How to Throw a Killer Tweet Up in 24hrs or less

While reading this post feel free to replace the word “tweet-up” with get-together, party, wine & cheese or whatever event you have the urge to make go from ho-hum to bowchickawahwah.

Everyone wants to know the person behind the avatar. Simply to get to know them better or to figure out if they really are as cute as their display picture puts on. Interaction online can only go so far; the real life interaction is when the violins start playing. A couple months back while cruising over my twitter feed I came across a  tweet sent by Scott Thomson from Your inner Skinny. That one tweet is what inspired this post.

Now, I’ve read tons of articles about how to throw a killer tweet-up and I think a lot of them make this whole tweet-up thing WAY too difficult.  Sure, certain events need to be planned well in advance but I also believe that the moments we cherish most are the ones that happen unexpected.

In Seth Godins book Tribes he discusses an extremely similar situation,

At the SXSW conference in 2008, Scott (Scott Beale, not Scott Thomson) got tired of waiting in line to get into the Google Party. So he walked down the street, found a deserted bar, grabbed some tables in the back, and fired up his cell phone….Within minutes, eight people showed up. Shortly thereafter, fifty. Then there was a line out the door.

So, how do you throw a Kick ass tweet up in 24 hours or less?
Do you need to contact the media?
Go out and buy name-tags?
Create a page on event brite?

NO!

Let me breakdown the steps for having a solid tweet-up!

Have an Idea

Coming up with the idea is simple , we want to throw a Tweetup.  Now we just need a cool name or a reason to celebrate. Scott came up with the extremely clever hashtag #HFXmasDrinks but ours doesn’t have to be that clever. We could come up with something as simple as “#Tweet-Up.” or #TalkTwitter. All we have to do is come up with something, anything…Seriously, there is a holiday for everyday of the year! Steal one of those!

Execute the idea

This is where most people struggle – They have the great idea but they don’t actually act upon it. Scott on the other hand had a great idea and rather than keeping it a secret like most people do he decided to execute and send out that 140 character tweet. In this video post “Get Over Yourselves….again” Joel Kelly puts it perfectly – “Ideas are worthless unless you can execute on them”. So execute on your idea! With twitter, execution is easy. Write your idea in less than 140 characters and press send. Share it.

One thing people often forget about twitter is that it is impossible to see every tweet your friends sent out. Thus, not everyone following you are going to stumble across your idea so it can be easily shared and discussions can be tracked There are a couple ways to do that; ONE: Create a hastag. TWO: Send  @’s to the people you think would be interested in your event. THIRD: Send out a tweet about the event more than once!

Work out the Details

Once you’ve generated some buzz feel free to work out the details! You can ask those who are  up for it, what location they think will be best or make the decision on your own. This and the time of the event are all that matters. If its at a local bar you’re smooth sailing. If its at your house get out the swiffer and possibly the slap chop…

Finally, Enjoy it!!

Make sure its a great time for everyone and don’t be a Debbie downer if certain people don’t show up. Enjoy the company that are around you and make the best of it!

Are you scared to attend tweet-ups, why? What made some of the tweet ups that you’ve gone to so special?

photo credit: quinn.anya

Tagged as: Event Planning, Mass media, Online Communities, Recreation, Social network, Tweet-Up, Twitter