Stephen Nold

So how can Social Media tools work for an event?

A real world example on how social media can impact an event.


Recently, I watched an excellent example of how a social media solution could impact an event.  David Meerman Scott, keynote speaker for the MTO Summit 2008, is a leading expert on the use of social media tools and has over 2000 followers on Twitter. Wikipedia defines Twitter as a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

Last week, Mr. Scott posted a tweet about the MTO Summit inviting his followers to check it out and register.  Within 20 minutes, five readers registered to attend the event.  When he posted the message again, a ‘retweet’, on Monday morning another four followers decided to attend the event. 

There are two very significant results of this Twitter invitation registration.  First, the message was placed in front of a community that had never heard about the event.  They had missed out on the barrage of emails and printed advertisements.  Yet they still could grasp the value of the event and make an immediate decision to attend.  This speaks to the strength of referrals from a trusted social networking source.

Second, there were no costs associated with the nine new registrants.  A tweet is free and the reposting interesting information can become viral – spreading far beyond the initial community. 

Three days after the initial posting, two additional reposts placed the MTO registration invitation in front of another 1000 people.  So with the power of a Twitter Tweet, in one hundred and forty characters or less, the impact of the social media solution has demonstrated great benefit to the MTO Summit conference. 

Wonder what it can do for your show?

Posted by Stephen Nold on October 23, 2008 | Comments (2)