It has been a few weeks since we launched the new Social Media Club website, http://SocialMediaClub.org, a resource that will allow you to engage within your local chapters while exploring the world of social media with the best in presentations, events, news and discussion – valuable content generated by you and the other like-minded innovators from our more than 200 chapters across the globe.
Together we can create a "Library of Alexandria" of social media, but the first step of this journey is of course to fill out your library card – a membership profile.
As the site just launched recently, there have of course been bugs. Many chapters are still transferring outside websites and Nings to the main website, but that will come soon enough. In the meantime, in order to make sure we get this automobile out of the garage and running on all six cylinders we need your help putting it through the paces on the race track – and we're going to walk you through the process now.
1. Click "Join" in the upper right hand corner of the homepage to view membership options.
You'll be presented with a list of options, from a Free Membership to Professional – with options for Non-Profit & Government, Education, Small Business and Corporate.
In order to access all of the public information on the site you only need to choose Free Membership, however by upgrading at any time you receive some great benefits including the opportunity to be published in publications like the Social Media Journal, highlighted in our Speakers Bureau, or featured in our business services directory.
2. Click "Register Now" and activate your profile
From here you will be able to select your membership type, establish your membership user-id and password. But that's the boring stuff, as next comes to fun part…
3. Optimizing Your Profile
After you upload a photo, highlight your profession and personality in a bio, link to your website and all the standard options, you can then identify which is your primary Social Media Club chapter and link up with them.
Additionally, you can provide links to the outside social media services where people can find you most: Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Please "Pardon our progress" on the layout of this section, which we know is not the most attractive one around – a facelift to make it more intuitive is in the works. But as we improve the menu, the options you need are all ready and at your disposal.
If you selected a Professional membership, you'll have additional options for customizing your profile through our Social Media Club Speakers Bureau. These options include:
a. A speaker's bio
b. Listing of past speaking engagements
c. Links to press clippings
d. Embedded media, from photos to video and presentations
If you selected a Small Business or Corporate Membership, you will also have additional options for highlighting your business and services in our directory.
4. Explore the World
What's going on in our India, Nashville, or Washington, D.C chapters? Click and find out. Get new ideas to bring to your local community, share your best practices, all the best components of good social media at your finger tips.
Admittedly right now many of the chapter profiles are vacant, as we just recently launched the site and most of our chapters are just starting to shift from using outside services like Ning, but the migration has begun and it all starts with filling out a membership profile and posting your chapter's events, blog posts and other features. In the meantime, a good way to go directly to chapters around that have begun updating their chapters pages, visit the Event Directory.
Run into an issue, or see something that you think should be improved? Thats exactly what we need, your participation to make this new resource the best it can be. So please take 5 minutes to create a membership profile, and be part of the next big step.
And again, let us know your ideas for improvements, because while together we're on our way to somewhere special, we're not there yet – and if it doesn't come from you who knows where Google Maps will send us.
