real, it’s here to stay and it’s impacting every business sector. The most diverse conferences are social media conferences. You get the best mix of business people and geeks mingling and nothing is better for economic development than geeks and business people hanging out.

I don’t care how big or small your community is, you need to hold a social media conference. If your town’s to small make it a county initiative. If that’s not feasible hold a town tweetup. If you’re reading this and your area doesn’t have a Social Media Club, Social Media Breakfast, Twestival, Ignite, Beer and Blog or some other form of social media related event it is now your job to start one. If you only have one start another.

Go ahead, tweet that you want to start an event in your area and see what happens. Seriously, right now.

Photo credit by photomequickbooth

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