The Boston Communications Happy Hour and the Social Media Club are joining forces on Wednesday, May 28th. Social media mavens will mix with other communications professionals for a networking and social event at Legal Seafood’s outside bar in the courtyard at The Charles Hotel in Cambridge.

The Boston Communications Happy Hour was organized by Jenny Krentzman, and is a relaxed way to network with communications pros in the Boston area. They meet once a month in Cambridge and take turns planning the venue. Agency, media, analyst, student and corporate folks from companies including Clarity PR, Emerson, Foley Hoag, Forrester Research, KeyBank, Novell, Nuance, Staples, Sunlife, Text 100, The Horn Group, Shift Communications and Waggener Edstrom Worldwide have been known to attend on a regular basis.

Here are the details:

Date: Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Time: 6:00 p.m. until whenever
Where: Legal Seafood Outdoor Bar in the courtyard at The Charles Hotel - right outside of Noir

On Tuesday, May 20th, PRSA is planning a great event on social media and the future of journalism. SIGN UP NOW!

Newsrooms are shrinking and many industry trade magazines continue on their low-calorie diets. Meanwhile, advertising revenues continue to shift online, where publishers are still trying to find the right business model. Print isn’t the only industry being challenged–television is facing the repercussions of video on-demand (and the ability to fast-forward through commercials), while radio is trying to figure out how to make its content available online in streaming and podcast formats while maintaining ad revenues.

Veteran journalist Paul Gillin, author of “The New Influencers” and the upcoming book “Secrets of Social Media Marketing”, leads a panel of reporters, editors and producers through a discussion of the future of journalism in a social media world. The big questions we’ll ask:

* How are blogs, podcasts and online video impacting the both the business and the reporting of news?
* Will journalists need to master video, audio and photography in order to practice their craft in the future?
* How has the journalism profession been impacted by the success of bloggers moving into the reporting business?
* What does the future have in store for mainstream media? How can those media stay relevant in a changing information world?

[UPDATED 7 MAY 2008] Our panelists so far include:
* Ted McEnroe, Director of Digital Media, NECN
* Robin Lubbock, Director of New Media, WBUR
* Howard Sholkin, Director of Communications & Marketing Programs, IDG Communications

SIGN UP NOW! (The event will be held at the American Cancer Society offices right by the Weston tolls (intersection of the Mass Pike and 128 / I-95.)

You’re invited to join the Social Media Club Boston on March 13th for ”The Search for Results: Social Media and Search Marketing.”This event will explore the following:

• Why SEO is an important component of a social media marketing strategy
• What are SEOs doing with social media on behalf of their clients
• What are some of the tools being used by SEOs for social media optimization 

Networking starts at 6pm and the panel kicks off at 6:30pm at 800 West Cummings Park in Woburn. Directions and registration is online at http://socialmediaclub.pbwiki.com/BostonMarch2008.  

Our moderator for the event will be Amanda Watlington, the owner of Searching for Profit, a search marketing consultancy focusing on the interaction of the consumer with businesses, using search engines, RSS, blogs, podcasting, or other new media to deliver their messages. An industry thought leader and an internationally-recognized speaker, Amanda has led sessions on search marketing, web strategy, and social media at Search Engine Strategies, Webmaster World, AdTech, and DMA. She shares her views of where search marketing is headed at her own blog, Blogs and Feeds, and as a blogger for Search Engine Watch.  Amanda will be joined by a panel of experts that includes:

• Thom Brodeur, Senior Vice President, Global Strategy and Development, Marketwire 
• Greg Jarboe, President and Co-Founder of SEO-PR search engine optimization firm and public relations agency with offices in San Francisco and Boston
• Andrew Komack, founder and president of KoMarketing Associates, LLC 
• Sherwood Stranieri, Director of SEO at SMG Search a division of Starcom Mediavest Group 

Thank you to our sponsor Marketwire for making this event possible!

Sorry for the delay, but the audio from the February Social Media Club Boston event is now available via the Topaz blog and the Social Media Club Boston audio feed. It was another sold-out, well-attended session with great discussions and lots of lessons learned! See you again next month!

The official Social Media Club Boston mailing list is moving to iContact! Please sign up using the form below to receive all official announcements going forward, which should come from the email address announcements@socialmediaboston.org. (Note: members of the old mailman list will be moved over automatically.)

The new list is hosted by iContact, which has graciously offered to cover the costs of all Social Media Club Boston mailing list management. Thank you iContact! The official switch-over will happen on Monday, February 11th.

At that time, the old mailman list will be purged. However, that list will remain active, and going forward will be used as our discussion forum. If you want to join the discussion forum, please visit the mailman page after February 11th and sign up again for that list. That list is perfect for questions, queries and all non-promotional use.

SPONSORED AND HOSTED BY

Another Social Media Club Boston event has sold out! Thursday’s panel on “Civics, Social Media and the Countdown to Election ‘08″, which starts at 6pm, will take place in a packed room at Harvard’s Institute of Politics.

The Institute of Politics has graciously opened their doors during a very busy time to host this event, and we’re very thankful to them and to moderator John Della Volpe for making this possible. Thank you! Hold the date: our next event is on Search Engine Marketing and will take place on March 13th!

Social Media Club Boston has a great (and very timely) event in store for you on February 7th, two days after the primaries: We’ll be talking about Civics, Social Media and the Countdown to Election ‘08.

Our panel will be moderated by John Della Volpe, director of polling at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics and founder of SocialSphere Strategies, a Web 2.0 strategy company located in Harvard Square, Cambridge. He’ll be joined by some really smart people including Joseph Carrabis, who has gotten very good at predicting elections (and many other things) simply by analyzing media coverage.

They’ll be joined by a few other folks (and if you have suggestions, please send them to tvanhoosear@topazpartners.com and gpc@pevco.net), and will focus on answering questions like:

- What roll will social media play voters’ decision-making processes?
- What tools and techniques are campaigns looking at to communicate with their constituencies?
- What’s in store for November’s election, and future elections?

Please stay tuned for more information, but in the meantime, please mark your calendar for the evening of February 7th.

More information, as it is available, will be posted here: http://socialmediaclub.pbwiki.com/BostonFebruary2008

Thanks!

Doug Haslam of Topaz Partners captured a great audio file of last night’s event. It’s available at the Topaz blog, as well as in the Social Media Club Boston audio (RSS) feed.

Good news! If you’re on the waiting list, you have an opportunity to attend tonight’s sold out event. We’ve moved the event to a larger room to accomodate the extra demand, so if you’re on the official waiting list, you should have received an email from Beth Bryant letting you know we can still fit you in. We can only accomodate folks who were on the waiting list as of late yesterday. Thanks!

Please note the new location is the Executive Dining Room on the 3rd floor in the LaCava Center (Building # 52/53). An online map is available.

Tonight’s event is sold out. We’ve gotten a lot of requests to squeeze people in, but there’s simply no room, so hopefully you signed up in time. We will make the proceedings available online via audio ASAP. And we’ll look into bigger rooms the next time around! :-) Thanks for all the interest!