NOTE:  This discussion can be seen live on blogindiana.tv

We’ll be starting shortly.

The panel is assembled.

• @davewoodon – #nwitweetup (and Finn’s livebloggiing!)
• @dukelong – #Lafayette
• @danamnelson – Evansvile – #smcevv
• @amystark – Indy – #indysmm – Inaugural Indiana Social Media summit organizer! (at Scotty’s Northside of Indy)
• @willhardison – Indy – #indysmhh (Social Media Happy Hour) (held at Scotty’s downtown – helped promote)
• @cherylwatterson - Michiana – #tweetupmichiana

Summary of Tweetups around the State

Daver starts off, introducing #nwitweetup. And has been talking about growing, that it started with Kathy Sipple and how #NWITweetup is in the process of becoming a 5013-C charity. And how we’ve attracted media:  news media

Cheryl is talking about how they invited Michiana two weeks in advance via the local paper.

Duke is talking about how Lafayette is becoming more of a genera social media event, business networking, beer (thank you Scotty’s Brewhouse). Help from NWITweetup and Scotty’s Brewhouse!

Dana Nelson – just started …just started and recent…because their southwest Indiana they use #sweetup

Amy – started in the original #indytweetups with the legendary Dr. Thomas Ho. Original sessions were philosophical, coffee house chats. Not as successful, but intimate and engaging.

Will – had a lot of help from Scotty’s Brewhouse and Blog Indiana’s Noah Coffey – who created EventBrite which tweets out people who’ve signed up for  Social Media Happy hour event via EventBrite

Cheryl – tweetupmichiana is scheduled for 6 months out (already in 2011). Events are split up part networking part informative. Even have a membership platform and a radio talk show “The Tweetup chicks.”

How Easy is it to get Venues

Cheryl – once you’re established and growing, you have leverage…especially on a Tuesday / Wednesday night (slower night).

Audience on Tweetups – how do the different tweetups work together?

Daver – Michiana / NWitweetup cross promote. Everyone went to the smackdown event

Amy – #northof30

Dana – meet with Lacy and took it offline – phone – to work on growing Evansville.

Daver – aftertweetup and afterafter

Will – also working with IndyHub

Audience – How do you Get people with different interests to enjoy the tweetup?

Finn – beer and appetizers

Dave – provide forum, let people engage

Audience – Are tweetups are just open social events…how do you avoid getting to cliquish?

Dana – bring in different speakers….variety of industry in Eville…try to keep it fresh, include everyone. And we have a board of 6 that monitors the stream and then use their personal platform to encourage people go to

Amy – decentralizing power for many groups.

Will – his events are for younger crowd (he’s 26) but the common theme of wanting to learn more and networking is a common theme

Dana – if it’s on Twitter, it’s a tweetup. You ask someone over Twitter, others can come along (brilliant!).

Comment – Dr. Thomas Ho, “I’m more willing to go to a Tweetup where I can take my 14-year-old daughter.” (thank you, Dr!)

12 media: and many of us have another job

Amy: don’t overthink tweetups

Cheryl – partner share responsibilities

Daver – it’s because we’re taking the online, offline! Like when I met Duke for the first time!

Duke Long: I started the pink shorts! Networking is great, relationships are the goal!

Will – keeping it up every month is TOUGH, especially when trying to run two startup companies.

Duke – and you build that community. Like my big brother back here (me)

Audience question:  do you do tickets?

Daver – not really.sign-in sheets. Hard to predict

Finn – we’ll use business cards and sign up sheets for free stuff

Will – we’ll use eventbrite just to track! and it’ll keep attendance record. “If it’s a free ticket,” we’ll get 50%. and if they grab one, they don’t know if they’ll show up but they’ll have a reminder.

Dana – he had a “hidden industry.” By reaching out to the girls, making them feel welcome, we were able to break it out.

Daver – you don’t have to show up, but you want to show up. And restaurants want to put forth their best step – like Blue Chip Casino

Online Statement – Dr. Thomas HO – Erik Decker’s mobile work day is coming!

Online Question – How do you handle conflicts people who don’t like each other or don’t handle each other?

Daver – who cares? You’ll work it out. If you can’t work together, the market will dictate it.

Amy – story:  1080 group. He tweeted about a Metallica concert. 4 fans started following. 2 became clients. – Common interests are helpful as well

They’re are geeks. They’re denying it

Daver:  I got into Twitter because it gave me a new voice

Duke: I got into it to learn more. There are some smart people. The stuff we can learn on it is amazing.

Amy:  I take “geek” as a term of endearment.

Dana:  so many people get together to talk about hard topics…if you can put them differences aside, you can agree to disagree and still learn from each other

Audience Question:  can there too many people attending

Finn & Daver:  depends on the venue. Don’t get it too crowded.

Cheryl to Will – that’ s why having a partner can help. So you aren’t so overwhelmed

Duke – we’ve got others who plan. Right now it’s a lot who do breweries, and that’s cool

Online Question – Each of you – your next tweetup and how to attend

• Daver: – NWITweetup Aug 28 – tat’s place
• Duke:  – end of Sept at Scotty’s. Stay tunedd.
• Dana – smcevv – Third Monday of the month – Sept 20th
• Amy – social media smackdown / summit – December 30th.
• Will – smchh – this Monday (limited. sold out). Big one in Sept @ Ike & Jonz – watch on twitter.
• Cheryl – 14th sept at club lasalle, oct wine/cheese at indulgence -

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Steph’s presentation can be seen LIVE in streaming video at blogindiana.tv/?channel=2

Steph’s talking about the history of her blog adventuresinbabywearing.com

For her, it was a journey. Starting in 2005 when she started her blog. She made a funny name and then realized she was going to have it forever.

One blog at a time.

Meeting them by leaving blog comments. It let her to a community.

“5 minutes for mom” – had an ultimate blog party in 2007. Her post on it got over 1,000 comments. And it took off. Google contacted her come speak on a mom blog panel. And she started to meet other mom bloggers.

They answered why mom’s wrote online (therapy…hobby)

How much they knew about her pregancy

She started writing about her pregnancy. Now that her daughter is two, it’s now been like “The Truman Show.’

Not that she’s an expert, she’s just experience.

Rule #1

Be yourself. Even if you don’t know who you are right now. That’s part of the journey.

It’s helped her. She even wrote about her mistakes. People have enjoyed reading them. It’s helped her find more friends and mommy bloggers.

They have other opinions, but she’s learned that’s what a community is about.

Degrees of Mommy Blogger

• Some just blog
• She’s more inspirational writing

Advice

• use photos – doesn’t have to be fancy (iPhone works)
• be open
• comment, comment, comment. Write on other blogs. Be friends! Make a friend. Make the time worthwhile!
• reply to comments
• giveaways work from time to time. She did it when she was a “baby blogger.” But don’t necessarily leave comments to what you have going on your blog on their posts. Let them find you. – Learned it from experience
• And when you make mistakes, ADMIT to them.
• Don’t know where to start? Google for a “blog  carnival.” It gives daily topics and themes you can participate in. “It’s how people find each other.” ex – I Should Be Folding Laundry gives weekly challenges. – “You can’t always wait to be followed.”

Question:  When to get out of blog carnival if you aren’t getting the results?
Answer:  Be true to yourself. If you really don’t feel like doing it. Don’t do it (there are other places)

Another option: Writing Prompt Carnivals:  for example - The bigger picture moment

Favorite example: Life Nut

How do you find the time to blog? (esp with 4 children)

• don’t sleep much
• late at night
• nap time
• commercial breaks
• in the car, on the back of an envelope
• notes on iphone
• sneak away when possible
• make time! (schedule if you’re that kind of person). Work on design. Make sure there’s social sharing…
• make sure to include engagement in the time
• make sure you take time offline…helps write about life. Or you run the risk of blogging about blogging – go to the source of the inspiration

Additional Advice

• Make sure your blog comments come to your email!
• Doesn’t like Disqus:  Can’t comment from iPhone
• Have blog cards (business cards)
• To find other similar niche blogs:  Blog URL on your email. (Google search. Engage from that) “birds of a feather.”
• Stay involved on your niche!

5 Minutes for Parenting

• Side project
• Always looking for guest bloggers (another way to get involved)
• Only Parent writers:  no reviews, no giveaways
• class invited to blog – NIC

Kirtsy – “Digg for Women.”

Privacy

• What are kids gonna find about later when kids get older?
• Sometimes, kids need their privacy!
• Make sure you know the privacy settings of the online tools you use (ESPECIALLY FACEBOOK!)
• Discern what is best for you family / friends
• Sometimes, it’s good to ask permission especially when others are involved
• How do you want people to find you? – make sure they know how to subscribe? If you don’t want them to find you? Take it privacy

Blog Conferences

• Get out among your fellow bloggers. Niche
• Basic courses offered.
• Conferences – BlogHer (national),  Blissdom (Nashville) , Mom 2.0 Summit (national – great for talking to brands and how to make money), Type-A Mom Conference (USA  – southern)

Blog “Techy Stuff”

• SEO-y stuff (Gag). She doesn’t pay attention to much. But she writes soooo much that she’s helped it with great content
• Google Alerts:  set keywords to know if someone is using your stuff, linking to you, writing about you
• Ads:  Get established first!  Track stats. – Get info and you can start estimating what to charge.
• Ad networks:  Blog Her Ads (watch their rules), Clever Girls Collective, Making it Lovely
• Rates:  1 dollar per 1,000 page view (could be superlow). Or a good way to start. No charging less that $25 or so a month
• Google Analytics (we’ll talk, Steph!).

Reviews:  How to Get the Free Stuff

Be establishedd

make sure content network is available

then start getting on review lists

Remember: 1) have to disclose 2) rules:  watch out for those “contact ups before you post a negative review” rules

General Rule

Don’t do it if you don’t love it

Love it; make it from the heart!

The End

Questions:

Design? – Many mom bloggers do their own designs. Steph has a great friend who designed it for her. If you get established, you might get volunteer. Pretty blogs work

Name evolution? Blogger to baby blogger to mommy blogger to mom blogger…will “mother blogger…”

Steph is a “mom blogger.”

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We all had a great night at the March 11th #NWItweetup at Uptown Cafe out hosts of Tia, Rich, Heather and Kyle gave us a great sample of the many menu items of food, tea and coffee.

There were plenty of give-a-ways from a $25 gift certificate to bluetooth headsets from Cartronix.  We would like to thank Cartronix for the give-a-ways and if you are in the market for AT&T phones, Direct-TV or just need a wireless expert call the guys from Cartronix.

Also, we picked a winner from the #nwitweeup logo contest and it was Jason from @JMAdesignstudio and if you are looking for design work from websites to Facebook fan pages to Twitter backgrounds then Jason is your guy to call.  He even got a trophy donated from Cartronix as well.  It looked eerily similar to my first car phone from 1994.

There were plenty of pictures taken and even some of someones pink shorts, damn he had some fine legs.  It takes a special man to wear pink shorts and whoever he was he looked good with them on.

Make sure when you come out to future #nwitweetup events to bring plenty of business cards for networking, the give-a-ways and always make sure you sign the “sign-in sheet”

Again, thank you to Uptown Cafe for hosting the early March #NWItweetup.  We look forward to coming back for breakfast, lunch,

Dave

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Douglas Karr of DK New Media addresses the crowd in the Boiler Room at Golden Technologies during the Blog Indiana Valparaiso / NWITweetup event in February 2010

Hey, NWITweeps,

We do apologize for not scheduling a full #NWITweetup for February 2010. Truth told we had one scheduled at Uptown Cafe but the owners weren’t going to be in town. Blame, Tia (JUST KIDDING, TIA. And guys, DON’T BLAME HER).

We do hope you enjoyed our evening with Blog Indiana. The consensus seemed to be that people enjoyed listening to Douglas Karr and learned quite a bit from him. Not only is it quite a tasty delight to see an Indiana internet marketing professional shine on a national stage, but then to turn around and see the same individual brave the elements just to be able to share some of that knowledge with us in an open forum is a treasure I hope we all appreciate.

To quote Finn at the end of the night – Gumballhead in hand:

“And that’s why I wanted Douglas Karr to speak up here.”

And then he clinked bottles with whomever was around.

A joyous, “thank you,” goes out to Douglas Karr who not only braved the lake-effect foot of snow and the adjustment to the central time zone to hang out with us (he got in town at 4:15pm CDT), but also having to deal with the fact that Finn forgot to roll out the rolling white board for him to use (Doug didn’t complain. Finn just feels guilty).

An appreciative “Thank You” also goes out to Noah Coffey and Shawn Plew – co-founders of Blog Indiana – for taking the time and travel to share their grass roots movement with us.

If y’all liked them, we’ll see about teaming up with them again.

And we’d be remiss if we didn’t give a shoutout to the Lafayette Tweetup and Indianapolis Tweetup for their support. Duke, Nelu, Rock, Ryan, Amy and company…the state continues to feel like one big city thanks to y’alls efforts. Hope the simulcast was worth the planning.

What about the Boiler Room? Where else would Rahsaan Taylor get to hang out with NWITweeps AND play ping pong. Thank you so much to Golden Technologies of Valparaiso for use of the coveted Boiler Room, again. Pass Times, we’d like to thank you for filling our bellies with great grub. And, Cartronix, Finn failed you, too. Those delightful Samsung Bluetooth headsets will be the door prizes at first March 2010 NWITweetup

March 2010 NWITweetups

Uptown Cafe in Valparaiso, IN

The upside of Doug Karr forgetting the time change and getting to The Region early was that he got to frequent the location of the first of our two March 2010 NWITweetups:  Uptown Cafe in Valparaiso. As mentioned earlier, Uptown was going to to be location for the February NWITweetup and we’re grateful that they’re willing to reschedule and open their doors to us this month.

Event: March 2010 #NWITweetup #1
Date: March 11, 2010
Location: Uptown Cafe in downtown Valparaiso, IN
Time: 7pm-9pm+ (also, plan for Dave Woodson’s pretweetup and the famous aftertweetup)

For the record, Doug had the Chai

Brickworks Brewery in Hobart, IN

Lake County, we’re finally coming out to you. Long overdue, but hopefully worth the wait.

To sweeten the pot, we’re having our first Lake County NWITweetup in The Region’s best kept Brewery secret:  Brickworks Brewery in Hobart, IN. Finn and Woodson stumbled across the place a couple weeks ago after a business networking event. They instantly fell in love with the food, ambiance, and beer – which is brewed on site. They decided not enough people know of it – YET and hope to make the change.

Thus the power of Social Media.

Event: March 2010 #NWITweetup #2
Date: March 23rd, 2010
Location: Brickworks Brewery in Hobart, IN
Time: 7pm-9pm+ (pretweetup and aftertweetup likely to be at this location as well)

And don’t be freaked out if you get there and the signage on the awning says “Hobart Furniture.” They’ll get there. Beer first, appearance second. Below is a video of the Brewery during construction in Summer 2009.

Where Would You Like to See a #NWITweetup Held?

Keep letting us know.

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