It’s time for this month’s Twitter happy hour and we want you to invite your friends that are coming to SXSW, your coworkers or your neighbors- let’s show people that we’re normal and not living in our mom’s basement playing WoW all day and night (well, at least not most of us). RSVP HERE to the March Twitter Happy Hour on March 11th by using your Twitter or Facebook account- bring a friend!
Last month’s Twitter Happy Hour was a hit and even though it was cold and rainy, nearly 300 Austinites showed up and had a blast!
This time around, we might have a drink ticket or two to throw your way, but as always, it’s a cash bar- let’s support Frank’s, an independent business that offers cold beer and hot dogs (and they are DELISH!).
Call for volunteers
So far, we have help for the organizing but need help at the sign in table:
5:30-6:30
6:30-7:30
7:30-8:30
8:30-9:30
All volunteers have to do is get people badged, signed in, marked up, drink ticketed and introduced to the landscape. Must have a good smile and good handwriting (please, please, please) and willing to meet new people. Email austinlabs at gmail.com if you’re interested in volunteering (this post will be updated as volunteers sign up).
RISE = A Relationship & Information Series for Entrepreneurs
In true Austin fashion, the entrepreneur community has come together to share ideas and information for free to help other entrepreneurs ranging from how to lease your first office, how to market your company, how to find funding and of course, how to use technology in your business. Full RISE info can be found here where you can sign up for tons of sessions!
TWO of us at New Media Lab are hosting sessions, and we’d like for you to join us! If you’ve never been to a coworking space (perfect for freelancers to have a really cheap office), we’re being hosted by two local coworking spaces so you can see what they look like and how they work since that can be a big part of early entrepreneurs’ lives.
SESSION: How to hire a social median, COST: $0
(and why you shouldn’t leave it in the intern’s hands)
About: With the rise of social networking, companies of all phases are looking to leverage social media to spread their message, drive sales and brand themselves and are hiring social media managers. There are pitfalls to this process to avoid and advantages to learn, so join us to discuss how to go about hiring a social media professional.
SESSION: Developing a diverse online community, COST: $0
About: Because like minds converge, one of the biggest challenges to an online community is finding, promoting and encouraging diversity and that key element is critical to any healthy digital community. We’ve built a web community of over 100,000 people from across the nation and enjoy a richly diverse group which has helped our niche site to be profitable and experience more rapid growth.
This month’s Twitter Happy Hour was held at The Ginger Man on 3rd Street in downtown Austin and despite the rain, the bouncer (is that the right word to use these days?) said there were nearly 300 people in the door, about 20 of which weren’t affiliated with the Twitter Happy Hour. Parking was insane and the rain and cold were very un-Austin, but several hundred people still showed up, proving that although we LOVE the Ginger Man, we’ve outgrown the venue.
Follow everyone that was there with one click!
Want to follow everyone that went to the event? Even if you didn’t go, no worries, the point is for networking and that can be done online too! Click here to follow all of the attendees that actually signed in (and shame on the massive number of people that did NOT). If you were there but either I couldn’t read your name or you were stubborn and didn’t sign in, leave your name in the comments here and we’ll add you to the list so people can find you.
Mark your calendars, because we’re going to kick off SXSWi with a huge “Welcome to Austin” party for the geeks who get into town for the conference the night before. Save the date: March 11th for the March #BATHH (big ass twitter happy hour) at Frank’s starting at 6:00pm.
UPDATE: within two minutes of posting, we got tons of volunteers, MAN Austin is generous! Thanks SO MUCH for all of your help, we’ll see you at the Tweetup!
The February Tweetup is coming up and we need help! I’m awful at manning the sign in table because I float around all hostess-y like, so I’m looking for help in hour blocks.
All volunteers have to do is stand at the sign in table, guide people to making their name badges with their Twitter names on them and signing in with their Twitter name. Hell, we’ll buy you a beer for volunteering, so why not?
Anyone coming after 9:00 can figure out how to sign in and we’ll be nearby, so I’m not worried about the table after then.
This is a GREAT opportunity to meet people and perfect for those who don’t want to float around the room but have an instant connection. Kim (listed above) helped out last time and can attest to how easy and fun it is!
It’s that time of year folks where we compile our Top 100 People in Social Media in Austin to show over and over again that the best talent in the world is here in Austin which is why we are the Live Social Media Capital of the World!!!
This year so that we don’t miss anyone, we’re opening the list up and taking nominations- this can be you or an individual that you look up to for their use of social media. This is not a list of people who are necessarily social media practitioners (although a category will be devoted to that), but to people that use social media as part of their business in innovative ways.
Please take a moment to nominate anyone in Austin that deserves to be on the list. It’s completely anonymous, we can’t even see your IP address with this form, so be honest!
After the list of 100 is published, you’ll be able to follow all of them on Twitter with one click, so stay tuned for the final 100!!
We often speak about cross-pollinating your social networking efforts meaning syndicating your updates in a way that when you update one network, it automatically sends the same update to other networks, saving you time. The other benefit of syndication is to promote the content you produce on one site by featuring it on another site in an automated way. Although being inhuman and “automated” is typically frowned on, this is an exception as it is your work you are automating and is your opportunity to increase exposure for what you are working on.
Although there is no magic pill to automate all of your efforts, there are select tools to point each social network at the other but we want to warn you that you should not use every single one of these tools or all of your efforts will be repetitive of each other, so if your Twitter updates end up going to your Facebook, don’t make your Facebook updates go to Twitter or else you’ll have an echo going on.
Click on the links in orange below to be directed to the service that will link each network.
Syndicate your blog posts
To Twitter with Twitterfeed. It will ask you for your Twitter permission and information about your blog. You can set up an account or log in with Open ID.
To Facebook by clicking “import blog” in the upper right portion of the “Notes” page.
To Linked-In with the “Blog Link” application that pulls your blog automatically on to your Linked-In profile, viewable by your contacts.
Syndicate your Facebook updates
To Twitter directly through Facebook (however, this only works for Facebook Pages).
To Linked-In which currently only works by linking your Facebook updates to go to Twitter which can then be linked to go to Linked-In (see “syndicate your Twitter updates” below). Linked-In and Facebook don’t play together yet but we suspect syndication will eventually be linked.
To your blog with a badge that adds your profile information to the sidebar of your blog (you can also add a badge for your Facebook business page). Badges direct people to your profile rather than share updates.
To Facebook which currently only works by first syndicating your Linked-In updates to Twitter then from Twitter to Facebook. Linked-In and Facebook don’t play together yet but we suspect syndication will eventually be linked.
To your blog by creating a custom Linked-In button (badge) for your site. When signed in, on the top of the page, hover over “Profile,” select “Edit Profile” then click “Promote your profile with customized buttons” and embed a badge in your blog’s sidebar. Badges direct people to your profile rather than share updates.
Syndicate your Twitter updates
To Facebook with the Twitter application, simply give it permission to put your Twitter updates on your Facebook wall.
To Linked-In directly through your Linked-In settings.
To your blog with a Twitter profile widget that shows your blog readers what you’re saying on Twitter in real time.
If you have any questions or need help walking through any of these processes, leave a comment below or contact us directly, we’ll help- no question is a stupid question, we all started somewhere!
Tomorrow morning, I am having breakfast and speaking with the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin about how sales people in the building industry can use social networking. I have limited time and could talk on this topic for hours but for those who can’t write fast enough tomorrow or want to take a sneak peek, below is the powerpoint slides I will be rapid fire clicking through!
Please feel free to scroll through this blog site and get some ideas here and subscribe via email or RSS for new ideas as we’ll be sharing more this week from inspiration during tomorrow’s breakfast!
This month’s Tweetup was held at the Ginger Man down on 3rd street and it was a BLAST! The count was around 200 people that came for last night’s tweetup and we were able to wrangle 110 of those people into writing down their twitter handle.
Because some people were too cool for school and refused to wear a name tag or sign in, there are about 100 people missing from the list above, so let us know if you or a friend of yours is not on the list above and we’ll add them. OR, if you converted someone into signing up for Twitter and they’re new, let’s add them too! lol
Thanks for coming out last night, everyone- it was a lot of fun and we look forward to seeing you all again soon!
PLEASE use one of these slideshows in your own blog:
For the first ever social charity presentation roundup, several people (even some not in Austin!) stepped up to bat to put together various slideshows based on facts provided by Alan Graham of local non profit organization, Mobile Loaves and Fishes, serving the needs of the homeless.
What we need YOU to do is pick whichever presentation calls to you and embed it into your own blog, encouraging people to be generous with Mobile Loaves & Fishes.
Denice Crowell graciously stepped up to create the above presentation and in conversation with her, I learned that band Papa Roach is highly involved with their local homeless population as well (interesting)!
Although Brandie Young doesn’t live in Austin, she donated her time to put together this gorgeous presentation about Austin homelessness. I’ve always known her to be a generous person plus she’s got great design chops, so it was a match made in social media heaven!
Matt Kelly is in the process of making a move to Austin and we emailed back and forth recently and I learned some touching stories from him regarding the Houston homeless (where he’s moving from). His presentation will quickly show you the solutions that Mobile Loaves and Fishes presents.
Above is my own slideshow and although it’s got several slides, it is a quick quiz on homelessness that highlights basic facts about the Austin homeless population.
Mobile Loaves and Fishes feeds and clothes the homeless and is working on fundraising for a project called “Homes on Wheels” as highlighted in the slideshows above. Please embed one of the presentations into your own blog, tell a story of how homelessness has impacted you or the work you’ve done to fight it for others… and most importantly, please consider giving regularly to Mobile Loaves and Fishes!
The most popular, well produced haunted houses in central Texas are implementing social media campaigns to attract and scare the crap out of people:
Mansion of Terror’s social media campaign is the brain child of David Neff who plays a role in the horror show as well; my favorite of their many productions and campaigns is the trailer for their new “Death Asylum” (click here to see the video and get all worked up before you head out to go see the Mansion of Terror). What Mansion of Terror has done that is unique is actively reaching out to individual bloggers and tweeps in an effort not only to brand themselves but to increase their traffic rather than blanket promote. Mansion of Terror hosted a Tweet Up that ended in the group going to the Mansion of Terror at a discount which is quite an innovative way to reach out to Austinites.
House of Torment is promoted by Wyatt Brand out of Austin and they too can be found on Twitter and Facebook. They have been actively promoting their haunted house creatively, for example, they ran a campaign offering free giveaways to the best scary story told on Twitter or Facebook which received a great response level. House of Torment’s Twitter handle gets people involved by offering factoids and contests rather than simply promoting their cast repetitively.
Located just north of La Frontera in Round Rock, the Mansion of Terror has been named #1 haunted house in the nation by Lions Gate Films (can you say Saw I-VI? yeah that Lions Gate Films). We went last year and took our daughter as her first haunted house experience and now she is hooked and all other haunted houses don’t scare her.
This year, (SPOILER ALERT) our family of four unanimously decided that the Mansion of Terror’s Death Asylum was the scariest haunted house ever in history. Little B (age 12), Little T (age 18), Benn (NML CEO) and I had the following thoughts:
Little B: “The Mansion of Terror Death Asylum was the scariest because it was so dark and it was easy to get lost.” She declares that this year’s haunted house takeaway memory will be “being chased around the room with writing” (which you’ll have to go see to know what she’s talking about).
Little T: “Mansion of Terror was the scariest because we had a lot of time to walk through it and get scared. The Death Asylum had more realistic characters and the scariest moment was when they came out of the dark and scared us.” He noted that his most memorable moment this season will be “being lost and chased around. Oh, and the shooting blood” (again, you’ll have to visit to see what he means).
Benn declared the Asylum scariest because “it was dark, they had great timing, it was very difficult to navigate and suspense built perfectly. It wasn’t a straight through run, you didn’t know where to go or where to run to, so it was truly terrifying.” His most memorable moment was “walking through the Asylum corridor and body parts hanging from the ceiling felt like real people touching you.”
I declared it the scariest based on what others said because I chickened out and didn’t go in. Don’t you judge me, I went last year and KNEW how terrifying it was!
House of Torment- CREEEPY
Before getting out of the car at House of Torment, my stomach flipped because not only am I scared of haunted houses, the creepy characters really get my heart palpitating. When we pulled up, the kids were delighted because there were cast members out front chasing down those waiting to enter (and we’re not talking low budget Frankensteins, we’re talking chain holding bleeding freak shows). Again, I was too scared to go in, so I made friends with the outdoor staff that were in plain clothes, but here is what the family had to say:
Little B said, “the scariest character was the guy in the pig mask. He was creepy and in your face and the snout on the mask was close to you and there was nowhere to go. They had a sideways room and you had to use one of the rails to pull yourself up, that was really scary. The best costume was the pumpkin head guy.”
Little T said his most memorable moment was the “underwear guy in the House of Torment because he was so creepy and funny but in a really scary way. I wanted him to get away from me.”
Benn noted that the cast of House of Torment was convincingly one big crazy family and that the scariest character of all Austin haunted houses was “the large, sweaty, imposing man in whitey tighties because he was unusual yet realistic and fit what I imagine to be a great horror story because he looked like a real murderer, like he could honestly be crazy person in real life.” Benn also said that the House of Torment was “very artistic, clean and realistic.”
Making plans for the weekend:
If you’re making plans for the weekend, we want you to get into the halloween spirit by visiting these haunted houses- you won’t regret it. Check out their social media efforts and connect with them and get all scared before you head out the door, then when you get home, come tell us about YOUR scariest haunted house moment in Austin!
time spent on social networks up 82% in December 2009 up from December 2010. WOW. do YOU spend more time on social networks now?
about 3 days ago
from CoTweet
It’s time for this month’s Twitter happy hour and we want you to invite your friends that are coming to SXSW, your coworkers or your neighbors- let’s show people that we’re normal and not living in our mom’s basement playing WoW all day and night (well, at least not most of us). RSVP HERE to the March Twitter Happy Hour on March 11th by using your Twitter or Facebook account- bring a friend!
The 
We often speak about cross-pollinating your social networking efforts meaning syndicating your updates in a way that when you update one network, it automatically sends the same update to other networks, saving you time. The other benefit of syndication is to promote the content you produce on one site by featuring it on another site in an automated way. Although being inhuman and “automated” is typically frowned on, this is an exception as it is your work you are automating and is your opportunity to increase exposure for what you are working on.
Flickr Photos
