MLK Day spotlight: Alabama Social Media Association
By Wade Kwon
Angela Blake
The Alabama Social Media Association holds educational lunches
throughout the year at the Hill Event Center at the Alabama
Theatre downtown.
In honor of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, I want to turn the spotlight on one of my favorite Birmingham nonprofit organizations …
It was 1 year ago at this time that I was deep in the throes of creating a new nonprofit organization. Six weeks later, we launched.
The Alabama Social Media Association has been an exciting journey of planting seeds, asking for favors and bringing to life a sorely needed resource: social media education.
I’ve always known Birmingham to be a font of social media experts, people who offer great advice and think innovatively about how we share information in the 21st century. Why were these folks not getting more recognition?
Because this city has grown a thriving digital community, we needed to put the spotlight on it throughout the year. It has been home to great conferences, including this past weekend’s WordCamp Birmingham, and many user groups. But very little for those who don’t work in the industry to jump in and learn and discover.
In 2011, we put on five free educational events, offering networking, lunch and a speaker with a 45-minute presentation. We met a great cross-section of the community, from law enforcement, from churches, from nonprofit groups and utilities and banks and startups. And we had a lot of fun. In addition, ALsocme held social events nearly every month to expand our social circles.
Behind the scenes, it has been a never-ending list of funds to find, people to meet and tasks to do or delegate. I have found it is one thing to serve on a board for an established organization, but quite another to build everything from scratch.
The truly exciting part is doing it our way, redefining expectations and constantly striving to improve, so that we may reach more people and share the bounty of social media knowledge in our community.
If you want to find out more about the Alabama Social Media Association, visit the website and also sign up for the free email newsletter. And if you’d like to volunteer to help with our events, our blog and more, fill our our application form. If you have a question, email alsocme@gmail.com.
Video: a look at the Alabama Social Media Association
