Setting: This week I attending the world’s first official Social Media Day Orange County part of an international meetup declared by Mashable only two weeks before the actual date. Due to the valiant effort of one Kevin Sablan and the OC Register team, we New Media fans were able to experience a truly successful day of pure social fun.
This post IS NOT a recap of the day but if you want one I have provided many at the bottom of this post
This IS a personal reflection that was gained while attending the Social Media Day event.
Background: If you haven’t read any of my previous posts or know me in person: I am a fairly recent CSUF Business graduate who up until a month ago had been self establishing my career path by freelancing in marketing and job hunting. I am now a Community Manager for Symbaloo.com.
Here is How I built my network without knowing it:
- I joined the Social Media Club of Orange County when it launched in early 2009 and while it only had a few meetings I was able to meet influential people who genuinely care about sharing and building community resources. One of the founding members, Morgan Brown (@morganb) spoke on the panel at SMdayOC. The others that I met here that were also at SMdayOC are: @markgundlach @ksablan @lorennason @vitaminOC
- I was later invited (by @markgundlach) to join what I thought was going to be a smaller group. The Social Media Masterminds of Orange County (@SMMOC) turned out to be the most connected and amazing groups of positive social energy to wake up to at 9am on Saturday mornings. Turns out the founder of this group @TopBrokerOC was also invited to speak at SMdayOC and many of the members attended as well.
- While I don’t particularly enjoy being in akward situational gatherings and not knowing anyone first hand I forced myself to attend a couple tweetups. It was there that I first met some of the influential SMdayOC attendees and reconnected with people from the SMCOC meetings I had been attending. Had it not been for these tweetups I would not have been able to meet and establish relationships with: @bigheadasian, the @vitaminOC team, the fab @boutiquing gals and @enjoioc.
- Confession: I started using Twitter in early 2009, because it was the cool thing to do. I now use it daily for personal and professional reasons. At SMdayOC I arrived with Team Symbaloo to set up our booth and the first person to greet me was OC Registers VP of Marketing, Lelani Bluner. I introduced myself and she told me that she already knew who I was because she had been following my tweets. Amazing Right? I thought so.
So Here is Why it’s never too early to start building your network:
By being proactive in joining social media communities, going to tweetups and playing with Twitter I managed to grow my network without even knowing. *Note* that I am an active participant and love to contribute to conversations which plays a big factor in establishing relationships. I can’t say that any of these contacts are very good friends of mine but having a personal community of online contacts that might be able to help, share and educate you at any given time is priceless. Each of these people is influential in some way or another and one never knows what opportunities my arise out of such contacts. By pushing myself into the scene and forcing myself to get over the awkwardness of it all I am now more comfortable meeting new people and growing my online network.
My Advice: Join a community now, find what ever it is that you are interested in pursuing and jump in! You may feel lost in the beginning and not too sure of your path but through trial, error, practice, patience and most importantly consistency, you will figure out the right path for you and you WILL build your own community and online network in the process.
Additional Social Media Day Resources:
Food trucks, the tweeting kinds. by Simon Oh
Interactive Webmix of Attendees by Symbaloo
Social Media Day in Orange County by Tanya Salcido
Recap & Pressroom Tour by Meredith Simonds
Blog Post: Social Media IS Social by Glenn Hansen
32 Videos by “Video Nut” TheRECoach
How we covered #smday Orange County by Kevin Sablan
The crowd caught #smdayoc in pictures by 140pix
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