What kinds of companies come to mind when you hear the words social media? High tech? Professional service firms? Retail?

How about manufacturing? Let’s stretch it a little further. How about TEXTILE manufacturing and social media?

At our last meeting, Kim Madden whet our appetite and piqued our curiosity about Carolina Manufacturing, bandanna swimsuits, and @BandannaBabe. She told us how she went from pre-newbie to full-fledged social media adventurer since last summer—and that was just with Flickr! Imagine the world of possibilities as Carolina Manufacturing extends their customer embrace through other platforms.

For a fresh look at how social media’s invigorating a stale industry, join us Monday morning at 8AM March 8, 2010 at the NEXT Innovation Center. You’ll soak up some of Kim’s passion for commerce and share with her your ideas, too.

A couple of reminders:
DIRECTIONS TO NEXT: There’s a map on the Eventbrite invite. There’s also a map on the Facebook event.

PARKING: There’s a HUGE parking lot in the vacant lot behind the NEXT building. You can park there. There’s a stadium sized parking lot that’s paved, just across University Ridge next to NEXT. You can park there, too.

If you’re having trouble getting your boss to understand why you’re excited about the possibilities fostered by social media, bring him to Social Media Club Greenville. Kim’s enthusiasm for the new life at Carolina Manufacturing and your fellow members’ enthusiasm just might get him excited, too.

December in the Windy City is usually cold; on the 16th, it was hot with supercharged ideas and discussion at GasPedal’s SuperGenius conference. Two of our own supergeni were featured speakers: Spike Jones of Brains on Fire and Olivier Blanchard of The Brandbuilder Marketing.

I found a couple of blogs post about our duo that are worth checking out. Spike’s presentation was 11 Lessons to Ignite a Fan Community. Here’s an earlier post on the same blog about Olivier.

Olivier Blanchard shares a thought while Jeff Elder (Charlotte Observer) and Spike Jones (Brains on Fire) listen and ponder at the September 2009 meeting of Social Media Club Greenville at Skyline Exhibits & Designs. Photo by GetzCreative.

The summary of Spike’s presentation is worth pondering as you make plans for 2010. Now more than ever, real movements are essential for the creation or continuance of enduring brands. In 2010, no one will be able to fake their way to success. The good news is, no one HAS to fake it. Spike’s 11 lessons present a good road map to create lasting influence.

Olivier’s presentation has some worthwhile nuggets: “you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, you just have to understand it.” Apparently the whole world (at least the whole social media world) is taking note of Olivier’s teaching on measuring word-of-mouth (and measuring social media marketing). His Basics of Social Media ROI presentation on the topic housed at SlideShare.net has been viewed 75,520 times and embedded another 445 times. That’s huge.

Folks have asked, “why is it that Greenville, South Carolina is at the center of the social media world?” While I’m not sure there is a center of the world, I am impressed at the work folks in our community—folks like Spike and Olivier—are doing to put the Upstate on the social media and word-of-mouth map. No doubt there are others amongst our 650+members who are also speaking about meaningful engagement through social media. If you are or if you know of someone who is, would you please let me know? It’ll be good to share the word.