Does your Chapter need an easy to organize event that **gasp** even your Leadership team can enjoy while it's happening instead of worrying about event logistics?  Consider throwing "#TheSocial."

What is #TheSocial?  In 2011, Social Media Club Sacramento created a new event type to go along with our monthly forums and quarterly business workshops.  We saw the need to have a purely social event that invited our community to mix and mingle.  We branded this event "#TheSocial" to distinguish it from the growing number of #TweetUps in the Sacramento region.  And it isn't just for people who tweet--anyone interested in getting to know other social media enthusiasts is welcome to attend!  People unfamiliar with our Club feel more comfortable checking us out for the first time at an informal event like #TheSocial.  Curious? Take a peek at our upcoming #TheSocial on February 7 at de Vere's Irish Pub.

Here's our recipe for a fun mixer:

1. Partner with a hip restaurant/bar to be the venue for the event-- offer to bring 60+ people on a slow Tuesday night!
2. In exchange for promotion, see if the venue sponsor will create a special "Happy Hour" priced drink and provide appetizers at a reduced rate (we don't ask our host to provide them for free but our hosts have made our $200 budget go a long way).
3. Create an event page (we use eventbrite) and invite everyone who has ever attended one of your events (we create our mailing list in eventbrite -- it's a compliation of all our event attendees).  Note: We don't have an admission price for #TheSocial -- we use money we collect at other events to fund it.
4. Factor "no shows" into your maximum number of tickets -- for free events, our Club experiences about a 30% no show rate. So if the venue can accomodate 100 people, we "sell" 130 tickets.
5. Send a reminder the day before the event via Eventbrite, and be sure to promo your venue and any other sponsors of the event.

Event Agenda

6-8 is the window of time we set for our #TheSocial event.

We speak for about 10 minutes, including drawing for door prizes (see below) at about 7:15 pm.

Optional 1:  Print name tags for everyone who has registered, including their Twitter ID (we ask for their Twitter ID on the Eventbrite registration).  Set up a place to check in when they arrive to pick up their name badge-- it's a great opportunity to hand out information about upcoming Club events and to have a Club representative available to answer any questions they might have.

Optional 2:  Help promote other local businesses by partnering with them on door prizes.  Everyone who attends gets a ticket for the door prize drawing.  We have had great luck scoring prizes from restaurants, performing arts organizations, the Zoo, museums--just be sure to promote them on your Facebook page, on Twitter and in your Eventbrite listing.

Optional 3:  Make it fun and have a photobooth! We usually work with a marketing promotions crew to make that happen but at our next event, we are test driving an iSnap photo kiosk. Be sure to post the photos on your Facebook page!