New Meetup.com group, SMB Social Media Networking, organized by Dallas social media speaker J. R. Atkins, held a Happy Hour networking event last night at Trece to bring like-minded small-medium-sized business owners together for brainstorming on the latest techniques and opportunities.  This  casual event  environment of small- and-medium-business leaders helped facilitate mingling and discussions  on how business owners are using social media.  Corner6 Labs, an Irving-based social media marketing firm sponsored the event and gave away two prizes: the opportunity for a guest blog post on the Corner6 Blog, and a free SEO analysis on the winner’s website. Corner6 representative Travis Blythe was quite the character and co-MC. He wore a lab coat in-line with his company’s branding, and asked attendees to sign it with his/her twitter handle and their thoughts on where social media was headed in 2010. If you are a social media enthusiastic, entrepreneur, or small business owner, I recommend checking out  this group by joining them at their events and receiving their updates via their Meetup.com group.

Neil Lemons is the founder of the Social Media Dallas News site and the lead SEM Strategist at The Marketing Zen Group, a social media marketing company offering website design, SEO, and pay-per-click. Check out their latest articles about using social media as a marketing tool.

The folks over at Social Media Club Dallas have done it again. They are consistently bringing together to hear social media best practices from agencies, corporate marketers, and professional consultants.

This month’s social media expert speaker is Aaron Strout. Here are a few of the details before I tell you about Aaron.

Social Media Club’s February’s Agenda:

1. Welcome and intro to speaker - Jessica Nunez @NunezPR

2. Featured Speaker - Aaron Strout, CMO of Powered, Inc.

3. Sponsor Introduction - TBD

4. Post Event Tweetup at Bengal Coast

About our Speaker

Aaron Strout @AaronStrout
Chief Marketing Officer
Powered

Aaron Strout @aaronstrout

As the head of marketing at social media agency, Powered,

Social Media & Powered Company Voice Aaron Strout’s Bio

Aaron focuses not only on day to day marketing activities but also provides a social voice for the company. In this role, Aaron continues with his speaking, blogging, podcasting and social networking activities with an eye toward creating awareness and lead generation for the company. Prior to joining Powered, Aaron was the Vice President of Social Media at Mzinga, a Burlington, Massachusetts-based provider of online communities and social networks for businesses. In this role, Aaron focused on tapping into the power of social media for business.

In addition to his knowledge of the interactive and new media landscape, Aaron has more than 15 years of online marketing and advertising experience, with a strong background in integrated and online marketing. Before joining Mzinga, Aaron worked at Fidelity Investments in their retail division, with a focus on online and acquisition marketing. Aaron’s work at Fidelity revolved around Web strategy & marketing, as well as the development of interactive and print campaigns, including direct mail, e-mail, banner & print ads, and event marketing.

Aaron is a founding member and former president of (BIMA) and a member and former board member of the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITX). Aaron is an interim board member for the prestigious Social Media Club. He will be part of a team responsible for creating standards around social media and community. He also sits on the advisory board for BuzzGain (recently acquired by Meltwater News), SavvyAuntie.com, Dialog and the Social Media Marketing Institute. For details on signing up to hear Aaron speak, sign up here.

Today, I received an email from Mike Merill announcing several upcoming social media events in Dallas.  He is the president of the Dallas Social Media Club Chapter and he has done an excellent job at growing the group and keeping everyone informed.

————————————–

The Marketing Shop, a Frisco-based real estate website marketing agency, is hosting a Social Networking Seminar & Shindig at the popular Austin, Texas, restaurant  Oasis, on Lake Travis on October 1st, 2009. Hosted by Facebook Social Media Maven Jenna Ryan, she’ll be sharing her knowledge using networking skills online.  Sign up on this Social Media event’s Facebook page. Jenna Ryan has written a ebook on Facebook Marketing, and has established herself as an expert in the field. Ryan has hosted several events in the past at the Bengal Coast in Dallas on Facebook marketing, and social networking in general. With her five plus years in web marketing and lifetime career in sales and marketing, she has well-defined niche, she has helped numerous real estate agents and small business owners who needed inexpensive ways to generate leads by creating Facebook friend for future Social Media Events. Join Jenna at her seminar in Austin and then stay the next day, when the Austin City Limits Music Festival starts.