On October 27th and 28th, I went to Jeff Pulver’s 140 Character Conference at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood.  I expected to learn how to use Twitter to push your marketing message out to the public, but instead I heard things like:

“Changing the world one tweet at a time.”
“Behind every tweet is a human being.”

As expected, the convention was filled with tech geeks who were having a good time discussing the latest uses of social media.  What was unexpected, to me at least, was the amount of positive energy in the building and the many ways that Twitter was being utilized for social good.  I met AJ and Melissa Leon(@ajleon and @melissaleon), a young couple who traveled to a school in Tanzania to introduce the students to the internet and Twitter.  Drew Olanoff, who was diagnosed with cancer in May 2009, emotionally shared how he created #blamedrewscancer as a place for people to blame his cancer (#blamedrewscancer) on things not working in their lives.  It was just one of many stories of how Twitter is being used to create communities of love and support for individuals or causes.  Twitter has given Drew a platform for self healing while allowing him to bring his message to the masses.  He is asking people to follow him at http://twitter.com/DrewFromTV.  If he reaches one million followers, Livestrong will donate one million dollars to his charity.  So please click on the link and follow Drew.

There were 140 speakers who discussed social media and technology, many of them speaking specifically about how they use Twitter in their business.  (Here is a link to: Videos - Day 1).

A representative from Virgin America told a story about a woman who was nervous because her two young children were flying alone for the first time.  When the plane was unexpectedly delayed, she tweeted about her anxiety.  Virgin America was watching for tweets related to their business, and they saw the anxious mom’s cry for help.  They contacted the pilot of the plane who had a flight attendant check on the children and eventually a representative found the mother in the airport, letting her know that her children were doing just fine.  Educators talked about how Twitter provides an instant connection with their parent community.  Police officers told a story about a time when a phone line went down leaving a town without phone service, so they used Twitter to provide updates to their specific community.

The conference was also a great education for basic Twitter users.  Here are some answers to questions you may have:

1. What do I tweet about?
I heard someone say that Twitter is like a conference call.  If you come across like a telemarketer, people will hang up on you…  @reneeahamilton (of Mobile Matters, a company that provides charities the ability to receive donations via text message) shared this with me:

A. Tweet about yourself.  Twitter is about authenticity and a percentage of your tweets should be observations, status updates, or anything else you want to share with the world that gives the world a taste of who you are.  Someone talked about how their grandchildren will be able to read the entire collection of their tweets and get a taste of what their life was like.

B. When you see a tweet that you would like to share with your followers, re-tweet the tweet.  In the Twitter world, it’s one of the biggest compliments you can give a fellow Twitter user.  It’s easy to re-tweet using one of the Twitter apps, but if you’re doing it manually, it would look like this: “RT@mzands reflecting on being grateful.  What is the best thing that happened to you today?” This lets the world know that this was originally a tweet from @mzands and it gives them the opportunity to easily follow her as well.  I follow a number of top technology writers and am constantly re-tweeting their breaking news to share with my clients and colleagues.
C. Links and other Information; when you find something worth sharing online, share it.
D. Your marketing message…  the occasional business plug or reminder of the service you provide is acceptable as long as it’s occasional and an attempt to provide value to your followers.

What is a hashtag?
You’ll notice that the Twitter world is creating its own lexicon, and one of the creations is the hashtag, a symbol used to link a twink with a specific subject.  Some examples are #MNF (Monday Night Football) or #Glee.  The conference’s hashtag was #140conf.  If you use a program like TweetDeck, you can perform a search for a hashtag, and you’ll receive the stream of tweets that people are tweeting about the subject.  This is helpful because it’s likely that you’re not following the majority of those people, but because they’re discussing a subject interesting to you, they are coming across your radar.

I found this extraordinarily useful during the conference itself.  I followed #140conf and received a live stream of the audience’s observations during the presentations.  When the presentation was inspirational or educational, people tweeted the information to their followers; and when the presentation was less than stellar, the audience had a lot of fun pointing out the flaws.  For the presenters, they could review the tweets after their talk and receive instant feedback.

The hashtag has opened up a whole new world for me.  For example, there was a software conference occurring in Sydney last week called Enterprise 2.0.  I found their hashtag, followed the live stream, and was receiving cliffnotes of the presentations from the audience’s tweets.  I was actually receiving some of the value of the conference without even being there.  I tweeted about this revelation and included the conference hashtag in my tweet, and to my surprise, I began receiving replies from the audience.  This was another revelation.  By using the hashtag, I was able to send a message that was viewed by everyone in the world following that hashtag stream.  The marketing possibilities have not yet stopped percolating in my head.

Do a test…  during next week’s Monday Night Football, do a search for #MNF.  You’ll hear the conversation that the Twitter world is having about the football game.  Live.  Play by play.  And if you happen to have a service or product that may interest that audience, you’ll be able to reach hundreds of thousands if not millions of potential customers.  (But remember, don’t become a telemarketer!)

The biggest tip of all is to join the conversation.  If you don’t already have one, create a Twitter account.  Start following people who are interesting to you; I recommend that you look for people who inspire you like business leaders or spiritual leaders, authors or journalists.  Do a search for terms related to your passion like “wine”, “fantasy football” or “yoga” to see what people are saying about the subject.  Of course, start tweeting about whatever you’re inspired to tweet about.  And finally, remember a conversation is two ways.  Don’t just pump your marketing message out there.  Ask questions.  Answer other people’s questions.  Join the conversation.