June 30, 2010 marked the first-ever “Social Media Day.” Mashable describes the day’s purpose being to “acknowledge and celebrate the revolution of media becoming social. A day that honors the technological and societal advancements that have allowed us to have a dialogue, to connect and to engage not only the creators of media, but perhaps more importantly, one another.” Over 600 meetups were scheduled in 93 countries, with the fourth-largest worldwide being right here in Orange County.

Hosted by the Orange County Register, this inaugural event attracted over 450 guests and featured various food trucks, scheduled speakers and even a tour of the OC Register’s facilities. Due to the popularity of the panelists, an overflow area was created where those unable to find a seat in the room where the discussion was actually taking place could watch on a TV screen. Speakers featured in the photo are (left to right), Robert Watson of Orange County Social Media Mastermind Roundtable, Bryan Elliot of LinkedOC and Ted Nguyen of Orange County Transportation Authority.

Numerous speakers outlined miscellaneous topics pertaining to social media. Everything from using it as outreach tools and effective branding, leveraging online videos, adding a personal touch, executing a social media business plan, building social communities, crisis management and ensuring the success of your social strategy were addressed by an array of speakers from various industries.

The food trucks were also a hit. Whether you were looking for dinner or dessert, there was lots of choose from. The Calbi Truck (@calibbq) offered Mexican meets Korean BBQ tacos; Piaggio (@piaggioonwheels) offered Argentine tacos; Taco Dawg (@TheTacoDawg) offered tacos and hot dogs; and Barcelona on the Go (@BrcelonaOntheGo) offered Spanish cuisine. For those with a sweet tooth, Longboards (@longboards) offered ice cream; Tropical Shave Ice (@tropshaveice) offered shaved ice; and Oh For Sweets Sake (ohforsweetssake) offered cupcakes.

This was a great way for these trucks to get exposure as, not only were they making themselves visible to large number of people, they chose the perfect audience: Tweeters; individuals who gathered there because of their appreciation of social media, and who thus spent a large amount of time discussing the food they were enjoying for the public to witness. This is a perfect example of using social media as an outreach tool.

Though not many participated, the OC Register tour provided some fascinating insight into the production of a newspaper. We got to learn about the development process and even got to see and learn about how papers used to be printed before our current era of modern technology. An old printing press still resides on-site. Though the process used with it now seems completely ridiculous and time-consuming, it was perceived as effective and revolutionary as it was being used through 1976. We also got to see the machines on which issues are currently printed; they even fold, package and wrap each issue and place it in a stack!

The event appeared to be a huge success. Its hashtag, #smdayoc, is still poppin’ days later and during the event itself, it seemed that a new tweet was being posted every few seconds. The energy surrounding this phenomenon seems to be consistently expanding and it’s really awesome to witness so much passion about something which is so diversely resourceful and that people are consistently willing and excited to learn more about.

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