Thanks very much for stopping by, and mentioning Twapperkeeper and TweetChat – I did forget to mention those.

Once the organization gets more than a few people using the hashtag (and Twitter itself, for that matter) the more value there is in the backchannel discussions. The trick is to get people onto Twitter before the conference even starts – or right at the beginning – and make sure that everyone knows what a hashtag is and how to use it. People catch on quickly once it gets going.

I know I’m a bit late weighing in on this topic, but I only just found you “at” the last SMBAustin…

One thing you mentioned is that hashtag searches on Twitter only go back two weeks. True, but there’s a free service you can use to archive them longer than that: http://twapperkeeper.com/

Between that and TweetChat, you can maximize the involvement of your event backstream, and use it to build momentum for an upcoming large event, or recruit eavesdroppers into your next monthly/weekly event.

Monitoring the backstream also allows you to “hear” what take-aways folks find most useful for your event. Hire someone to monitor the backstream hashtag during your event and you can include non-attenders in the conversation whenever it would mutually benefit both audiences.

Blessings,
Jim Bob

Happy to plug TweetChat, and have fun with your new project.

You’re right; conference organizers need to set up LinkedIn Events, Facebook Events and a Twitter hashtag well in advance so that people can talk and connect (even before the conference starts!)

Through the use of hashtags we can transport ourselves to fantastic conferences, monitor world events, keep up with fun Internet memes, and be part of a global community, all in realtime. It is a fantastic age we live in and it is great to have people evangelizing that social media is more than people post what they ate today.

Though, if you want to do that, you can go to http://www.alliatetoday.com *

*Another silly project of mine…