pic used w/permission of Wm. Marc Salsberry of TechZulu (more pics & videos can be found at their site)

I had the pleasure of attending the LA Social Media Club event at Mahola’s headquarters here in LA this past Monday night.

Approximately 200 people in and outside of the social media realm attended the event which included dinner, drinks, networking, and a panel discussion emceed by Jackie Peters of HeavyBag Media and including Nicole Jordan from Rubicon Project, Michael Dorausch a chiropractor who’s use social media as a pioneer in his industry, Robert Richman a social media strategist, and Brian Solis, a social media guru, co-founder of Social Media Club, and principle of FutureWorks.

You can follow Social Media Club on twitter by clicking here and I urge you to visit Social Media Club’s site here for an event in your area and if you’re in LA it’s time to join the group on Facebook and start coming to the events!

I enjoyed enlightening discussions with many of the attendees including Devlyn Steele, CEO of ToolsToLife.com about the value of content and his value-driven social network, with Francisco Dao, founder of TheKillerPitch and blogger for FastCompany about PR in the social media realm, Kyra Reed and Marjorie Kase, co-founders of Markyr Media, an LA social media PR agency about the value of authenticity in social media, and enjoyed a thoughtful discussion on the evolution of web design with Andy Dugan of C/D Entertainment. I definitely can’t forget Tiffany Weller of Done! SEO who so graciously turned a dry event into a party with her wine and bartending services and TechZulu’s presence with Jennifer Stavros, Efren Toscano, and Cristina Cinque and though I didn’t get a chance to speak with him, I could see Hayden Black of GoodnightBurbank and AbigailsTeenDiary cracking everyone up.

I can’t forget Tim Street’s hilarious and poignant tweets throughout the evening, Edwin Duterte of OneKeyAway fame, John Noland Marchesini, Omar Foshizzi of WhoopTonez.net, Salvador Medrano, and last, but certainly not least, photographer Wm. Marc Salsberry of TechZulu and owner of WMSProductions for the great event pictures available on Facebook and TechZulu and for permission to use them on this post.

Some interesting points of discussion and a few of my takeaways/thoughts from the event:

• Care must be taken to remember that if you’re in this industry (”the left”) it seems like everyone and their Mom is on Twitter and is networked on Facebook. Yet, their is still a vast ocean of individuals who’ve never experienced social media (Wikipedia’s entry was showcased during the event) and its grandeur and who have no idea what web 2.0 even means. Additionally, if you’re in this industry it’s easy to fall prey to the overwhelming sensation that everything in the realm of social media and social networking is so fast-paced and saturated that you should give up on launching anything without heavy competition and earlier-to-market entrants. We must remember it takes the rest of the world time to catch on to new trends, so if you’re ahead of the curve or riding the curve, don’t become overwhelmed. Even 37Signals, with their uber-popular blog Signal vs. Noise recently wrote about how when they launched their blog they thought it was too little too late, what with the thousands of blogs cropping up before theirs hit cyberspace. Yet, their blog is now incredibly popular and widely regarded in the tech and design communities and proved to be an invaluable marketing channel helping to propel their products to success. Lesson: if you create content worth talking about, people will talk about it. Give them no choice and don’t fear the clutter. Clutter only makes you look better.
• There was some talk about social network “cultures” and how Fortune 1000s and companies in general aim to enter the social fray without context. Facebook has a culture. mySpace has a culture. Bebo and Twitter and Digg and Squidoo have cultures. I see similarities between entering social media spaces and entering foreign markets: before entering a foreign market you must understand the culture and if you don’t, you must find someone who does. I think Facebook and mySpace and other social networking channels can have cultures within cultures, in the form of groups and such. McDonalds didn’t go into India serving meat burgers and a company shouldn’t go into the social networking realm blindly ignoring existing cultures. Immerse yourself (or find others who are immersed) and give value to gain recognition.
• Corporate social media endeavors are often successful when bridging corporate with humanity. In my opinion, the best marketers aren’t marketers; they’re customers, other departments, and fans in general. Corporations that have experienced success often experience success as the result of social media being attached to an individual or group of individuals or sometimes simply a passionate fan. It’s 2008 and it’s time to bring personality and humanity to your business if you’re entering the social sphere.

Other memorable quotes included:

• “once you know where to look, you know where to be”
• “…the Internet has experienced several waves including a wave of static websites, a wave of interactive websites, and the current wave of social websites…”
• “social media is a conversation, not a campaign”
• “people make it viral”
• “there’s nothing that succeeds like success”

Can’t forget some more pics courtesy of Wm. Marc Salsberry of TechZulu (more pics & videos can be found at their site):

Last of all, I want to hear your thoughts on the event! If I left you out or if you thought a discussion point was particularly thought-provoking, please post a comment… I’ll review each comment and will incorporate them into the post as pertinent. What did you gain from SMC LA? Will you go to the next event? How would you improve it? Also, can someone post the link to the “Social Media Guide” mentioned during the evening? What other social media events in LA and beyond are worth attending?

If you want to hear about upcoming social media / social networking posts and other riffs and rants, follow this blog and join me on twitter! Until next time…!

The latter part of last week was a whirlwind for the LA social media / tech scene and it was oh-so nice to have the weekend to relax and finally put everything in perspective!

Starting off the festivities, Thursday night was the fantastic Twiistup 4 at the Viceroy in Santa Monica, which certainly lived up to expectation, what with smart people, good conversation and walking on water (yes, it’s ok to be jealous).

Other highlights of the night included:

• BookRenter.com
  My only qualms with these guys is that they failed to show up when we needed them most. Where were you when shelling money we didn’t have for textbooks was a constant headache that had to be dealt with every semester?! Oh well, the cost of getting an education just got a little more affordable and the future’s certainly the better for it.
• AOL
  If you’ve been under the impression that AOL, like Microsoft, has over-stayed its welcome and is on its way out, something about the list of tools they have available on their ad network may lead you to want to rethink that position (apart from the phenomenal Winamp, other tools include Mapquest, Truveo, Bebo, userplane, goowy and sphere).
• ADISN.com
  Break-ups aren’t always bad events and these guys encourage you to break up with your ad network purely for your own good. Their “Break Up With Your Ad Network” cd is packed full of songs that make break-ups seem appealing and will certainly soften the break-up process.
• Phonevite
  Simply put, phone invitations on the go. Gone are the days when inviting the poker clan or changing event venues meant calling a looong list of people. Sign in, setup, record your message and you’re good to go! How many steps was that again
• Minggl
  Minggl is a social interaction manager that creates a relationship layer over the social web. The Minggl toolbar makes it easy to manage information, communication, and navigation across social networks
• ToolsToLife.com
  Voted the Twiistup Showoff Winner, this social networking website offers compelling self-improvement programs wrapped around a supportive social network. This site really excels in value-driven social networking and in our opinion represents the evolution of social networking in the coming days. We enjoyed speaking to Marketing Director Greg Johnson about this remarkable start-up.
• Twiddla.com
  A free, no-setup, web-based meeting playground. Mark up websites, graphics, and photos, or start brainstorming on a blank canvas. Browse the web with your friends or make that conference call more productive than ever. No plug-ins, downloads, or firewall voodoo - it’s all there, ready to go when you are. Browser-agnostic, user-friendly. WebEx, GoToMeeting, be warned!
• Project: Possibility
  Project: Possibility demoed under the banner of the USC innovation booth and is a nonprofit, community service project committed to creating groundbreaking open source software for persons with disabilities. Their mission is to inspire a community of persons with disabilities and software developers to work together and make a difference by inventing software that will unlock new areas of life for persons with disabilities, giving them access to experiences previously impossible to achieve.

We also enjoyed a compelling conversation with John Olsen of Liforia (stay tuned for this up-and-coming breakthrough concept in social networking) and doing an interview with Jennifer Stavros of TechZulu (and writer of a compelling sex/relationships blog to boot). Not to mention numerous free t-shirts, NeoHire’s hooka, and some interesting and enlightening conversations with some interesting people (you know who you are!).

Friday brought Social Media Camp and Mashable’s SummerMash. Talk about a full, long day!

Friday’s highlights brought along Erica O’Grady’s refreshing talk at Social Media Camp on what social networking is, where it’s going and the awesomeness of things like twitter (if you don’t use twitter, try it before you knock it and follow @ bushmanbill and @ epsilonc while you’re at it).

The following rabble-rousers also stood out during the weekend’s festivities:

• Freshbooks.com
  These guys have made invoices and time tracking sexy again (not that they ever were, but you get the point). Here’s a question for you: How the hell do you get 25 people to eat dinner with you because you run the website they use to invoice their clients? Here’s your answer: Give a shit, be passionate and make love to your customers (their words, not mine). Every time. We got the chance to hear them share about the way they work, their passion for invoices and how they listen to their customers. These guys wrote the book on engaging clients.
• Collarfree.com
  It’s true that by the time you read this, we’ll probably be rocking Collar Frees. And why not? They pay their designers well and offered us a 20% discount (because we went to Social Media Camp). They also use a cool voting style (a la HotorNot) and like Ayn Rand, which is never a bad thing.
• Yoono
  Now here’s a Firefox add-on you should not browse without. In a single browser sidebar, Yoono users can interact with the best of the Web more than ever before by discovering, communicating, and sharing with friends across multiple networks and platforms all in one place. You are now free to stop wasting time checking for updates and using up bandwidth by keeping multiple tabs open.
• RockNRollDating.com
  This upstart social network connects all you fans of punk, goth, metal, indie rock, stoner rock, jam bands, and you name it so you can find each other, catch live music, and perhaps even fall in love. Owner Daniel House explained the concept of the site to us and we think it rocks!T

The SummerMash was hosted at Rubicon Project’s trendy headquarters and featured the suave smooth social media celeb Pete Cashmore, a thirst-quenching open bar, and a swarm of tech hipsters. We also enjoyed chatting with the uber-funny Hayden Black of Goodnight Burbank and Abigail’s X-Rated Teen Diary.

SummerMash official pictures will be posted here and for SoCal tech/social media event interviews/coverage, check out TechZulu. And stay tuned for feedback on Digital Drinks happening today, July 21st and Social Media Club’s event on Monday, July 28th. We’ll be there so say hi if you see us and we’ll be writing updates about the events for those that don’t live in Tinseltown or can’t make the events. Until then, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!

I’m excited to announce that we will be relocating to the Los Angeles area, as a result of a need to continue finding, hiring, and maintaining the highest caliber of staff possible in addition to being close to many of our clients as we build around the needs of California clients, in addition to our strong bases in the Washington DC/Northern Virginia area and New York, New York.  Not to mention, of course, the sunny California weather and the opportunities and personal excitement that LA affords our team!

We will not be posting as many blog posts over the next week due to our relocation adventures, but will promptly resume when we arrive in the Golden State and will chronicle our trip West as well on this blog!  Business will go on as usual, albeit on the road for a few days as we drive West.