Obama in Town - 4/23 Asheville Social Media School Cancelled

We had planned on being at Elaine's Piano Bar at the Grove Park Inn for the Asheville Social Media School class on Video Taking, Making, Uploading and Marketing; but it has been cancelled since the Presidential family will be in town. We are waiting for the Grove Park Inn to confirm the May 10th class on Blogging and then also the make-up class on May 27th for Videos. Please make note of both of these dates and plan to attend. Thank you.

Asheville Social Media School - Class #3 April 23 - Meet The Teachers

Lots of great things planned for the up and coming free social media school in Asheville North Carolina on April 23rd from 5-7:30pm at Elaine's Piano at the Grove Park Inn. G Social Media will be moderating this event and introducing you to some of the key people in the Asheville video industry. Plan to learn lots of information about taking, making, uploading and marketing your videos. You can RSVP on Facebook or email Gary (email is in the side box my website) to confirm your attendance.

Jay Kirk of PSAV http://psav.com/
25+ years of experience in sales, advertising, marketing, training, producing, directing, designing, animating, and shooting of video, web based materials, and digital media content. With the advent of the internet, Jay became a producer creating websites, and digital media, including interactive DVD’s. 1998, Jay oversaw the creation of one of the most complex DVD’s ever created to that day. In October 2006, The Walt Disney Company hired Jay as a Global Entertainment Manager, working for Disney Broadcast Operations, Disney Event Group, and Walt Disney Entertainment. In January 2008, he was placed on the Technical Director Bench for Walt Disney Entertainment. In August, Jay was cross-utilized by Disney Cruise Lines as the Entertainment Technical Operations Manager.

David Bonyun of Asheville Video Productions http://ashevillevideoproductions.com/. I help businesses generate sales by sharing their stories on video. My focus is Video Production for Business and Real Estate. My niche is Short form Internet video production for businesses and real estate. I will be speaking about Tips and Tricks for capturing better video.

David Bourne of Bourne Media http://bournemedia.com/.

I'm a digital filmmaker and the owner of Bourne Media. We make "Moving Pictures for the Good of the Planet". My focus: We educate and inform viewers of worthy causes, services and products. If your organization does good in this world, we will help you tell your story. My niche is Nature Education, Non-profits, Entertainment, Education, plus 20 years of experience in video and new media. Se habla español. I will be speaking about: In a nutshell, "Reaching your goals through audio/visual storytelling." I will speak about the importance of understanding your goals and how video can help reach them. I'll also speak to how storytelling is particularly important to connecting with a social media audience. I'll top it off with a quick list of video advice that I've gathered in the last 20 years.

Bob Peck of Rev Pictures http://revpictures.com/.

I am a videographer/audio engineer/producer. My focus: Affordable video production/multimedia in Asheville that includes promo videos for local businesses (for internet and social media), weddings, events, real estate properties and more. I am a native of Asheville with over 9 years of audio and video production experience in the area. I will be speaking about: A very basic workflow of a video shoot--I'll shoot about a one minute clip on my Flip camera, import it into Final Cut Pro, export a video and upload to YouTube.

Social Village comes to Free Asheville Social Media School

Asheville's Justin Brackett from Social Village will be teaching a part of the Free Asheville Social Media School on March 23rd at the Garage at Biltmore with Trey Pennington and GSocialMedia.

“People are drawn to an epic story; they want to be a part of something that they feel is bigger than they are. Everyone is telling their epic story every day. Now with Social Media everyone has the opportunity to tell their story to the world and to invite them to join in."

Justin Brackett is an up and coming social media guru. He has emerged into the Social Media world, surprising his peers with his knowledge and understanding of how Social Media is the next tool to change the world.

Social Village, Justin's company: partners with passionate and driven people, tribes of dedicated individuals who lend their time, talent, and money to help improve the world we share. The goal is to help share their story: to clearly fascinate an audience with the needs, the passions, and the actions that can be used to do greatness on a local or global scale.

Justin is making his mark on a world that desires life change. His experiences with the business world, the non-profit sector, and witnessing life change interpersonally gives him a unique position in the Social Media landscape. If you would like to know more, ask him. He really likes to tell about the epic he finds himself experiencing.

2010 Schedule for Asheville Social Media School

Okay, so for a brief itinerary on the Free Asheville Social Media School; we are going to layout some plans for the next several months. It is more than just making a blog, or meeting new people. All of these things are somewhat important, but without connecting it all together and creating a balance; it will not prosper effectively. We are going to take Western North Carolina and AVL on a journey of what social media is all about.


Class #1 – February 25, 2010 from 5pm-7pm – Our first class in Asheville NC is going to be at the Downtown Market on 45 South French Broad Avenue 28801. We are expecting about 200 people to attend this first social media class. We are going to start with an introduction and some basic info. Some questions that will be answered will be… “What is Social Media?” – “Why is Social Media Important?” – “Who created Social Media?”

We are going to discuss the simple importance of creating and maintaining an email. Learn the difference between emails options and why one may be better than the other. We are going to talk about being sociable in Asheville North Carolina and beyond. How can you express your media if your social skills are limited? We are going to show you some easy integration to meet more people and learn more about them. This is not just necessary for business, but for your whole life in general. We are going to learn some of the “unspoken” rules of social media and how to learn them online and then improve your daily living using them also. We are going to learn about the many different social media platforms that are available, how they reach different crowds and how you can use them all to circulate your message to millions of people.

We are going to have 1 minute intros at the beginning of every class from several people. If you would like to say something about you and your business, please let us know. But only one minute to show you the importance of making your initial message short and sweet for this new media society. At this first class… PaleoSun will be joining us to talk about some basic information about websites, and the Asheville Citizen Times will discuss some of their moves into the social media world.

*Since we are doing this right after work, food and drinks will be available from the vendors at the Downtown Market for about $4 per plate. Simple and good!

Class #2 – March 23, 2010 from 5:00pm-7:30pm at the Garage At Biltmore 101 Fairview Rd Asheville NC 28803 – Learn Social Networking using Twitter and Facebook. Besides G Social Media, we are going to have some guest speakers including Trey Pennington from Greenville South Carolina and Social Village from Asheville discussing some very important social media information. We will also show you how to set up a Twitter and Facebook account and some great tips for you and your business. Drinks will be available during the meeting and a music and social time will follow our class at 7pm. RSVP on Facebook or by Email (Email is on my blog website)

Class #3 – April 23, 2010 from 5pm-7:30pm at Elaine's Piano at the Grove Park Inn 290 Macon Ave Asheville NC 28804 – Learn Social Media Marketing using Video platforms from G Social Media, Asheville Video Productions and Bourne Media. Video communications are very important in today’s society. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a short video is worth at least 10 thousand to the targeted viewer. We will also show you how to set up a YouTube account and some lessons when uploading videos.

Class #4 – May 10, 2010 from 5:30pm-7:30pm – Learn Blogging as a personal journal project, a community awareness platform and business blogging from AskAsheville, Ashvegas and BlogAsheville in Asheville North Carolina. You will learn how to set a blog up, a few tricks to get it presentable and optimized, and how to fill it with the proper content and wording for your specific niche. Creating a blog for your business (and doing it right) is a very important part of your social media circle.

***More classes are planned for the rest of the 2010 year, with shorter spans during the warmer months. We have a few outdoor activities and social media retreats planned as well. This is going to be too much fun!!

***If you have a venue or place that you would like us to consider for hosting a Free Asheville Social Media School event or if you have something that you would like to donate as a raffle item at our events; please contact us. If you think that you know someone or are someone that would fit in good with one of these school sessions; please let us know. Thank you.

Asheville Social Media - Free School Coming Soon!

I have initiated a social media school in Asheville North Carolina beginning on February 25, 2010 and it is going to continue indefinitely in the months to come. Each class will provide important information to help you understand, initiate, and use social media effectively. Some people are simply coming to the classes for information. Some are coming to learn how to aggressively use it for their businesses and promotions. While some want to learn how to get started, others may want to make sure their marketing company is up to par. Many businesses are led into a weak form of social media because the media companies that are leading them do not completely understand it themselves. But all of us like to say "we know it all and have it covered." This is many times not the case. We are going to try to help everyone from the common social media and social networking user, to companies that are trying to assist their clients with new media.

The Asheville social media class dates for the next few months will be February 25th, March 23rd, April 23rd, and May 10th from 5pm-7pm, with social hours after on some of these days. We have a nice curriculum planned for all of these dates with great information and guest speakers coming in. We are going to answer any and every question you have concerning Social Media, Websites, Marketing, and Social Networking. You are going to be trained on how to start social media for fun, for your business, and keep it simple. More maintenance means more of your time, or more of your money if you are hiring someone to do your social media. We show you how to eliminate a lot of this time or expense by connecting your social media together properly.

These Asheville classes are going to be fun fun for everyone. We are planning several outdoor activities and even a social media retreat for the Summer of 2010. We are going to be meeting several businesses in the Western North Carolina area and learning how they connected with their audience before, and how they are currently connecting. You will learn effective change. We are going to learn how to make connections with businesses ourselves and how to extract the important information we need from anyone. We are going to learn some simple lessons that we should have learned in the playground as children... to big corporate business strategy. All of your social media needs will be covered in this free school in Asheville NC.

The 1st Class on February 25th will be at the Downtown Market at 45 South French Broad Ave Asheville NC 28801 from 5pm - 7pm and there will be some great food and drinks available for a small cost ($4 - $5) from the vendors. It is located right down the street from the Asheville Federal Building, across from United Way.

You can email me to reserve a free spot by clicking HERE or you can visit the Facebook event page.