Come join us Sunday, July 19, 2009 to help the author of  The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business, Tara Hunt and the crew to live her “dream …to quit my job and karaoke across America, bringing peace, love and brotherhood with me along the way.”

RSVP: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=97903985919

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The Sundance marketing team collaborated with us to create an amazing Sundance/Salt Lake City Tweetup featuring Ondi Timoner, who was awarded the Grand Jury prize a few days after our Tweetup at the Sundance Film Festival for her documentary, We Live in Public.

We met in the lovely Beehive Tea Room in downtown Salt Lake City. Not only did we have Twitter users attend this event, but we also welcomed a few who have never used Twitter, but wanted to join the group to meet a Sundance director. Ondi Timoner, Josh Harris, and crew joined our Tweetup in between showings and graciously spent some time telling us about the documentary, and Tweeting their experience.

Director Ondi Timoner (@onditimoner) and Josh Harris

Tweetup attendees listening to Ondi Timoner and Josh Harris talking about We Live in Public

Here’s a partial list of the Salt Lake City Sundance Tweetup:
@rmiriam12
@kittygutz
@roxycross
@ThomAllen
@carysnowden
@ambeestar
@taranaki
@latent_image
@highpointe
@ghennipher
@kevinDwhite
@littleidea
Danica Cross
Krista Smith

Many thanks to Sundance Film Festival, Ondi Timoner and Josh Harris for coming to our Tweetup! We all had a great time! And congratulations to Ondi Timoner for winning the 2009 Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary We Live In Public.

Suntweet Charity Tweetup January 22, 2009

One thing I love about Social Media is the power it has to support a good cause. The #suntweet charity Twetup event definitely supported a great cause, and raised over $600 for Serenity. We also UStreamed the event and even made the front page!

#Suntweet panelists prepping to talk about social media.

@ghennipher with fellow #suntweet panelist Jesse Stay (@jesse)

We all had a great time with the Tweetups during the month of January. I’m really proud to have had a part in supporting an important charity — Serenity, and to support a budding documentarian, Ondi Timoner.

If you’re an organization in Utah that would like to be part of our SLC Tweetups, please contact me. Your customers are actively using social media and talking about your brand via social media. Theres no better venue to reach this audience than through social media — online and offline. I would love to connect you with this wonderful group of social media users and help you design a strategy to provide real value to your customers during these difficult economic times.

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If you live in Utah and use Twitter, please join us for this Tweetup event to network and meet some great Sundance representatives in person. We’re also welcoming a mystery guest speaker. You can expect to meet a new media filmmaker or a filmmaker that has used Social Media extensively in their film’s promotion, or perhaps an actor at the Fest who is a prominent Twitter user. You’ll be surprised and have a lot of fun chatting with our mystery guest!

Laptops, mobile phones and cameras encouraged — it’s a Tweetup! Feel free to tweet the event. We don’t mind at all! See you there!

Date: Tuesday January 20, 2009 at 7:00pm
Location: Beehive Tearoom (Festival Cafe)
Address: 12 W Broadway, Salt Lake City, 84101

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Salt Lake City Tweetup Group — December ’08

The Tweetups have become a monthly staple here in Salt Lake City, and we’ve got a couple of excellent Tweetups planned for next month. I’ll keep you posted on that as we pin down details.

In the meantime, I want to thank all of my new Salt Lake City Tweetup friends for their loyal support of our Tweetups. Last night was a small group, but we ended this year’s Tweetup right. Here’s a list of last night’s attendees:

• @kittygutz- Jessica — (Thanks for the Twitter Name Tags!!)
• @calanan — Michael
• @bluheron — Heron
• @authalic — Justin
• @kevindwhite — Kevin
• @hpebley3 — Harley
• @ladypebbles — Diane
• @littleidea — Andrew the Werewolf
• @TheB0y — Peter
• @susanmercedes — Susan
• Lauren (@susanmercedes daughter)
• @jessibella — Jessica
• @DaveyGravys — David
• @dagonz32 — Gonzalo
• @HappyHealthyPup — Anna
• @carysnowden — Cary
• @h0neyb - Melissa
• @rmiriam12 — Rachel
• @photogirl66 — Robin
• @dmx - D Moyes
• @ghennipher — Ghennipher
• @kinslow - Steve (see this is why I need name tags)
• @keldwud — Not in pic, but did show up.

If I’ve left anyone out, please comment below and I’ll add you to the list. Thank you all for supporting this community! I look forward to seeing our Tweetups grow in 2009!

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Date: Today December 17, 2008
Place: THE SALT LAKE ROASTING CO. 320 E. 400 S. Salt Lake City
Time: 6 PM till the last Twitter user goes home

Why attend a Tweetup?
Tweetups are intimate groups of Twitter users, generally meeting to network and share ideas. Given the current difficult economy, Tweetups are also the perfect venue to connect people and help find jobs.

Our Salt Lake City Tweetups are held once a month, and are often sponsored by a local business. If you’d like to sponsor an upcoming Tweetup, please leave a comment below with a brief description of your company or send an email to ghennipher [at] ghennipher [dot] net. Tweetup sponsorships are a great way to spread the word about your company, recruit new employees, and contribute to a growing and passionate community of social media users.

To all past and future Tweetup attendees, thanks for your support of this community.

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“From the last seven years of polling, we’ve found that what older people like best about the Internet is being able to connect to family and friends,” — Susannah Fox — Pew Internet & American Life Project and the Kaiser Family Foundation

New family social networks are popping up almost every day. The real draw to these sites for Boomers seems to be the huge disconnections families have these days. More families are geographically separated from each other than ever before. With the holiday season rapidly approaching, the family event coordinator (usually a Boomer) is looking to the internet to connect geographically distant family members. Family is a big deal to Boomers, and family social networks provide an easy way to gather the family group together again.

Boomers also feel a need to pass on to their family and the next generation the story of where they began. So family social networks are not only a place to connect socially, but they’re also a place to discover your family’s past, and discover yourself in the process.

In meeting with family social networking executives recently, I’m finding that one of hottest trends in family social networks is in the field of DNA social networking. I recently spoke to a company whose USP is based on having a large database of DNA results for users to access. There’s huge potential in this area of social networking. So much so that Google recently invested $3.9 million in a DNA social networking startup called 23andMe. The goal of DNA social networking sites like this is to help users gain a better understanding of their genetic information, and track down lost or distant relatives.

Famiva.com

Famiva Home Page

Famiva  just had a major update over the weekend, and the look is clean and appealing.  Within Famiva, users can work with family members on a secure site to “build your family tree, share photos and stories, stay current with family events and reminders, and much more.” What Boomers will like about Famiva is how easy it is. There’s no sign-up required and has really great features to capture genealogy as well as connect current family.They also have a great tour which makes it easy to know exactly what to expect from the network.

Genoom.com
Genoom is an innovative site with a bevy of tools to create private family networks. Genoom helps family researchers not only learn about their past, but connect family together for current events and create digital heirlooms for future generations.

Geni.com
Geni  is a great great family social network which helps users trace their family roots. Geni also has the family tree, photo sharing, and event calendar of other family social networks, but it also allows users to add family friends as “friends of your family tree”.

Obviously, boomers are becoming more active in social media, one study last year cites that 45% of boomers online are using family social networks. What does this mean for businesses looking to advertise on social media? Don’t count out baby boomers in your social advertising plans. They’ve got financial strength that many Gen Y and X don’t have yet, so if your product or service has any overlap for the boomer generation, either as users or buyers, make them the focus of some of your marketing efforts.

If you’re ready to create a social media marketing strategy, and would like to see how you can incorporate boomers into that strategy, contact me. Let’s talk about how we can work together to help you reach your goals.

ghennipher [at] ghennipher.net

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Danny has a great story, has a dream of becoming a physical therapist, and our support can help him achieve that dream with $100k from Wells Fargo. I’m also really proud to support the causes being helped by this contest. One of the causes you can support is Jr Achievement. A turning point in my life was when I was invited to join Jr Achievement in middle school. It really opened up my dreams to be an entrepreneur. From the site:

“Junior Achievement helps young people become economically empowered. The volunteer-driven, K-12 programs uses hands-on learning to teach students how to be work-ready, entrepreneurial, and financially literate.”

Jr. Achievement is my preferred cause, and I encourage you to check out the other causes and vote for your favorite. The other 2 causes you can support via this contest are Habitat for Humanity and Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

The Tweetups have been a great way to connect in real life, and I’m really looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new Twitter users at the Tweetup tonight. It also feels great to know we can use social media for more than simply connecting in person — we can actually provide genuine support for those who need it most.

I hope to see you there tonight.

Tweetup Details: Salt Lake City Roasting Company tonight
Address: 320 E. 400 S
How to Find Us: We’ll meet upstairs again
Agenda: Meet some great fellow Utah Twitter users, and learn about some great causes you can help support.  

If you have any trouble finding the Tweetup or any of the attendees, message me on Twitter @ghennipher

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Here’s the Tweetup details — we’d love to have any Twitter friends, old or new:

Coffee Break
435 E 400 S
Salt Lake City, UT
7 PM -

I’ll be uploading photos of the Tweetup soon, and here’s a little advance notice — we’ve got a very special Tweetup planned for October 20. Please clear your calendar and join us.

See you at the Tweetup!

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SLC Tweetup

Please join us for our third Salt Lake City Tweetup event Wednesday, September 10 at 7:00 pm. We will gather at the Salt Lake City Roasting Company again to enjoy some offline socializing and business networking. This is the monthly meeting of Salt Lake City-area Twitter users. Come meet up with your fellow Twitter addicts and don’t forget your mobile phone to Tweet the event.

More Details —

Tweetup at Salt Lake City Roasting Company

Address: 320 E. 400 S

How to Find Us: We’ll meet upstairs.

Agenda: Meet fellow Utah twitter users, share twitter experiences, have a great time.  This time we’ll have a special guest. @marismith  (Mari Smith) author of Facebook for Professionals will be joining us. Please come and help welcome her to Utah, and spend some time informally chatting about using Facebook for business.

If you have any trouble finding the Tweetup or any of the attendees, DM me on Twitter @ghennipher.

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We love Twitter! Image credit: Hugh at GapingVoid.com

I’ve rounded up the Salt Lake City Twitter bunch for another Tweetup. Please join us for our second Salt Lake City Tweetup event tonight Wednesday, August 20 at 7:00 pm. We will gather at the Salt Lake City Roasting Company to enjoy some offline socializing and business networking.

More Details:

Address: 320 E. 400 S

How to Find Me: We’ll meet upstairs. I’ll be wearing a Google Dance tshirt

Agenda: Meet fellow Utah twitter users, share twitter experiences, have a great time.

If you have any trouble finding the Tweetup or any of the attendees, DM me on Twitter @ghennipher.

Hope to see you there tonight.

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