Higginbotham At Large 12 January 2010

Higginbotham At Large 12 January 2010:

- Social Media Psychographics and Demographics

- St. Albans Architecture Executive Launches New Blog

- Why Is It Called “Drinking Liberally”?

- If You Organize It They Will Join

- Russell Williams Organized It, Will You Join?

Social Media Psychographics and Demographics:

LinkedIn’s 50 million users have the highest average income ($89k) of all social media users. 58% of LinkedIn users earn more than $93K annually.

Facebook users are more likely to be married, White, and retired, compared to users of other social networks. They have the second-highest average income ($61k).

My Space users are younger, with the lowest average income ($44k). They are more likely to be Black or Hispanic, single and students.

Twitter users interests include politics, personal finance, sports, restaurants, religion, TV, reading, music, movies. On average, they are more likely to buy books, shoes, movies and cosmetics than users of the other networks.

Sources: Anderson Analytics, Ad Age

St. Albans Architecture Executive Launches Blog

Joe Bird, ASLA and Sr. VP at Chapman Technical Group in St. Albans, has launched a blog that is, as far as I can tell, the only architecture blog in West Virginia. It’s called Spaces For People and you can see it at http://spacesforpeople.wordpress.com/

Why Is It Called “Drinking Liberally”?

I’ve never seen anyone become inebriated at a Drinking Liberally meeting. I’d say that at least half the times I say the words “Drinking Liberally” the hearer thinks I said “Thinking Liberally” – a name I like better anyway. No, I haven’t asked Drinking Liberally headquarters if they’d kick the Charleston chapter out if we called it “Thinking Liberally”.

To sign up for the Charleston chapter mailing list go to http://livingliberally.org/drinking/chapters/WV.

Thinking / Drinking Liberally meets at 5:30PM the 1^st and 3^rd Thursdays of each month at Bruno’s, 222 Leon Sullivan Way.

If You Organize It They Will Join

Speaking of organizing new groups, here’s a fact: nobody expressed an interest in joining Drinking Liberally until Malyka Knapp Smith and I just sort of announced that a chapter already existed and called our first meeting.

As some of my regular readers know, SMPS.org (Society for Marketing Professional Services) recently put a link to my blog on their site and called my short series on referrals and relationships “outstanding business development advice”. I mention this because I think West Virginia needs its own chapter of SMPS and I don’t think we’ll ever have it until SMPS drops the requirement that we have 15 SMPS members in the state before they’ll certify a chapter. But I believe that if they first certify a chapter we’ll soon have more than the 15 members they require. In other words, if you organize it they will join.

Charleston-Huntington marketing pros and business developers are not going to drive to NOVA, Lexington, Cincinnati, or Pittsburgh to attend meetings – and there’s really not much point in belonging to a group if you can’t attend its meetings. I’d love to offer my organizational and promotional help to Tina Myers or Ronald Worth or any other SMPS executive who agrees with me.

While I’m on the subject of If You Organize It They Will Join, if I were Helen Han, Kelly Scanlon, Wendy Lopez or any of the other leaders at NAWBO (National Association of Women Business Owners) I’d find a champion to help me start a NAWBO chapter in Charleston, WV. A few days ago I made an offer to my friend, Beverly Clemons, a former President of the Lexington, KY, chapter of NAWBO. I offered to help her identify and recruit Charleston area women business owners if she would become the missionary/apostolic chapter planter here in Charleston. There are NAWBO chapters in Pittsburgh, Lexington and Columbus but Charleston area women business owners aren’t going to drive 3 hours to attend meetings so I’ll make the same offer to NAWBO’s national office that I made to my friend Beverly: send Charleston a missionary and I’ll help her identify and recruit Charleston women-owned businesses. Maybe Columbus chapter president, Gail Froelicher or Lexington, KY, president, Janey Moores or Pittsburgh chapter president, Jill Kummer, would like to make a mission trip to help organize a Charleston chapter.

If I were a woman, I’d organize a NAWBO chapter myself. Frankly, I’m surprised that Sharon Chapman, Rebecca Kimmons, Sarah Halstead, Julie Hewett, and other Charleston-Huntington area business owners aren’t all over this.

And now that Metro Valley and A Woman’s View have ceased publication, Charleston no longer has a magazine for professional women.

Perhaps it’s time for Dateline Publications to launch a new mag aimed at women.

Russell Williams Organized It, Will You Join?

A Charleston entrepreneur, Russell Williams, has started a Meetup group for small business owners, startups and entrepreneurs. Join at http://www.meetup.com/charlestonwv/.