eROI Event

Last summer when I was interning here at eROI I began to hear more and more about this little thing called Twitter which was growing exponentially and was going to be the next big thing. I of course created my account (@chris_sullivan) and here we are a year later and Twitter is still burgeoning.

Considering its phenomenal growth, Twitter has also received lots of buzz on the web, from bloggers, major news outlets, other tweets, etc. I am not going to try and bring some new groundbreaking revelation about the practical applications of Twitter in this post, that would be far to ambitious. Rather, I will recap some of the fun and exciting ways that people and organizations have used to spice up their events and perhaps try to shed some light on what is to come.

Twitter Streams at Events

This was a classic usage of of Twitter by the creators of Twitter at SXSW in 2007. They placed big plasma screens in the main thoroughfares at the event which had feeds of tweets. In this case when Twitter was still young, the event attendees ate it up and Twitter became the talk of the show. However, a variation of this is still hugely popular. It is very simple for event organizers to put up a hash tag at the event and have attendees tweeting away about their experience on their iPhones and Blackberries. Not only is it fun for the people attending, who can see what others are saying, but it is also great for informing those who aren’t at the event and making them want to come next time.

Event Organizing

Flash mobs have found Twitter to be an excellent tool to get the word out about their events. They have used tweets in conjunction with blogging, and for more organized groups, event registration software. @flashmobaustin has used Twitter to both organize their events and to direct traffic to their blog, where more detailed information can be found.

As Twitter becomes more and more pervasive I think that it could be a great organization tool for impromptu events. It is also exciting because Twitter allows people other than the leadership of the group to get the word out. If the organization’s main Twitter account puts something out there it can be easily retweeted by other members. It helps put the power in the hands of the individual rather than relying on the traditional hierarchy.

Event Promotion

Twitter can be a very powerful tool for pre-promoting upcoming events. It is great to use for last minute reminders as tweets can be sent and received at any time and from many different devices, but it can also be great for creating hype weeks and days before the event takes place. These messages can come from either the company as a whole, or an individual within the group just keeping people updated on the progress of an event. E.G. @eROI and @chris_sullivan, respectively.

A cool recent example of this from someone I am following is the QN5 Megashow concert that happened in New York. @Kno (one of the performers at the show), has been tweeting info on their concert preparations for the last couple of weeks. An example from a couple of days ago, “Rehearsing ‘A Piece of Strange’ in a church, the only way to get it right. This set is going to melt your face.” He has also posted up pictures of the band practicing and details about the set they are playing. All of these are simple ways to get followers excited without being overbearing.

Let us know what you think in the comments section.

Tags: event promotion, social media, twitter