As astute blog readers have no doubt noticed, The Columbus Social Media Cafe is on hiatus indefinitely. This does not mean, however, that we are not still engaged with the group, nor have we stopped thinking of ways that we can re-energize the group.

We – the folks at WOSU and the local social media gusus who have given us so much time and energy – are actively discussing possibilities and looking at new ways that this group can continue its mission.

If you have suggestions or would just like to talk to one of us, start here.

Otherwise, we’ll be back anon…

- Scott Gowans

{Full text available here at andrew-miller.com}

Digital technologies are changing the way people work, recreate and communicate within their physical community. The explosion of social applications has caused vast amounts of opinion and fact based data about local resources and issues to be cataloged. Due to this explosion of information; collaboration and community organizing is building around these issues, ideas and community resources with participation levels not previously possible. This phenomenon is referred to as hyperlocal networking.

Due to some scheduling conflicts the June CSMC meeting has been cancelled but there is no lack of things to get out to where you will surely see some of your favorite Columbus social media friends over this next month. For starters, check out Ignite Columbus tonite! Click on the graphic for more info:

Come and out and be inspired on Friday, July 19, 2009 at OSU.

Follow that up with Pod Camp Ohio on Saturday and you’ve got a full weekend of geeking out!

Hey ya. Ryan Hoke with Wild Goose Creative will be at the beginning of our meeting to fill us in on their endevours. Just a note…they’re working on wireless but aren’t there yet. We’re also happy to have Angelo from PodCamp Ohio 2.0 joining us tonight. He’ll share what’s in store for this year’s podcamp. If you have a suggestion for a topic or a speaker, I hear it’s not too late to make a recommendation! Please come with your questions and ideas!

Finally, we’ll talk about the Columbus Corners project and anything else on people’s minds. So if you have a burning question/issue you’re currently facing with your blog or any other social media tool, tonight is your night! We’ll see you at 6:30!

I thought it was fitting to mention the Wild Goose Creative as this month’s favorite Columbus Corner seeing as they are being kind enough to host our group on Wednesday, May 27 from 6:30-8:30pm.

If you haven’t been paying attention then you wouldn’t know that the Wild Goose Creative is more than just a collective of artists and musicians. They play host to several events a month, and often a week, as broad as cooking parties to open mic comedy to performance and visual arts events.

Columbus Ohio is fortunate to have many similar groups of interesting and community oriented folks who see a niche and fill it. Wild Goose Creative has been known to fill several different niches with such great success that we are sure they’ll be around for the long haul and can’t wait to see what they come up with next. Check them out when you have a chance, you won’t be disappointed!

This #cbuscorners project brought to you by the Columbus Social Media Cafe.

If you haven’t registered yet, be sure to attend the free unconference that’s coming back… PodCamp Ohio 2:

http://www.podcampohio.com/

PodCamp operates very similarly to the CSMC, as it uses Open Space rules and allows the community to be really involved in shaping the experience. Hope to see you there. This year, the event is being held on OSU’s campus at Mendenhall Laboratory.

Here’s a quick about – courtesy of PodCamp Ohio:

PodCamp Ohio is the media community UnConference that helps connect people interested in blogging, social networks, podcasting and new media to learn, share, and grow their new media skills. Whether you’re just interested in new media or an experienced veteran, PodCamp Ohio is for you!

PodCamp Ohio is structured with everyone in mind. Each session time segment provides 5-7 concurrent sessions for guests to pick from. There are a number of sessions that will be organized as ‘tracks’ for those who are new to blogging and podcasting.

Columbus Social Media Cafe Meet-Up
Wednesday, May 27, 6:30pm
Wild Goose Creative, 2491 Summit Street, Columbus

wildgoosecreative.com/

Read WOSU’s story about Wild Goose Creative:

Topics: TBD

So you have a new website. Congratulations!

Now what?

While keeping your content fresh is central to bringing visitors back to your site, what do you do if you’re having trouble getting visitors to your site?

Promote. Promote. Promote.

Generating traffic is all about increasing your site’s visibility. One free and simple way to promote your site is to link it to other sites. Start by identifying your existing relationships with relevant people and organizations as well as new relationships you’d like to explore. Then research these groups’ websites to identify the best place to put your link (often websites and blogs will have a designated place for partner links). Next, determine where on your site you can highlight your partners’ links and what other information of theirs you’re willing to provide (i.e., partner logo, a brief description about the partner, etc).

Now it’s time to contact your partners. Let them know that you would like to promote their organization and/or cause on your site in exchange for a link on their site. More than likely, your partner will be interested in cross promoting your web sites. If for some reason they can’t put your link on their site, get creative—ask permission to put your events on their calendar or ask if your organization can be a guest author or the feature for an online story on their site.

It takes a little time and a bit of research, but the results are well worth it: more visitors to your site mean greater awareness of your cause.

Tips for reciprocal links:
1. Put links on your site where they make the most sense—on a resource/partner page, or in an article about a specific topic for which your partners can provide more information.

2. Identify as many partners as possible. The more links you have to your site, the higher your site will display in search engine results.

3. Name your links with relevant keywords. Rather than use “click here,” use the name of your organization or the topic or item you’re linking to. (I.e., WOSU Public Media or WOSU reports on the latest news.) The description not only informs the visitor about the content of your site, it will help search engines find your site and rank it higher in search results.

4. Use Google Analytics to understand visitor behavior. This free and extensive tool can also identify where visitors come from and what page they entered on. Re-evaluate the partnership every six months to a year to ensure relevancy and effectiveness.

The next CSMC Meetup will take place on Tuesday April 28, 2009 from 6:30pm – 8:30pm at Media Source (http://www.mediasourcetv.com/) 1800 West 5th Ave, Columbus, OH 43212 in Grandview.

At last month’s meeting the group decided to help promote our community through blog/flickr/social media posts tagged with #CbusCorners about your favorite corner in Columbus. Check out the post here with greater detail. For this month we’d love to get as many Columbus Corners posts up on Monday April 27, 2009 as possible so that we might get some analytics back in time for Tuesday’s meeting.

At the meeting we’ll talk about this a bit and do some outreach to a non-profit in need of some social media help.

UPDATE – Damas Latinas y Amigos will be joining us where we’ll talk with them about their outreach to the Latina community and see how we might help them with their efforts. Currently their online outreach efforts consist of this website: http://dlatinasorg.googlepages.com

Hope to see you all there!