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I'm writing this during Super Bowl Sunday and all of this talk about game winning strategies has me thinking about our own strategies with SMCKC and how we're going to bring things to the next level in 2012.

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It's been a wild ride so far and with so much success and growth for the group in 2011, the entire board had to bring their game faces to our all-day planning meeting in early January.

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During that planning session, we were able to dig into a ton of feedback and data collected from all of our members and use that to help decide where the group wanted to and could go within the next year─and beyond that to 3 or 5 years from now.

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I'd like to share with you the goals and objectives that came out of that session, as well as some of the tactics and actions we'll be taking during the year to make those goals a reality.

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Before we get into the meat of the blog post, I'd like to first take a small time out to thank Aaron Deacon, our Events Chair, for the work he did to not only help facilitate our planning meeting, but also to collect and organize the learnings from that day into what we'll be going over shortly.  I'd also like to thank the rest of the board for taking an entire Sunday away from their families to help us insure a successful 2012 for SMCKC.  

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It's also important to remind all of you of SMCKC's DNA.  Understanding the pillars that are the foundation of the group, really helps to bring the vision in focus when we start talking about 2012 and beyond. Here's SMCKC from a 10,000 ft view:

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Membership

Our most important priority is YOU!  Social Media and therefore, SMCKC is first and foremost about engagement, connection, and community for you, the members.

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Community

We want SMCKC to be a valuable resource for the Kansas City community.  We also want to help elevate Kansas City to be recognized regionally as well as nationally as a leader in the social media industry.

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Business

In 2008 we wanted to enable each of our members to be an advocate for social media in the business community.  As employees, owners, consultants or simply as a voice to the decision makers saying, "Hey, have you thought about..." Though this continues in 2012, we now have a part of our membership that are professionals within social media departments or teams within their businesses and want to build an environment for those members to interact, have deeper conversations and share best practices.

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Membership, Community and Business are used as big flags that we plant in the ground.  Everything we do and all decisions we make stream to and from these pillars, and 2012 is no exception.

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SMCKC 2012 Membership Goals:

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Better serve the needs of our professional members

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2012 will be the year that we really begin creating value for our professional members.  With social media moving at such a quick pace, we admit to sometimes watering down some content in the past in attempt to make it palatable for those in all levels of the social media education spectrum.

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In order to become the social media professional organization of Kansas City, we've got to provide our professional members with high level content, best practices, access to other professionals from across the country and world, speaking opportunities and other ways to grow and learn that no other organization can come close to offering.

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Effectively engage new and existing members with varying levels of social media experience

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Though we will be putting some resources behind our professional members, we can't forget about the DNA of our organization.  We are and always have been a place where people can learn, engage, and discuss both online and offline about the technologies that are changing the way we communicate with each other. We’ll continue to bring the top minds both in the city and around the country to come a speak to our group, facilitate conversations on the topics that are in the spotlight and provide value for members that are professionals, students, advocates as well as those with a passion for the technology and communicating and sharing in new ways with their friends and family. What we will continue to grow and foster in our membership is education and passion for technology literacy.

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SMCKC 2012 Community Goal:

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Improve visibility and credibility of SMCKC locally and work to create more national awareness of the social media community in Kansas City

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We’re doing some really cool things in Kansas City and we want people to know it.  We want to help create and tell stories of the people and places in Kansas City that are trying new things and leveraging technology to interact with their communities, employees or neighborhoods.  In 2012 we’ll be leveraging our relationship with SMC Nationals, formalizing/activating our communications and PR processes and relationships, continuing our work with non-profit organizations and our Google Fiber initiatives like Give Us a Gig.

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SMCKC 2012 Business Goal:

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Become exemplary users of marketing and social media tools

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You gotta practice what your preach, eat your own dog food and always walk the walk.  Since a lot of our conversations with our members take place online, there are a ton of insights that we can learn about what our members like, what they want and what they don’t.  We look forward to formalizing a lot of our practices and procedures, bettering our employment of various technologies in the social space, using social channels to better complement our offline events and continue to create and push our content and platform strategy.

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We’re currently working on boiling down the main strategies behind each goal and the game plan behind what actions and tactics we’ll take to get us over the mountain.  We’ll be sharing with you quarterly how we’re pacing.

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Couldn’t do any of this without your help! Please share with us your thoughts on our goals for 2012.  Your feedback will help us stay on track and keep us moving closer to becoming the largest and most engaged social media organization in the country.