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What's a Tweetup & how does it work?

How to Host a Tweetup

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Let us know additional steps you recommend to include in the Tweetup guide or suggest your list of Tweetups others should check out.

Simply put, a Tweetup is a set time and day when a group of people on Twitter are online to discuss a particular topic. One main group moderates the Tweetup by posting rules, promotional tweets and questions during the event, while participants tweet responses and follow other participants. Sometimes a core group of participants will meet to execute the Tweetup in person.

Here are some tips we’ve picked up on how to make your own Tweetup successful.

Prepare in advance for the Tweetup:

  • Set a date and time
  • Choose a topic: something that you will focus your questions and conversation around
  • Choose a hashtag: pick one that isn’t commonly used already
  • Select questions to ask: prepare 4-5 that relate to your topic
  • Write a blog post: offer a landing page with information about how someone can attend
  • Prepare canned Tweets and a timeline: schedule your Tweets in CoTweet based on a timeline of how you want the event to go

Reach out to people to see if they will attend:

  • Reach out to attendees: send invites to people you know or people who are involved in the topic
  • Confirm panelists to participate: find experts on the topic who will deepen the value for participants; ideally they are already familiar with Twitter

Use third party applications to help Tweeters follow the conversation:

  • Create Bit.lys or other shortened, trackable links
  • Tweet Grid allows you to monitor multiple searches and share with followers
  • CoTweet (or another 3rd party Twitter app) helps you view Tweets and Twitter accounts more easily
  • TweetDeck (or another 3rd party Twitter app) allows you to see a number of searches at once

Join one of these useful Journalism focused Tweetups to see how they manage their events:

  • #JournChat Journalism and public relations chat, every Monday at 5pm PST/8pm EST
  • #pubmedia Public purpose media chat, every Monday at 5pm PST/8pm EST
  • #WJchat Web journalism chat, every Wednesday at 5pm PST/8pm EST
  • #mybxb Hyperlocal news chat, every Monday at 5pm PST/8pm EST

The Journalism Accelerator is not responsible for the content we post here, as excerpts from the source, or links on those sites. The JA does not endorse these sites or their products outright but we sure are intrigued with what they’re up to.

Posted on July 6, 2011
Topics: Community Resources