Tag Archives | TWTRCON

A TWTRCON DC Deal

Posted by Harry McCracken on October 5, 2009 at 10:48 am

Twtrcon DCTWTRCON DC–the second edition of the conference on Twitter for business which I helped launch–is hitting the nation’s capital on October 22nd. The list of speakers is impressive: Everyone from Craiglist’s Craig Newmark to political strategist Joe Trippi to folks from Intuit, PepsiCo, H&R Block, Dunkin Donuts, the NFL, the Wall Street Journal, and USA Today.

If you’re tempted to go, here’s a little added incentive: TWTRCON is extending a 20 percent discount to members of the Technologizer community. Use discount code SPKR32 when you register at the TWTRCON site, which has more details on the speakers, the agenda, and the venue.

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TWTRCON Hits the Nation’s Capital

Posted by Harry McCracken on August 5, 2009 at 8:00 am

Twtrcon DCBack in May, the first edition of TWTRCON–the conference on Twitter for business which I’m proud to have come up with–was held in San Francisco.  It was a hit. And Modern Media, the events’s organizers, are taking the show to Washington DC. TWTRCON DC 09 will be held at the Grand Hyatt Washington DC on October 22nd; the keynote speaker is Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, and folks from Dunkin Donuts, the NHL, H&R Block, Intuit, and PepsiCo have agreed to share their knowledge, with more to come. As before, the topic is how to leverage the power of Twitter to make your business more successful, but given the venue, there will also be discussion of Twitter and government.

It should be a productive, provocative time–I hope you’ll attend if you’d like to learn what some very smart people are doing with the country’s hottest social network. Check out the TWTRCON site for ongoing updates on plans for the event.

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Twitter Not A Big Hit Among Young Adults

Posted by Ed Oswald on June 1, 2009 at 11:11 am

TwitterWhile the 18-24 year old demographic is almost entirely on one social network or another according to a study by the Participatory Media Network — 99 percent to be exact — only a little over a fifth of this group is using Twitter.

The study was released at TWTRCON ’09 in San Francisco, which if you didn’t know (and why didn’t you!) Technologizer’s own Harry McCracken was the “official Twitterer.”

Of this group, 85 percent follow their friends, 54 percent follow celebrities, and 29 percent follow both family and companies. PMN says that this highlights that there is room to grow Twitter as a “marketing vehicle,” but as Caroline McCarthy at Cnet seems to argue on the flipside companies have already been using the microblogging service for marketing purposes for quite awhile.

She seems to say that this isn’t the best news for these folks, and I’d tend to agree. Maybe companies have overestimated the desire for a deeper connection to their customers, and the demand isn’t there. In any case, its all still fairly new so it might be too early to judge just yet.

Regardless, Twitter seems to have quite the untapped potential customer base in this ever increasingly connected demographic. It will be interesting to see what this means for its future. It’s clear the company is going to have to continue to invest in infrastructure as these folks come online — it also could mean Mr. Failwhale may become an ever more increasing visitor to us already dealing with Twitter’s not-so-stellar record of uptime.

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TWTRCON Wrapup: Good Show, Everybody!

Posted by Harry McCracken on June 1, 2009 at 12:30 am

TWTRCONA couple of months ago, I had an idle thought: Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a conference that brought smart people together to figure out what Twitter means for businesses of all sorts and all sizes? The folks at Modern Media took my question and ran with it, and today TWTRCON SF 09 happened at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco,. I’m biased, but I thought it was a hit; lots of folks who attended said they had a great time.

MC Hammer, Adventuregirl, and Gina SmithThe day was cohosted by Modern’s Tonia Ries and Gina Smith, and was packed with guests: prominent twitters like Laura (@pistachio) Fitton, MC Hammer, Guy Kawasaki, Dave McClure, Stefanie (@adventuregirl) Michaels, and Steve Rubel; journalists and writers including Shel Israel, Rafe Needleman, Jeremiah Owyang, Paul Saffo, and Kara Swisher; folks from Boingo, Cisco, Comcast, Dell, eBay, Intuit, Wells Fargo, and other major companies; Twitter companies such as CoTweet and HootSuite; Twitter’s Anamitra Banerji, and more. (That’s Hammer, Adventuregirl, and Gina in the photo at right, by Marie Domingo.)

Trending TopicsI had the interesting duty of being the conference’s official twitterer, and spent the day trying to convey the flavor of the event to those who couldn’t attend in person. I quickly discovered that I had lots of help, though–scads of folks inside the room and around cyberspace used the #twtrcon hashtag to share their thoughts on what the speakers had to say. The conversation was so spirited that our hashtag became the #1 trending topic on Twitter (see proof st right).

What did I take away from spending my Sunday thinking about Twitter? Lots of things, but here are some highlights:

  • It’s pointless to participate in Twitter unless you’re willing to be authentic and honest. And maybe a little funny, too.
  • For a business, participating in Twitter is an obligation; don’t do it unless you’re willing to dedicate the resources needed to do it right.
  • You’re not going to make money directly from Twitter. But you might engage your consumers (and mend fences with folks who don’t like your company) enough to see an impact on your revenue.
  • Twitter should ignore all the hubbub over whether it can make money and concentrate on growing, growing growing.
  • A few years from now, Twitter-like services may be so fundamental to communications that the notion of a conference dedicate to Twitter seems quaint.

Thanks to everyone who made TWTRCON a blast–organizers, speakers, attendees, and those who attended virtually via Twitter. Thinking of it was easy; you’re the guys who made it such a useful, engaging reality.

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See You at TWTRCON–or on Twitter

Posted by Harry McCracken on May 29, 2009 at 12:06 pm

TWTRCONI’m looking forward to spending my Sunday at TWTRCON, the Twitter for business conference which I came up with and which Modern Media has done a spectacular job of running with. I know that some of you will be there. But if you’re not coming to the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco, you can still participate: I’m going to be tweeting the day’s proceedings at @TWTRCON. I’m thinking it’ll be akin to doing a radio broadcast of a baseball game–listening in won’t be as good as being there in person, but it’ll have pleasures of its own. And I’m going to help relay questions from twitterers to the impressive lineup of speakers at the conference.

It should be a fun experiment–and one way or another, I hope to see you on Sunday.

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Eight Days to TWTRCON

Posted by Harry McCracken on May 23, 2009 at 9:44 am

TWTRCONShameless plug: TWTRCON–the conference on how businesses can make the most of Twitter that I’m happy to say was my idea–is now just over a week away. It’ll be held at Hotel Nikko in San Francisco on Sunday, May 31st; the folks at conference organizer Modern Media have rounded up a terrific group of speakers, including industry luminaries such as MC Hammer, Shel Israel, Guy Kawasaki, Dave McClure, Jeremiah Owyang, and Steve Rubel, plus folks from major companies including Cisco, eBay, Comcast, Intuit, the Phoenix Suns, Wells Fargo, and more.

I’ll be twittering the whole thing, and hope to meet some of you there. And if you’re considering coming, here’s an incentive to seal the deal: Members of the Technologizer community get a 20 percent discount. Just register to attend at the TWTRCON site and use code TM02 at checkout to get the discount.

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Technologizer Throws a Party

Posted by Harry McCracken on May 7, 2009 at 11:16 pm

T-TweetupIf you live in the Bay Area and are a FoT (Friend of Technologizer), read on: We’re throwing a party next Tuesday, May 12th from 5:30pm to 8:00pm at Nectar Wine Lounge and Restaurant, a very cool venue in Burlingame. We’re calling it Technologizer’s Tweetup, but Twitter newbies and skeptics are as welcome as hardcore Twitter addicts. The main goal of the night is simple: to relax, enjoy some good food and drink, and talk gadgets, the Web, social media, and all the other stuff we cover on this site. Consider it a sort of in-person edition of Technologizer.

If you’re reading this and can make it, you’re invited–although admittance is limited and on a first-come, first-served basis. Head to TTweetup.com to register.

Technologizer’s Tweetup is sponsored by eHow and by TWTRCON SF 09; the latter is the cool conference on Twitter and business that’s happening on May 31st in San Francisco. (I came up with the idea and will tweet the whole event.) You’ll have the opportunity to learn more about both at the Tweetup.

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