02
August
2013
|
04:30 AM
America/Los_Angeles

End Of An Era: Social Media Club Founders Step Down

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Chris Heuer and Giovanni Rodriguez.

I was there in 2006, on Chris Heuer and Kristie Wells's back porch when they first began discussing Social Media Club. Then Chris went on a giant global trek, like a Johnny Appleseed, setting up local Social Media Clubs everywhere.

Over 300 local chapters connected more than 500,000 people over the past seven years. That's a wonderful achievement. 

Chris and Kristie said they are stepping down from their current roles because they have new projects. On Facebook, Chris wrote:


"…and with that, Heuer, has left the building! I am no longer involved in Social Media Club operations after leaving the last 2 leadership groups.

For those of you who don't know, I registered the domain in March 2006 and went on a tour hosting round tables that summer and fall to get it started…. It was a very interesting and lesson filled ride for sure.

Wishing the board and amazing local chapter leaders much success in the future as the experiment continues to play out."


Kristie wrote a letter to the SMC community:


We are humbled and proud to have had the wonderful opportunity to work with you to build an organization responsible for the development of so many of today's social media leaders!

Social Media Club has always been our labor of love, but the 40+ hours a week needed from us to manage the global organization is just not sustainable as we also try to manage our full-time careers and family life. -


Dan Holden has a great write up here: Founders Wells and Heuer Leaving Social Media Club - Silicon Valley 411 


Wells and Heuer have left a lasting legacy, inspiring hundreds of people to commit to projects and start-ups in what for many years was the hottest market in Silicon Valley.


“Chris and Kristie were some of the first people I met when I arrived in the valley in 2005,” said author and start-up founder Tara Hunt. “Both were brilliant and generous and even before Social Media was a ‘thing’, they were working tirelessly to get companies to recognize that the future of marketing is social. I think we should all be grateful for their efforts.”


Kristie writes:


Chris and I have recently taken two new, very big and exciting roles; me as Director of Global Social Media and Customer Engagement at Ancestry.com, and Chris as Founder of AdHocnium (and a soon-to-be announced new startup).


I want to congratulate them on creating Social Media Club and I wish them luck in their new ventures. Check back here next week for details on Chris's new startup.