Nicholas Kin, a local entrepreneur, was one of several-dozen people who crammed Wednesday into Scarlet, a tavern on Virginia Place in Buffalo’s Allentown neighborhood, to share their passion for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other digital, online social networking Web sites.

The gathering was intended to launch a local chapter of the Social Media Club, an international organization.

Kin, who runs an events planning business called Kid V Productions, joined Facebook only a year ago at the suggestion of a friend who advised him to use the social networking site to promote the Buffalo Blues n’ BBQ Festival in LaSalle Park this summer.

Via Facebook, Kin ran a “bring-a-friend” contest that offered two free tickets to the festival.

“I did that, and in a week I had over 1,400 invites. So, [for] the cost of two tickets, which was an amazing promotion, it didn’t cost me a dime,” Kin said.

Nicole Schuman, president and co-founder of Social Media Club Buffalo, said the club is open to all kinds of savvy users of online social media outlets, like Kin, whether they’re media professionals who use Facebook and LinkedIn to enhance their business connections or simply new social media enthusiasts.

“This event itself was only advertised through Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare [and] LinkedIn. We’re going to have over 100 attendees in the area just because people passed

along the information to one another. It’s just a new word-of-mouth,” Schuman said.

“We’ll be having a lot of activities where members will be able to come for free or at a discounted price. Some events might only be offered to members instead of the general public. For example, next Tuesday we have a free showing of the ‘Social Network” movie. Just today, we got 65 people to go,” Schuman added.

Emily Burns lived in New York City for 10 years doing public relations in the fashion industry.

“In ’08, I decided I really missed my hometown, I wanted to be close to my family, . . . and I was lucky enough to find a position with the Buffalo-Niagara Partnership [in its] communications department,” Burns said.

From there she went on do public relations at Freed Maxick & Battaglia, a certified public accounting firm in the Liberty Building.

“I was specifically hired to do e-marketing communications, all things Internet related, [including] social media, digital tools, video, Internet marketing,” Burns said.

“Companies all throughout the [U. S.] are having to create these type of positions for just this sort of thing. So there’s a lot of new opportunity for people that dabble in the digital fields,” she added.

hmcneil@buffnews.comnull