As many of you know, I recently attended the Internet Summit in Raleigh.  I learned a lot and came back with a lot of inspiration for blog posts.  So, I am starting a little IS10 series.  Most of the posts will include an overview of one of the sessions with some thoughts of my own added in.  Enjoy…
On Day 1 at  Internet Summit. Jim Tobin (@JTobin on Twitter) from Ignite Social Media gave a great presentation on Social Media Strategy.  He compares a client asking his company for social media to them asking him for a puppy.  He would not give a puppy to someone who doesn’t have the time to walk & feed it because without those things, it would die.  If social media is not given the proper time and attention, it will die.  Agreed!  I have set up pages for companies who never touch them again- they have  about 10 fans (and they all work there).

The biggest portion of his presentation was on a topic that I talk with clients about all of the time: social media is NOT free!!! Yes, setting up many of the actual accounts are free but here are some costs to consider before implementing a social media plan for your business:

• technical architecture: What do you need to build? (graphics, videos, a microsite, landing pages, widgets) How much does that cost?
• content creation: It takes time to write good blog posts and to update your social media channels with engaging updates. How much time will that take? What is the cost of that time?
• social media optimization: Don’t forget the time to add like buttons to your site, determine keywords to use, etc.
• monitoring and responding: Whether you do it in-house or hire a service, watching what people are saying about you is very important.  Responding is even more important.  Social media is meant to be a conversation! You also want to make sure those spam postings that show up once in awhile aren’t sitting on your sites without your knowledge.

Today’s blog post is a bit different…instead of being about marketing, it’s about the organization that I have chosen for Garnet to support this year!

When I left the world of event planning I realized that I wouldn’t have as many opportunities to work with local organizations on their events and fundraisers so I wanted to find another way to stay involved.  In thinking back to organizations that I had worked with I realized that the one who stood out in my mind was The Boys and Girls Club. Garnet was brand new and I assumed that I wouldn’t be able to make a huge donation in the first year so I decided to join the planning committee for their annual fundraiser, The Big Gig.  It’s just a very small role but you have to start somewhere, right!?

The event won’t actually take place until April (more details on that coming soon!) but I did get to take a tour of their new Cherry Avenue facility this morning. It’s pretty awesome! It feels good to be a very, very small part of an organization that is teaching kids who wouldn’t normally have these opportunities so many things! A few of my favorites: they have cooking classes to teach healthy eating habits, seminars on managing your finances for the 13-18 year olds, a garden that they tend in the Summer, a dance competition coming up next week AND access to the Smith Aquatics Center which has water slides and a lazy river! So far they have about 150 kids per day at this one club and there are four others in Charlottesville and Albemarle!

Next year after Garnet has been up and running for longer, I hope to be able to become a little more involved! If you are interested in doing the same, check out the volunteer section of their website!