We try to embody that message by meeting in person, over coffee or breakfast, sometimes brunch to talk shop. The first meetup took place at the Union Market Mission Viejo and we had a great turn out.

The latest one happened at A Market in Newport Beach and it was great. You should come out next time. Whether you're a realtor, an entrepreneur, an analyst looking to network and learn social networking.

Here's a short recap of some of the topics we covered.

Social Media Breakfast #2 Recap

The post Social Media Breakfast Recap appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

You should try to make it tone of the events. I know it's tough to get up and be there by 9am on Saturdays, but if you are involved in social media, or digital marketing or if you want to become involved with this, then you must attend this meeting.

The post SMMOC Whiteboard Notes appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

William Blumberg - @WilliamBlumberg
So we are what we tweet @notagrouch... #SMMOC - I'll be curating tweets into a post so tweet away and make sure use the tag.

Nice William. So what's the next project?

LindaAbbit - @LindaAbbit
Per @theRECoach: post a 1min video answering a biz Q via YouTube daily #smmoc

Great tip on an easy way to use Youtube for your business. This applies to ALL businesses that deal with consumers or other businesses. You can find questions everywhere.

Sometimes your clients emails contain questions you can clean up and pose in a section on your site as a "Dear Abby" type of place. You could go on Quora and find questions you can answer.

An alternative to this is also just doing 1 minute features in your community's interests. For example realtors might want to talk about the new development happening down the street. Or a new favorite store opening a location nearby. Etc.

The video starts a bit into his conversation midway, but you didn't miss much and in fact he's going to recap about 20 seconds into it. The part that you miss is that Eric says that as a business owner in average you answer about 9 questions per day (I think he said per day). And these questions usually are similar or the same ones that many other people have.

By being in the radio, both he and I know that most people will not ask the question themselves but will really pay attention when someone else asks and an expert answers. Be the expert that answers questions about your industry or niche. This will help. Guaranteed. Do it in Quora, Youtube, your blog, (always try to bring it back to the blog somehow).

(video without notes and unedited: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCSp2dg-mtU )

Become a resource!

video

Here's Eric's tip, as you answer questions for your clients, on email and in person, or over the phone, why not turn that into a "FAQ" or simply a question you answer in a post on your blog. You're answering up to 9 or more questions anyway per day. You might as well capitalize on that and turn them into videos, blogposts, podcasts or whatever you can that makes you have new fresh and relevant content.

So Eric Brought up "The Answer man from the 80s" more like the 70s. Check it out, this was the only one I could find on Youtube:

Cindy Ronzoni - @cindyronzoni
Great day to be at #smmoc if you are a newbie. Going over strategy basics.

I have to agree Cindy! It was a good discussion. A bit of the same things we've talked about but it's good to revisit and hear new perspectives.

TheRECoach - @TheRECoach
RT @melaclaro: .#SMMOC's acronym of the day CAPTCHA = "Computer Assisted Public Touring to Tell Computers and Humans Apart"

That's a mouthful. Try saying that 3 times quickly! Better yet, try to remember that next week.

Kevin Sablan - @ksablan
RT @melaclaro: #SMMOC "Dunbar Number" = http://t.co/GsJ6T72u

The Dunbar number relates to the number of people that you can have as friends or in your network according to certain research and theories.

Cindy Ronzoni - @cindyronzoni
One of the most unrealized aspects of social media is remembering it takes time to build relationships #smmoc

Absolutely. I have to agree. This takes time and work and genuine care!

Mel Aclaro - @melaclaro
By the way, to all the dads in the #SMMOC group - I wish you a great day. :))

happy Father's Day to everyone from Mel and everyone at #SMMOC

Pictures

Elsa-Bugarini-SMMOC-IMG_9143 ElsaBugarini-LindaAbbit-kevinsablan-smmoc-9146 meganenloe-tweeting-smmoc

Elsa Bugarini - @urdigitalmedia from  http://brilliantmobile.com/

Linda Abbit - @LindaAbbit from http://tenderlovingeldercare.com/

Kevin Sablan - @kSablan from: http://almightylink.ksablan.com/

A few more tweets...

Bob (Robert) Watson - @TopBrokerOC
"Be the Answer Man for your industry" @TheRECoach #SMMOC

Quote of the day!

William Blumberg - @WilliamBlumberg
No photo means no social to me @cindyronzoni: Never accept a new twitter or Facebook user if they don't have a photo.... #smmoc

I agree! This is one of those basic checks and balances. If you don't know the person and they don't have an avatar defined they're likely spammers.

Mel Aclaro - @melaclaro
BREAKING #SMMOC NEWS: SMDAYOC on June 29 - are you registered? http://t.co/GsJ6T72u Plz RT

Be there.

Kevin Sablan - @ksablan
By the way, #smmoc , another great thing about @bufferapp is that the creators listen on Twitter.

@bufferapp is really cool. I just wish it didn't break reply threads when you use it for replies.

Strategy & Donuts at SMMOC

Lots of great discussions again. Some covering strategy, other conversations covered content production and sourcing as well as distribution. If you want to join, meetups happen almost every Saturday. For up-to-date information on schedules visit the official site at SMMOC.com

The post #SMMOC june 16 Strategy for social content appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

SMMOC returns after a couple weeks hiatus! CRM & Foursquare topics.

Kevin Sablan - @ksablan
Since #smmoc IRL is pitch-free, maybe it's good that I can't attend today. Sign up for #smdayoc now!

Don't miss out. Here's your early alert to attend this great event!

Stephen P. Kane - @StephenPKane
@williamblumberg @stawwitch @edwardmcoffin @johnchow @rallenr Good morning fellow #smmoc ers

And good morning to you! And everyone else in here @michellelecours @kathyklingaman @melaclaro @woodysmithx1

Woody Smith - @woodysmith1x
Talking at #CRM here at #SMMOC.

Great discussion on both CMS and CRMs at #SMMOC - We talked about the following apps in this regard:

Streak for Chrome / Google.
Nimble - Social CRM
Salesforce (not my favorite)
MS Dynamics CRM (not my favorite)
Zoho - Free and online (mixed opinions on this)

@Zengy Pointed out something that is critical to the decision making for CMS and CRMs. Your workflow makes all the difference in how you should choose the software.

Steve Zehngut - @Zengy
Mentioned this morning. Great blog about security issues. http://t.co/NokdmgfR #smmoc @sucuri_security

Great blog pointed out by @zengy. This is the Sucuri blog, awesome security company that takes care of your hacked site and prevents your site from getting hacked in the first place.

Stephen P. Kane - @StephenPKane
Takeaway quote from todays #SMMOC meetup, "Headlines sell blog posts". C topics photo. http://t.co/fye1xrUR

And how this is true! Headlines make or break posts sometimes, It's your 3 second pitch, your hook, your bait to get people to read the rest.

Woody Smith - @woodysmith1x
#Hootsuite has link expanders showing where shortened links go, allowing spam avoidance. Look for "+" sign next to links. #SMMOC

This is pretty useful, especially as more and more url shorteners come onto the scene. This is a good way to verify a link before you go to it. It doesn't always work, like @JohnChow showed during the meeting. And sometimes they take a little while to reveal the entire link after you click on the "+" but nonetheless, this is a great option available in hootsuite.

In some cases, other apps, even Twitter (web) shows you the real link even if the link was shortened.

Always be careful of what you click on, be sure your browser is up-to-date and make sure you have antivirus installed on your computer.

William Blumberg - @WilliamBlumberg
How to use bad Yelp comments From http://t.co/cNTktMlF #smmoc

That was funny. And I think that's a great way of taking advantage of seemingly bad publicity. In all honesty, when a disgruntal client complaints about services or goods, it's always good to look at the whole picture.

Maybe this was a mistake in a given day, or maybe the guest or client had a bad day, or they are generally just nasty anyway and will always give negative comments.

When researching a place to do business with, don't just look at a bad review as a sign of trouble. Look at the majority of the reviews, understand the tone of the bad and good reviews, and do your own basic research.

Remember, crowds aren't always the smartest. Ultimately you have to decide if certain reviews apply to you or your situation.

Carol Hink - @CarolHink
Waving Hi & sending much Gratitude to awesome gang at #SMMOC !!! So appreciate your help :))

Missing a lot of people this morning at #SMMOC - @CarolHink, @LindaAbbit, @JeffHester.

@JeffHester is preparing for his wedding! Congratulations and I hope it's awesome!

@LisaMcClure & @DarinRMcClure are on the road today. Stay safe!

We have Food!

When SMMOC goes dark for a while, people tend to bring food and today was no exception. @zengy brough in some awesome bagels, @DniseSonnenberg brought some home-made baked goodness and @DanielaBolzmann got us some awesome cupcakes from @TheQueensBakery. By the way, this is how you eat a cupcake properly:

Closing comments

After at least 4 weeks of not being at SMMOC for various reasons, it was great to network and meetup with familiar faces.

The topics we covered at #SMMOC were diverse but also very relevant. We got great discussions about using Yelp vs Foursquare and what the value is for each one. Personally I get tremendous value from using both. Foursquare is huge for me and I use it for fun and business. I use Yelp more from a consumer point of view when I want to research a particular business or service.

One of the things we covered about Yelp is how sometimes some really good reviews get hidden from normal view. Sometimes the way these reviews are filtered seems unfair to the business and even seems like a disservice to the real users. But don't fret, you can always read these reviews. Just like @DanielaBolzmann pointed out, you can sort reviews with other methods. Normally you see the "Yelp Sorting" method which shows reviews based on Yelp's own algorithms.

To see all the reviews and sort them in other ways, use the links provided within the review itself. There are two places. One is at the end of the business listing and before the reviews start, like in the screenshot below:

And one is to show the filtered or hidden reviews as shown below:

We covered CRMs and CMSs, also we talked about how to avoid spamming your own facebook wall with one type of update. Most people frown upon the practice of posting one type of update to your own wall constantly. Try to mix it up a bit, like @MichelleLecous said, show the complexity and sophistication of your personality. Otherwise we see you as a boring one-sided person. And spammy to boot!

Other apps we talked about were Instapaper, Instagram, WordPress and Pinterest.

Hope to see you there next time!

pictures

smmoc-attendees smmoc-topics-notes cupcakes-smmoc-queens-bakery queens-bakery-smmoc-bolzmann smmoc-guys-setting-tables starting-smmoc-with-power

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This post was generated by Dashter

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The goal of the Scoop.it SMMOC topic is to help members get visibility into their own posts or videos. You can also see the latest posts from the SMMOC page on my own website.

If you don't want to add a story, but just read the ones that get posted, you can subscribe to the feed from the scoop.it page. Look for the RSS symbol and add the page to your favorite feed reader.

The post SMMOC Scoop This! appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I've heard this now a few times. Meetup.com Is that the network is the best real "social" network. I see it as connecting real life interests with virtual communities and truly bridging the geographical gaps.

When you realize that there are other people interested in the same things as you are, and you can likely find a group of them meeting on a regular basis, within 10 or 15 miles from your location, that's cool. This has never happened before at this scale. These people are meeting, quickly online and then in real life. And trust me! they're not just tweeting about it, they're not just blogging about it.

Take for example even SMMOC is fueled by meetup.com. Meetup.com is quietly growing and will be shaking things up quite a bit. Connecting people in real life, that's where it all comes down to.

That's powerful. That's a strong network. And my thoughts on #Foursquare is that #Fsq is cool but in comparing the two, Meetup.com vs Foursquare?

They're very different so I wouldn't compare them much. Meetup.com joins you with like-minded individuals in a comfortable group setting. Foursquare in the other hand tells you which places are the happening spots around your current location.

Cheryl Hawley - @CherylAHawley
To find events in your area do you favor @foursquare or @meetup? #smmoc

I thought this was a great topic of discussion. Regarding a choice between the two, well they're really both two different things. Meetup is really good at bridging the digital knowledge and virtual relationshiphs into real in life meetings.

I've met some really great people at different meetups. But like @24x7media said, the people attending all have a common interest.

Foursquare in the other hand is good at telling you what type of places might be good to visit because they are trendy. Or at least trendy within social media circles, scratch that... at least within those that play Foursquare. In the grand scheme of things Foursquare isn't that big. But it's getting there...

Jeff Hester - @jeffhester
RT @DarinRMcClure: Time to lurk the #SMMOC hashtag & enjoy the cutting edge thought on the social space that happens there... Good Morni ...

See!? Everybody does it, so you might as well do it and next time you have to miss #SMMOC just lurk. Use the hashtag (as covered in today's meetup) to follow what people are talking. You can choose to participate or just watch.

William Blumberg - @WilliamBlumberg
Here are some operators for Twitter http://t.co/JuwRRj0T #SMMOC

Not the smooth operator kind, but the Advanced Search Operators. As mentioned in the meeting today, these are called Boolean. You can find more info about Boolean searching with this basic intro to boolean searching on the internet page .

The basics boolean searching is that you can pick a search that has multiple parameters, perhaps joining two different sets of data, or excluding a section of the data by using a filter and excluding certain terms.

Bob (Robert) Watson - @TopBrokerOC
One way to totally irritate your customer #ATT is to throttle back my iPhone data speed. #SMMOC

AT&T... You really don't want to upset @TopBrokerOC... He's got Klout and a room full of people every Saturday morning. Just cut the crap and let people have unlimited data, really. This is just greedy!

This post was curated with: Dashter

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Ifttt is similar to other services like Yahoo Pipes, or Tarpipe; it takes a source of content and sends it to a destination. The source can be an email, RSS, SMS, Facebook, Read it Later or others. The destination can be Twitter, email, a phone call, a blogpost or others.

A common use of such a tool is, for example, taking a blogpost and automatically sharing it on Twitter; that's an easy example. Using what you call tasks, ifttt can do much more than just retweet your blogposts. It can save a picture you've shared on Instagram and upload it to Facebook. Maybe you want to change your Twitter profile picture when you update your profile photo on Facebook; yes, ifttt.com can do that for you.

So for my SMMOC friends and collegues, here's a brief video introduction to IFTTT.com. The video should give you a good overview of what you can do and how simple it is to use.

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