Future of Web Apps, Miami 2010
Carsonified’s Future of Web Apps is in Miami this week. While I’m not attending any of the workshops today, I did attend the day-long general sessions yesterday and recorded my audio and notes using my new Livescribe Pulse Smartpen. I’ve embedding the recordings for almost all sessions below. When you hit play, the notes will play back with the audio, turning green as they were written in realtime. You can skip around the presentations using your mouse and clicking on any part of the notes – the audio will sync to where it was while I was recording the notes.
Let me know if you found this useful and I will be sure to upload notes from SXSW in a few weeks.
Opening remarks
Ryan Carson, Carsonified
Mobile Roadie Demo
Michael Schneider, Mobile Roadie
The 10 Golden Principles for Successful Web Apps
Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures
In this session, Fred will share 10 vital principles that anyone working on a web app should know. His experience with Twitter, FeedBurner, Etsy, Delicious, Tumblr, Boxee, FourSquare, Meetup and more will prove invaluable to everyone attending.
Marketing your Web App – The Future of Brands Online
Alex Hunter, @cubedweller
Alex Hunter takes you through the DOs and DO NOTs of developing a powerful and positive brand both on the Web and in the office. He’ll also look at the state of the VC market and how you can turn your idea into something that actually exists and makes money.
The Sky Is The Limit
Osama Bedier, PayPal
Mobile commerce grew at an astonishing rate in 2009, and applications were a key element of driving that growth. Osama Bedier of PayPal will discuss how mobile money and the Wallet in the Cloud will help eliminate mobile payments barriers and bring m-commerce to the masses in the next decade.
Your Social Media Strategy Won’t Save You
Tara Hunt, Horse Pig Cow
Being friendly and helpful on Facebook and Twitter won’t make your app succeed. In this valuable session, Tara will explain how to think ‘customer centrically’, put user happiness first, reward enthusiasts, learn not launch and raise whuffie. She’ll also explain the difference between ‘Influencers’ and ‘Enthusiasts’ and why it’s important to reach the latter. Don’t miss it!
What’s going on with open source / standards?
A Conversation with Ryan Carson and David Recordon, Facebook
Speedy, Stable, and Secure: Better Web Applications Through Functional Languages
Alex Payne, Twitter
A whirlwind tour of the benefits of functional programming languages and how you can put them to work in your web application’s architecture. Learn how to make the most of a rich type system, immutable data structures, and other features of languages like Scala, Erlang, Haskell, and OCaml. Find out where to get started with functional languages, and how they stack up when it comes to web app development.
Keynote/Q&A
Gary Vaynerchuk, Wine Library TV
Most of you know Gary’s Schpeel! At this year’s FOWA Miami Gary wants to try something new! In this session he will be taking questions from the floor answering anything you have to throw at him. So get ready – It really is a session that could change your life forever!
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Lightning bolts at WordCamp Miami
WordCamp Miami was today at the University of Miami School of Communication in Coral Gables, a place that I know very, very well. I was pleased to see so many unfamiliar faces in attendance, as well as many people who I am privileged to call my friends.
Unlike last year, WordCamp was held separately from BarCamp Miami (which is taking place Sunday). Although I did not get to attend last year, I really feel that this was a smart move on the part of organizers. Presentations were categorized into three tracks (developer, social media, and beginner) and provided a range of interest that really spoke to attendees of all knowledge-bases.
One of the things that stood out for me during WordCamp was something Jane Wells (Twitter: @JaneForShort), user experience lead for WordPress, said during her presentation preview of WordPress 3.0. Jane was asked what it was like to take part in something like WordPress, as there are over 18 million blogs publishing on WordPress. She was extremely modest and talked about how she hopes to help teach underprivileged youth technology, possibly through the new WordPress Foundation, as a way to open their eyes to something they may never have realized was an opportunity.
This got me thinking and I sent out the following tweet:
After Jane’s presentation was over, I was quite surprised when my friends Rebekah Monson and Mallory Colliflower (Twitter: @malcolli) came up to me and wanted to brainstorm more about this. Rebekah was particularly interested in creating training for young girls who are interested in becoming journalist-developers, since this niche field is dominated by males.
I’m extremely excited in seeing where this idea leads. I will be putting together a Wave to help us brainstorm the idea and would love for anyone who is interested to contact me to get involved.
Kudos to the organizers of WordCamp Miami for putting on a successful event, especially to David Bisset (Twitter: @DimensionMedia). I was also thrilled that one of my new coworkers, who recently started a blog of her own, attended the event and was able to get a lot of ideas.
Awesome people who made my week
Creative Commons photo by Flickr user Himmelskratzer.
This week, I’ve been helping to put together a presentation that would inspire a group of South Florida non-profit CEO’s to embrace social media. The world of non-profits is new to me, so I was thrilled when I stumbled upon Beth Kanter’s blog. How Nonprofit Organizations Can Use Social Media to Power Social Networks for Change. If you’re working for a non-profit, you should bookmark this blog. If you’re working professionally in social media, or just interested in new ways social media is being used, this blog should be bookmarked or added to your RSS feed.
Also, a quick shout-out to Dharmishta Rood and Nick Soni, whom I have been collaborating with on this project this past week. Dharmishta has been leading the project and does awesome stuff (like the Populous Project, blogging for Mozilla, ). Nick is an awesome designer. Thanks guys!
Hired.
Just a quick note to let you know that I’ve found work at the Knight Foundation, here in Miami, where I am interim Online Community Manager. I got word shortly after my last post when I announced that I was officially unemployed. As I find my footing, I will post about some of the exciting things that are being done at the foundation to help transform the future of journalism, among other things. For now, you can catch me on Twitter (@loritodd) and over at the Knight Blog.
A news designer’s farewell to newspapers.
This week has been a roller coaster of emotions. While my last day at the Miami Herald was December 26th, Monday marked the first official day of my unemployment. I went to the office one final time to sign a severance agreement and returned home to find myself struggling to navigate the State of Florida unemployment website. It was the first week my time off didn’t feel like vacation. I spent Tuesday sorting through years of newspaper clips, scattered around three or four different hard drives. On Wednesday, I started applying for jobs. For the first time in my life, I found myself without a plan.
By the time I graduated from the University of Miami in 2006, I had already been working part-time at the Miami Herald and had two great internships under my belt. Before I began my job search, I was offered a six-month news design contact in Milwaukee. After my first real fall and winter, my contract at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel was up. Again, before I started to plan my next move, another job fell in my lap. As I was digging my car out of ten feet of snow, I got a phone call from a friend in Austin. A chance to thaw out in the Texas Hill Country? I was game. The Austin American-Statesman turned out to be a wonderful place to work and I made many great friends there. After a year and a half, I found myself still unable to call Austin home. What was missing? Family. So I hatched a plan to return to the Miami Herald. I stayed in contact with the graphics editor and despite the layoffs that were underway, we were able to secure me a spot on the presentation desk just one week before the second round of layoffs began. I was home, and regardless of how difficult things had quickly become in the industry, I was happy.
In the short time that I was back at the Miami Herald, I found a new passion for journalism. As I first started out, I thought of myself as a designer, who specialized in news. After a few years, I learned that I was much more than that. I was a journalist who had a passion for visual storytelling, and that design was just one of the tools available to me (and one that I am extremely passionate about). Perhaps I didn’t express this new passion in the best light, as my new bosses came to think that I had grown unhappy with my job. It’s important to note that while I was working at the Herald, the news design desk had shrunk from 15 people to ten (and now eight), but while our top editors had made lofty plans initially to compress the paper (and therefore reduce the work load), none of those plans came to fruition. We quickly found ourselves multitasking and most of us doing the work of two people or more. Stress and morale were at thier lowest.
As this new passion for journalism manifested itself in social media and news video, I was not awarded any time in my schedule to work on them. I did most of it between sending pages or I’d come in early or stay late when I had the energy to do so. I can’t fault my bosses for not allowing me more of a chance to spend on my new interests, they were in a precarious position to begin with. They supported me as much as they could afford to.
That brings me to today. While I don’t know what my next step is quite yet, I am looking forward to life outside of newspapers. And hopefully, I will still be able to call myself a journalist.
2010: A clean slate.
New Years resolutions, in my option, are doomed from the get-go. While the new year is a good time to reflect on the past year and make goals for the next, I feel that announcing to friends and family (hell, even if you just keep it to yourself) that “This year I will [insert an unrealistic goal here]” adds unneeded pressure to the new year. I don’t need any more pressure in my life. 2009 was too difficult to stomach. It had it’s high points, but it ended on quite a sour note. For me, 2010 is a clean slate. Here’s a list of what I’m looking forward to in 2010:
New career
Note, I did not simply say “new job”. 2010 will be a year where I try something new. I don’t know what it will be quite yet, but I am looking forward to a future outside of newspapers.
More time with friends and family
Having worked as a newspaper journalist since graduating college, I’ve not had a single Christmas or New Year’s off in many years. My weekends have fallen on just about every combination other than Saturday and Sunday, too. In 2010, I’m planning to spend the holidays and weekends with my friends and family. They come first in 2010.
The elusive Apple Tablet
Rumors surrounding the Apple tablet are running rampant. At the time of writing this, it seems likely that the tablet will be announced January 26th. Catch up on all the rumors and “news” on Gizmodo (tag:appletablet).
Grooveshark for iPhone
If you haven’t tried Grooveshark, the streaming music site from a start-up out of Gainesville, you’re missing out. Supposedly, an iPhone app has been submitted to Apple for approval, but it’s been a while since we last got an update on this. We can only assume Apple hasn’t yet gotten around to it yet. Find it in the app store soon.
EVENTS
- Olympic mascot ice sculpture in Whistler, Canada. Creative Commons photo by Flickr user Tim Gillin
2010 Olympic Winter Games
Vancouver, February 12 to 28
I’ll be watching the games from the comfort of my couch. Or my bed. Or online, even. The Olympics are one of my favorite sporting events and the Winter games allow me to imagine a world with seasons. Sure, I love watching figure skating, but in the past few years I’ve learned to appreciate the fine art of curling (Etienne’s infatuation sparked my interest) and ski jumping (thanks to Wii Fit).
For more information on the games, visit the official website at Vancouver2010.com. In the US, you can catch the games on television on NBC (and NBC HD) for free. Visit NBC’s Olympic website for TV listings.
South-by-Southwest Interactive Festival
Austin, March 12 to 16
I’ve been planning to attend this conference for over a year now. Things didn’t work out this past year because there was no budget at the paper to send anyone. This year, even if I’m still unemployed, I plan to (somehow) attend SXSW. I simply cannot pass up the opportunity to experience it for myself. Not to mention it’s a great excuse to see all my Austin buddies.
This year, many South Florida techies will be in attendance and I am hoping that we can make our presence known to the greater geeky audience. Brian Breslin, Davide Di Cillo, Alex de Carvalho, and Peter Martinez will be holding a panel discussion on our burgeoning tech community called “Coconut Valley: Building a Tech Community on the Beach.”
Some of the speakers/sessions I plan to attend include:
- “Yelp Effect: When Everyone’s A Restaurant Critic” by Addie Broyles (my former colleague and food writer for the Austin American-Statesman)
- Clay Shirky’s unnamed presentation
- “DSLR Filmmaking: Unlocking New Visual Possibilities” by Philip Bloom
- “Why Self-Promotion Will Save the World” by Peter Shankman from Help a Reporter Out (HARO)
- “StoryCorps 2.0: Social Networking Meets Storytelling” by Suneel Gupta, The Kahani Movement
- “PayTV vs. Internet: The Battle For Your TV” by Avner Ronen, boxee
- “Interactive Infographics” by Casey Caplowe, GOOD magazine
- “I Don’t Trust You One Stinking Bit” by Chris Brogan, New Marketing Labs
- “Funemployed: Success Stories From the Laid Off Community” by Chris Hutchins, LaidOffCamp
2010 FIFA World Cup
South Africa, June 11 to July 11
I remember watching Brazil win it’s fourth World Cup title in 1994. I was just a kid, but it was the first time I remember watching a sport on my own. My interest waned since then, sparked only for a summer when I abroad in Prague in 2004 and we watched the Czech Republic games broadcast live in Old Town Square. In 2008, I was glued to the television, watching each game, and even DVR’ing the games I missed while at work. This year, I can’t wait to be sucked in again. On my couch.
Visit the official site at http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/ for more information and the latest news. In the meantime, watch this really cool video that shows how the official match ball is made, from start to finish:
We can’t afford your conference.
This post is co-authored by Mallory Colliflower and Lori Marie Todd. Mallory graduated in spring 2008 from the University of Florida and works part time at the Miami Herald as an online content producer. Lori graduated in 2006 from the University of Miami and has worked at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Austin American-Statesman before returning to the Miami Herald as a news page designer in September 2008.
We’ve got a bone to pick with some of our favorite professional organizations. At a time when most people in the US have had to adjust their lifestyles because of the economic downturn and as the newspaper industry is struggling to survive, industry-wide training and conferences have simply gotten too expensive for many of us to attend.
THE FACTS
There have been 31,757 layoffs and buyouts at U.S. newspapers since June 2007[1].
If you’re lucky enough to not be counted in the figure above, you’ve likely had to take a pay cut (many people have been docked as much as 10%[2]) and/or mandatory time off work.
In addition, company training budgets are getting slashed, and many are nearly non-existent. At Lori’s last job and her current one, the papers were unable to send any employees to the Society for News Design annual conference. Lori was able to negotiate time off to attend the National Press Photographer’s Association’s Multimedia Immersion and Convergence09 conference in June because she was willing to foot the bill for the entire thing (which came to over $2,000 after tuition, airfare, hotel and minor gear purchases – Thank you, MasterCard).
THE CONSEQUENCES
Expensive conferences create a pay-to-play environment [3]. While it’s easier than ever to catch a livestream of a conference (The Online News Association did a fantastic job, utilizing technology and equipment from Livestream.com), physical attendance is invaluable. You cannot network like you can in person. Those lucky few who are able to afford attending these conferences are able to make connections with big names in our industry, not necessarily because of merit, but because they can afford to be there. Even if they can, the current work environment in most newsrooms is strapped, leaving little or no staff to cover shifts.
Expensive conferences put out-of-work journalists at an even greater disadvantage. Attending industry events and keeping skill sets up-to-date are all we can rely on to market ourselves in a suddenly flooded field of applicants. Attending a conference is resume material. Following a conference online is not.
Sending only newsroom veterans is counterproductive to innovation. Recent college graduates who are employed should be attending these conferences because they are bursting with optimism and ideas and are the future of our industry. So often do newsroom veterans look to us, the wired generation, for clues and tips for adapting news for the Web and starting conversations with the audience. They need our help. We should be better equipped to give it to them.
We realize that there’s a lot of cost associated with putting on a professional conference. Venue fees. Speaker fees. Bandwidth charges. And so on. However, it seems that the cost of these conferences have not adjusted to consider the state of the industry. Some of the speakers at these conferences are reimbursed for every penny spent. That’s not to say that they shouldn’t be, but it’s ironic given that these are the people who can often afford the conference in the first place.
THE SOLUTION
Mark S. Luckie of 10,000 Words provides a great list of resources for journalists to learn technical skills. We urge journalists to take advantage of the these opportunities. However, they are no replacement for in-person training and networking.
We want an affordable alternative to the big annual conferences, with a comparable level of networking and training that you’d pay hundreds of dollars at SND, ONA, NPPA or other conferences. We propose a BarCamp-style unconference.
What’s that? As defined on BarCamp.org:
BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from participants who are the main actors of the event.
At Miami’s last BarCamp, Greg Linch (of Publish2, who at the time was a University of Miami student), led a track called NewsInnovation, which focused on creating better ways to deliver news.
Holding a similar event in your area, either on your own with fellow journalists, or in conjunction with an already established BarCamp, is one way we can train one another on the cheap, and still get to do a lot of the face-to-face networking that you would do at a national conference, but on a regional scale. We are in the very early stages of doing this ourselves and will blog it as it comes together.
If you have any ideas on how to make conferences more affordable, or want to throw around your ideas with us, leave a comment below or chat with us on Twitter. Mallory can be reached at @malcolli and Lori at @loritodd.
Footnotes:
1 This number totals those reported on Erica Smith’s Paper Cuts, a Google Maps mashup which tracks layoffs and buyouts at U.S. newspapers. It does not include job cuts made through attrition. (Numbers as of October 10, 2009.)
2 At McClatchy owned Miami Herald, employees making over $25,000 a year were given a 5% pay cut, over $50,000 were given 10% pay cut. On top of this, all full-time employees had to take five furlough days between before October 31, 2009.
3 We do realize that some concessions have been made in consideration of the economic state: NPPA’s Convergence09 workshop was under $100 for members (professionals and students). SND froze registration rates and members paid 2008’s rates and students who registered early did not have to pay any registration fees.
Social Media Strategy
While attending the National Press Photographers Association conference in June, I sat in on a session about social media led by Misty Montano (@mistymontano), assignment editor at CBS4 Denver. While I had been using social media for the past few years, I had not ever done so on behalf of my employers. As Misty talked about how journalists should use social media, I kept thinking that I needed to take her advice back to my newspaper and refine the ways we were using social media. The most important piece of advice that Misty gave those of us at the conference was that every news organization needs to have a social media strategy.
As newspapers begin to switch to web-only editions and as some of them close, it’s important for us to be honest with ourselves. Newspaper subscriptions are dwindling and there are few statistics that point in a positive direction for the future of the print subscription model. (If you have any, I would love to see them.) We must alter the way we’ve grown accustomed to providing the news and reach out to our audience. To remain relevant in their lives, we have to go where they are, and that place – for now – is social networks.
Having a strategy for how your newspaper or news organization uses social media is integral to whether or not it will be success in this sphere. By clearly defining the social media your paper should be using and setting goals for how you will use social media, you can create brand loyalty with a (hopefully local) online audience (some of whom may never have even picked up a copy of your paper otherwise).
Step 1: Create a social media map
Creating a social media “map” (really, a list will do, but map sounds better, doesn’t it?) will help you get a clear picture of how your paper is already using social media. You can then properly evaluate why you’re on these networks and which networks you should be on. Likely, you already have accounts on different social networks. Make a list of these accounts and who administers them. Don’t forget to include blogs, live chats, forums, wikis, and photo submission galleries.
To get a better understanding of the different social networks and their varying functions, take a peek at Brian Solis and Jesse Thomas’ Conversation Prism:
Click to enlarge image
Step 2: Answer some questions
There are different uses and purposes to each social network. Identify the reason(s) you are using each social network that’s currently on your social media map. As you identify which services you’ll be adding, identify the propose of each individually. As an example: A newspaper might opt to use Facebook to (1) Connect with your audience on a personal level, (2) share links to your content on your audience’s preferred social network, and (3) interact with the audience. Blogs, on the other hand, might have a different purpose: (1) To provide the audience with supplemental information than what is included in the print and web products and (2) to interact with the audience.
In a blog post, aptly titled ‘Strategy is the key for journalists using social media,’ Misty provides a help list of questions you should ask yourself:
Ask why you want to utilize social platforms.
Is it to promote your product?
Is it to create contacts within your local community?
Is it to reach a new group of people within your community?
Is it to find new sources and story ideas?
Step 3: Create your strategy
Once you have a good idea of where you want to be and why you want to be on those social networks, you can create your strategy. You can write your strategy anyway that works for you, but I think including a goal for using social media (Is it to increase overall traffic to your website? Is it to help raise awareness of your newspaper in a heavily saturated metropolitan area like New York City?) and following it up with a few of the ways you plan to achieve this goal works best.
Again, I must reference Misty’s blog where she identifies CBS4 Denver’s goals and her personal strategy:
Advocacy, transparency and interactivity are the goals CBS4 Denver strives to achieve by using social platforms.
My strategy in using social platforms is:
Content: I provide useful information on stories the station is covering and share what it’s like to work in a newsroom. I look beyond what the station is covering and post items that may not make the news, like community gatherings or crime alerts.
Consistency: Daily I am going to talk about what I am doing in my job. I do not give away exclusive stories or give away the news integrity at all. For example, I kept a secret from Twitter. I am going to do my best in a breaking news situation to keep the public updated with as much information I can and as fast as I can.
Conversation: I respond and talk with people as I would if I was having a one-on-one discussion or a group discussion.
I achieve my strategy by being personable and sharing about myself. I do this to relate to people. I am showing that I am just a regular person, doing my job, just like they do their jobs, only my job happens to be in a news room. I do not, however; share personal opinions on news stories or on topics like politics and religion because I am a journalist and I am representing CBS4 News. I do not discuss company business, internal issues or personnel matters.
Step 4: Communicate it to everyone in your organization
Once you have a strategy in place, it’s important to share it with your newsroom. Any employees who are publicly active on social networks or identified with your product with a byline should be aware of your organization’s goals for social media and tweak their own strategy. Sharing your social media plan with everyone – not just the technically savvy – will also encourage others to give social media a chance. By laying out a clear plan for social media usage, you’ve answered many of the misunderstanding people have when they say they don’t “get” social media. Instead of feeling like social media is being forces on them, they will feel included and know where to go when they decide to give it a try.
Related links
Brian Sliss and Jesse Thomas: The Conversation Prism
Misty Montano: Strategy is key for a journalist using social platforms; Twitter brings viewers and news together; Social Media opens the door
Knight Digital Media Center: LA Times embraces, chases social media
Advice and tips on planning a tweetup
After holding a successful tweetup for the Miami Herald back in June, I’ve received questions from a few fellow online newspaper journalists asking for tips and advice on organizing a tweetup. Most newspapers have already jumped onto the Twitter bandwagon and are starting to test the water to see how effective social media can be in driving traffic to their home page. Realizing that Twitter isn’t just another place to dump our RSS feeds, we’re learning to interact with our audience in ways we weren’t able to do in print. And that’s where tweetups come in.
To our advantage, the South Florida social media community is already very active. On any given month, there are at least a dozen networking events and mixers to attend that all focus around technology. After a coworker and I had started attending some of these mixers regularly, we decided it was time to organize a tweetup of our own for the Miami Herald.
Mallory (@malcolli), who helps manage the @miamiherald account, Bill (@wcpassonno/@heraldsports) and I started to throw around our ideas for a Miami Herald tweetup and wrote up a proposal to submit to our boss. From there, a team of social media advocates in the newsroom was put together to organize the tweetup. The group consisted of the three of us, our boss, two social media/technology reporters, and an active social media user from marketing. The seven of us hammered out the details pretty quickly and before we knew it, without too much arm twisting or effort on anyone’s part, the day of our tweetup had arrived.
Here are some advice on holding your own tweetup.
Crowd at Tobacco Road for the Miami Herald's first tweetup.
Convincing your boss
With the decline of the print edition, we can no longer expect the audience to come to us. We must go where our audiences are and reach out to them. That’s why newspapers need to be active on social networks. If we’re going to stay relevant, we need to be relevant in our audience’s lives.
Here’s a statistic you can give your boss to illustrate social media’s relevance: The Austin American-Statesman (@statesman) got over 300,000 page views during their coverage of Hurricane Ike last August/September (2008) through the use of Twitter during the storm. (Source: Robert Quigley, Social Media Editor for the Austin-American Statesman)
Why bother with a tweetup, though? By holding a tweetup, you’re giving something back to the local social media crowd. They want to interact with each other and with your producers, reporters, and editors. Letting the audience get to know your staff face-to-face establishes real relationships. These users will be more likely to follow your tweets more closely, to interact with you on Twitter and other social networks, to retweet your links, and to tell friends.
Get your staff to attend (even if they don’t tweet)
Find an ally in your newsroom to help you. Having an ally will help you reach more people in your newsroom and help keep you positive as you encounter resistance. Many old school newspaper journalists are resistance to change. We all know that. Having an ally or a group of people working on the tweetup can help you gain support and help change peoples minds about why social media is important.
When you have the specifics set, send out an email to the entire newsroom staff. Let them know what the event is, and why they should be interested. I’d encourage you to get as many staffers to attend the event – even if they don’t tweet. When you’re publicizing your tweetup on Twitter, you want to let the public know that this is a chance for them to meet the people who bring them the news every day. If a reporter or columnist doesn’t tweet, having them at the tweetup still allows for them to connect with the audience. Maybe it will even get them to realize that they should be participating. We were pleased to have around 15 staffers attend our first tweetup, all of whom are active on Twitter. Next time, we hope to get more staffers out to the event.
RSVP
I’d recommend using an RSVP/invite service to keep track of how many people are expected at your tweet up. This will allow you to plan for the event accordingly, as well as to give your venue a heads up the day before or day of your tweetup. Also, keep an eye on your RSVP list to see who is or is not attending. We’ve seen success at ours and other tweetups of organizers at-replying active users who have not yet RSVP’d or getting people to change their ‘Maybe’ to a yes. By messaging them individually, they realize that they’re talking to a real person and not a face-less organization. It makes them realize that their presence counts.
We didn’t know what kind of response the public was going to have, so we used twtvite.com to keep a headcount for us. As the day of the tweetup arrived, the RSVP numbers started to balloon. We were hoping for 50 people, since that’s (roughly) the number that attended the first Sun-Sentinel tweetup a month or two before, but by the day of our tweetup, we had 128 RSVP’s for yes, and 32 maybes. We estimate that we had anywhere from 130 to 150 people show up for the event.
If you’re looking for an RSVP service for your tweetup, we had a great experience using twtvite, but there are other free services available: Eventbrite, Evite, and Meetup.com are some of the services that come to mind.
Spread the word
One of the hardest parts about organizing an event is getting people to attend. To that end, you really should be tweeting the details of your tweetup daily on your organizations main account. Include “Pls RT” to encourage followers to help spread the word. It may go without saying, but retweet the details on your personal account and get all of your coworkers to do the same. The day before and day of your tweetup is when you really need to start creating a conversation about the tweetup.
Tip: Use a hashtag to keep track of what people are saying about your tweetup leading up to the event and afterwards. We used #heraldtweetup for our tweetup (and future tweetups), or you can use a local hashtag like #miamitweetups. Just remember to keep the hashtag as short/consise as possible.
Location, location, location
The location you choose for your tweetup can make or break the event. If you choose a venue that’s too small or not appropriate to the tweetup, it will be what attendees talk about and remember from the tweetup. When picking a location, keep a few things in mind:
- Size matters. Choose a venue that can accommodate more people than you expect.
- A/C! Does the area have sufficient air conditioning and ventilation? With crowded indoor venue, you could risk a spike in temperature, so be prepared!
- Plan for the worst. In South Florida, that means plan for rain. If you’ve booked an outside location and it starts to pour, be sure there’s a backup plan.
- Work with the venue. Make sure that you’ve got their approval and let them know what’s in it for them. By letting the owners know the number of people you can expect, it might mean they’re willing to give you some drink or meal specials (which, of course, would give you something to promote and incentive for followers to make it to the event).
At the tweetup
Drinks help entice followers to attend
Name tags at Tweetups are important. Not every one uses their picture as their avatar and there are just too many names and faces to keep straight. Make it easy for your attendees by providing name tags. They don’t have to be fancy. Some RSVP services provide a name tag generator (twtvite does), but I like to keep things simple. Simple “Hello, my name is” tags work fine. Don’t forget the Sharpies, though.
Encourage your coworkers to “work the room.” Talk to as many people as you can. That’s why they’re attending the event. Trade business cards. Get feedback. Tweetups enable us to connect with our audience on a personal level, so let the guard down and have fun.
After the tweetup
Afterward, thank as many people as possible for coming and continue the conversations on Twitter.
We encouraged attendees to add their photos to our Flickr group after the event was over. I populated the group with a set of frame grabs from my video. Then we started soliciting people who we knew had cameras at the event to submit their photos.
Related links
Flickr
#HeraldTweetup Group pool
Mallory Colliflower
Improve your Twitter street cred. Get your ass to a tweetup.
Miami Herald’s #HeraldTweetup thanks you.
Mashable
How to organize a successful tweetup
Miami Herald Tweetup, June 2009 from Lori Todd on Vimeo.
Drink specials help entice followers.