Why you MUST have a Twitter Strategy

Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs August 2008 Meetup

This promises to be one of our most interesting meetings, so don't miss it! Read on to see why...

IMPORTANT!!!: See ADVANCED HOMEWORK at the end. You'll need to prepare beforehand; only 5 minutes.

Who should attend

If you don't completely understand how and why you should have a Twitter strategy this is one of the most important meetings you could attend this year.

If you are a Twitter guru, we need evangelists for Twitter in our open discussion. We need your experience to explain why Twitter is a MUST both locally in Atlanta and globally.

Format

We'll start with a short intro/overview to Twitter led by Mike Schinkel and then, God willing and the creek don't rise, we'll have two (2) video conferences. After the 8pm break we'll have a roundtable-less discussion led by our Featured Participants below.

Video Conferences

Assuming no technical difficulties or otherwise, these will be our two video conferences:

• The Triangle Tweetup and their organizer Social Media & Technology Strategist Wayne Sutton.
  
• "Tech Geek" Blogger Robert Scoble a.k.a. @Scobelizer
  

These are still TENTATIVE anticipating any technical problems.

Featured Participants

Our featured participants are prolific Twitter users who have derived great benefit from using Twitter both personally and professionally:

• Sanjay Parekh -- Sanjay on Twitter, Sanjay is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Startup Riot and other startup initiatives, and was a founder of Digital Envoy. Sanjay advises and consults with a number of technology startups.
  
• Tessa Horehled -- driveafastercar on Twitter, Tessa is a Tastemaker, Brand Strategist, and Digital Publicist, owns an Atlanta blog, and Drives A Faster Car whenever she has the chance!
  
• Paul Stamatiou -- Stammy on Twitter, Paul is a prolific blogger, a Georgia Tech student, and he runs Skribit.com, the company that was developed during Atlanta Startup Weekend.
  

Evening Agenda

Our agenda for the evening will be as follows:

• 6:15pm - Early Registration (for those not prepaid via PayPal)
  
• 6:45pm - Networking
  
• 7:00pm - Meeting opens; Group News & Discussion
  
• 7:15pm - Introduction to Twitter
  
• 7:30pm - Video Conference w/Triangle Tweetup
  
• 7:50pm - Video Conference w/Twitter Luminary
  
• 8:00pm - Break
  
• 8:10pm - Discussion+Q&A w/Features Participants
  
• 8:50pm - Closing Comments
  
• 9:00pm - Networking (Optional)
  
• 9:30pm - Drinks/Dinner at Gordon Biersch
  

Note we'll be ending a 9pm but will allow for networking until 9:30pm after which those interested can head over to Gordon Biersch on Peachtree for drinks and dinner.

ADVANCE HOMEWORK!

IMPORTANT! Do this NOW!!! :-)

Create your Twitter account(s): it's easy and free at twitter.com. Create Twitter accounts for both you personally -- typically using your full name -- and your brand; having both can be valuable.

Now configure your personal Twitter account for your cell phone at twitter.com/devices (log into your Twitter account for this.) Optional: Set for "Direct Messages Only"

Next, issue the following command from your Twitter home page (twitter.com/home):

follow atlantaweb

Why follow?
I'll provide a printed list of everyone who follows atlantaweb by Wednesday Aug 20th and I'll distribute that to everyone who attends the meeting so they can all follow each other if they want. During the meeting, we'll use the "atlantaweb" account to show how Twitter works.