“If you get it, share it.” A simple yet powerful phrase that has served as a key mission statement for Social Media Club since its launch in 2006.
With more than 350 chapters worldwide, Social Media Club has grown into an organization that not only connects social media professionals and enthusiasts, but impacts many communities through members’ advocacy and service.
We are proud of the impact our local chapters make through these initiatives, and as we head into 2013, Social Media Club is announcing a new annual award – specifically recognizing the efforts of a carefully selected “outstanding chapter.”
Selecting a single “outstanding chapter” is a difficult decision and in no way takes away from the impact other chapters are making. The chapter selected each year will be one chosen by a panel made up of chapter leaders and members of our Board of Directors and deserves special recognition for their outstanding efforts in representing Social Media Club goals and values through promoting digital advocacy and serving the local community.
We’ll share more later in the year on how you can nominate yours, or any other chapter. Meantime, we are pleased to announce our inaugural recipient for 2012, as selected by the Social Media Club Board of Directors.
The 2012 Outstanding Chapter Recognition is proudly presented to our Kansas City chapter, #SMCKC.
Throughout the year, SMCKC hosts a regular schedule of monthly breakfasts, happy hours, and most recently a new professional lunch series. The events are designed to offer a valuable combination of education, networking and community outreach. They draw increasingly large crowds, often reaching “sell out” capacity.
At the same time, SMCKC leaders and members support numerous initiatives in the Kansas City community, focused on digital advocacy and education, community outreach, and awareness and fundraising for area nonprofits. These SMCKC initiatives have made a very real and tangible impact in the community, and have pushed SMCKC in to the spotlight on many occasions, not only receiving public recognition from Kansas City Mayor Sly James, but considerable attention from local and regional media. SMCKC was even featured nationally by Forbes for their role in the MLB All-Star Game Social Media Command Center.
These initiatives and the recognition received not only reflect on the leaders and members of SMCKC, but illustrate at a greater level the mission of Social Media Club to promote digital advocacy and to make a positive impact in the communities served by its local chapters.
A few of SMCKC’s community initiatives from 2012:
- In 2011, Give us a Gig began as a community-driven initiative led by SMCKC Chairman Aaron Deacon, to help communities prepare for Google Fiber coming to Kansas City in 2012. Throughout 2012, SMCKC members volunteered as ‘Give us a Gig ambassadors’ in communities across Kansas City to help educate, engage and advocate for the rollout of the high-speed fiber-optic internet service.
- Paint the Town Green was a community effort organized to encourage Google Fiber pre-registrations with the goal of all neighborhoods meeting the threshold (ranging from 5 – 25% of neighborhood households) and receiving connection to the high speed internet. Through a partnership with neighbor.ly, the online efforts as well as door to door and telephone calls to residents, resulted in over $11,000 raised and donated to help homes pre-register. 180 of the 202 participating Kansas City neighborhoods reached the preregistration threshold, were turned green and will be connected to Google Fiber in 2013.
- The Social Media Command Center for the 2012 MLB All-Star Game was a joint initiative between SMCKC, Mayor Sly James’ Office, the Convention and Visitors Association, and several KC based businesses, including tax giant H&R Block. This team of professionals and volunteers invested countless hours into the project and harnessed the power of a passionate community to showcase the city through the Social Media Command Center – the first of its kind for an All-Star Game. The Command Center filtered some 70,000 posts. Of those, they read and tagged over 30,000 posts, cataloging and featuring the best of them on VisitKC’s social hub. By the end of the All-Star Game, 2,100 individuals got hands-on help from Command Center volunteers.
- SMCKC members helped 400 residents in a low-income neighborhood gain access to broadband and digital literacy education by collecting used computers to be donated to Connecting for Good – a nonprofit organization seeking to close the digital divide in Kansas City.
- SMCKC members are volunteering to teach a dozen Kansas City teens to use social media as a part of a Digital Media Lab led by a Teen Advisory Board and The Kansas City Public Library and funded by the MacArthur Foundation. The lab will be a physical space where teens can go to spread their messages in the form of digital media.
- As part of their specific goal to give back to the community, SMCKC have hosted a number of philanthropically-themed events throughout the year, supporting and promoting organizations such as the Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired, The Salvation Army, Toys for Tots, and Harvester’s. Most recently SMCKC partnered with Comfort Keepers to raise nearly 700 meals for the Stop Senior Hunger campaign.
We thank SMCKC for their outstanding representation of Social Media Club goals and values and ask you to join us in congratulating them on winning this award.
