Event
NASCAR meets Social Media
For those of you who are fans of Twitter and NASCAR, the NASCAR Tweetup was built for you (aka Ultimate Race Day). It is at Whiskey River this weekend and is free, go RSVP right now. Not convinced? Read on…
Twitter and NASCAR are not the most natural of friends at first glance, but if nothing else, they are two of the fastest forms of entertainment. Sporting events all over the country are embracing Twitter. In the past month in North Carolina alone, we have seen our NHL, NBA, and PGA event all embrace Twitter in big ways. It is great to see, but the real money in Charlotte sports is racing. Don’t worry, there is plenty of racing folks finally embracing the microblogging format, even the (still under construction) NASCAR Hall of Fame is sending out tweets.
We are in the middle of Speed Week in Charlotte (actually two weeks long), which means a few hundred thousand race fans are in town embracing their love of all things stock car. They shut down Uptown Charlotte for a few days for a street festival called Speed Street. See Speed Street/Twitter giveaway.
Now I am not sure how many people on Twitter are NASCAR fans or vice versa. But this weekend, the first NASCAR Tweetup is happening at Dale Jr’s very Whishkey River Bar. I am not a huge race fan, but I would not miss the opportunity to network at such a unique get together. The event is being put together by Stephanie Agresta, who also cofounded TechSet, a social media and technology event series.
Come out and enjoy the NASCAR Tweetup, meet some cool people, and embrace your inner Race Fan.
Can Twitter Stop the New User Bleeding?
Nielsen reported last week that the retention rate of new Twitter users was pretty bloody, with only 30-40% of new users returning a month after joining.
More than 60% of US Twitter users fail to return the following month. Twitter’s retention rate is about 40%. For most of the past year, pre-Oprah, Twitter has languished below 30% retention.
Many have pointed out these numbers do not take into account third party clients like Tweetdeck. For the sake of this post I am assuming that no matter the percentages, Twitter needs to improve the experience for new users and retain more of them. The fact that so many new users do not “get it” right away is not surprising (@’s and #’s be damned).
Twitter is not doing much to improve that intake process.
Weak Suggested Users
Twitter’s only big push to improve these numbers has been the suggested users list they started 2 months ago. The suggested users, in its current state, provide little value to a new user. Twitter defines these suggested users as:
a bit like your local book store’s staff picks. (We) developed a program that scans active Twitter accounts for a bunch of key ingredients such as how much of the profile is filled out
Where is the relevance to me personally?
Much of the value of Twitter comes from the personalization, shaping the information to be as relevant to our personal needs as possible. Random popular users are more novelty.
Below are some of my suggestions for Twitter.
Higher Relevance
- Location - Suggest users within a certain distance and create better location search options
- Industry - Allow users to define their industry with keywords, suggest users accordingly
- Interests - Mine a new user’s bio and ongoing tweets, suggest users accordingly
Show me people connected to me in these ways and I have something to talk about with them right away. I also have an immediate group of highly relevant tour guides and ambassadors to teach me how the game is played.
Ongoing Suggested Users
Keep these suggestions coming. List them in the sidebar or send an email or anything that gives suggested users a higher profile and does not depend upon new users discovering it on their own. I may miss it at signup. I may give you more information that improves the process.
A Real User’s Guide
I remember being pretty confused by Twitter when I first signed up. The basics are simple: type message and send. The breadth of the service, however, is quite complex. A couple short and simple video demos would do wonders for explaining to new users the potential the service holds.
If I see Twitter me this and Twitter me that on CNN and my local radio station, I might go sign up, but the people are what makes me stay. Finding people that provide me with information, entertainment, and relationships creates user investment. Once Twitter learns how to quickly provide that value to new users, their retention rate will rise accordingly.
None of It Really Matters
I would like to see Twitter make their intake process a little more user friendly, but at the end of the day, they don’t need to. I am sure their investors are eager to see retention rates rise, but Twitter already has insiders from tech, media, and Hollywood signed up and passionate about their product.
Twitter is a different type of service and can easily fail to appeal to the masses in the same way as Facebook, Myspace, or even LinkedIn. The important fact remains that Twitter has a rabid and influential customer base in their corner, and that is very valuable.
SXSW Interactive
I was extremely excited to attend SXSW this year, my first year. My enthusiasm was driven by one thing, the people. I always love meeting new people, especially in social media and technology, but there is a short list of people with which I really wanted to have conversations at Southby. Meeting and having good conversations with people is the highlight of any conference for me.
A lot of the lessons I would pass along from SXSW are the same lessons I practice with all the networking that I do. And that pretty much sums up what I think is the number one benefit of SXSW, it is purely super networking.
Erin Crabb of Whrrl, Wayne Sutton, Kip Bodnar, Vik Duggal
It’s About the People
I honestly was not at SXSW for any of the structured content. The few sessions I did attend, I went to because of the people I knew would be there. Having said that, some of the sessions were much better than I expected, but I think I lucked out. I heard a lot of dissapointment from others regarding some of the panels and discussions.
Beyond the business connections you want to make, I think you really have to enjoy meeting new people to get the most out of an event like SXSW. I met so many people that I know I will stay in touch with and I formed a bond with many in one way or another. Getting to know so many good hearted and smart people is a rare opportunity.
It’s About Giving
If you can help others, do it. If you know people that you think should know each other, make it a point to introduce them. It is almost something that goes without saying for me, but many people are not natural connectors and miss these opportunities. People remember connectors.
Twestivus for the Rest of Us
Twestival (Twitter Festival) is a global charity event happening in some 200 cities across the world. It is being organized by volunteers only and all money goes directly to Charity : Water.
The Charlotte Twestival is at Cans Bar in 4 days and promises to be a rockin’ time. 50 tickets sold already. Why should you come out?
- Provide clean water to people in the world in need
- Ticket prizes for all, from $5 (limited time only) to $100, whatever you can afford
- Wii competitions
- $500 cruise raffle prize
- 106.5 the End, End Sessions ticket prizes
- Scuba certification raffle prize
- Chair Massages
- VIP section
- Local celebs Terri Bennett, Jack Daniels, and an anonymous Mermaid
- Charlotte’s largest Tweetup yet
If you are unable to attend, but would like to contribute to the cause, feel free to visit the site a buy a ticket as your donation.
Gettin’ Social in 2009
Charlotte, NC Social Media events coming in 2009
- BarCamp Charlotte (http://barcampcharlotte.com) January 23-24th – The first big event of 2009 will be BarCamp Charlotte. BarCamp is a user generated conference, find out more here. They are using a Google Group for some of the planning of the event and they just recently jumped onto Twitter, with their website coming soon.
- Social Fresh Social Media Conference Late August – As the first Social Media Conference in Charlotte, Social Fresh aims to bring big name speakers, already to include NPR Social Media Director Andy Carvin, big attendance, and a wide variety of quality content focused on how Social Media is changing the world. We are also playing with allowing everyone to vote on who the speakers are outside of the keynote speakers.
- Better Tweetups – Of course we hope the Twitter Meetups continue to grow in size and quality, but we also plan to build on the every-other-Friday success of #BtynBiz, holding more regular University Tweetups and quarterly City Wide Tweetups Uptwon.
- Possible PodCamp – This is in the brainstorming stage. If interested, let @Charlotte_SEO know.
- Startup Weekends – There are a few people talking about getting together early in the Spring and trying to kick off some entrepenureal projects over a weekend or two. If you are interested, attend the next Tweetup and ask around.
- What Happened In 2008? – Be sure to check out the year in review for what happened in 2008.
If you are interested in staying in the loop on the 3 events above, please let me know by filling out the below form:
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Anything else happening on the 2009 Social Media Calendar? Enlighten me in the comments section.
