What? You don’t already know what Social Media Day is? Just kidding. Well, it’s a celebration of the social media revolution that’s happening every day around the world.

The 3^rd annual International Social Media Day is taking place at meet-ups all over the world this June 30^th. Right now there are 502 cities participating.

@Mashable has started http://mashable.com/smday/ where you can look up the meetups happening in your city, follow live tweets from meetups all over the world with the hash tag #SMDay, and even find tools to help organize your own social media day meetup.

Being a socially savvy city, this isn’t Buffalo’s first Social Media Day. We even have our own hash tag #SMDayBuf. The local chapter Social Media Club Buffalo is hosting this year’s event at @StatlerCity offering the chance to network and learn but also a social media challenge where participants have to complete social tasks in order to be entered to win some great prizes from the Mansion on Delaware @Butler414 and @WestHerr

This is a great opportunity for local companies using social media marketing to amplify their brand’s voice in Buffalo. Most of the attendees will be local personalities that are extremely vocal and well followed on social channels. In previous years, there was also media coverage of the event by local news outlets that I imagine will continue. Also, 100% of the event ticket price will be donated to Computers for Children so it’s also a great way for brands to show their support for the local community.

Our own @adclubofbuffalo hosted a social media #AdLab panel discussion this past Tuesday. It was a great discussion and one key takeaway that I think was very relevant was that social media is part of our real, everyday lives now. It’s about real relationships, conversations and personalities and that’s what makes it such a powerful tool for brands, be they personal or corporate.

  Terri Swiatek is a digital designer at Travers Collins.