Last night we hosted our 23rd SacTweetup and this by far has been the most successful one hands down. With over 200 people at the Blue Cue, the place was en fuego and people were connecting like crazy.
The SacTweetup is a non-stuffy networking mixer that we started back in 2009 to get people that were connecting online… offline. Pretty simple idea right?
So the stars really lined up last night as we ended up becoming a Trending Topic in Sacramento. What that simply means is people were tweeting the heck out of the hashtag #SacTweetup. To learn a little more aboutwhat a hashtag is and how you can use them, check out this great post from Mashable called How to Get the Most Out of Twitter Hashtags.
Photo credit to Sacramento Photographer Diana Miller.
Check out this Video:
I’ll be writing a blog post for you tomorrow titled: How to Host a Successful Tweetup I have been talking about why entrepreneurs that are focusing on growing their brand online, should be adding an offline element for like 3 or 4 years now. Technology is allowing us to connect better and what better way to do it offline.
So be on the lookout for that tomorrow but I wanted to give you a couple tips from this event.
3 Things That Made This Tweetup Rock
So this is just a short snippet of why I believe this event rocked but I’ll go deeper tomorrow in the How To blog post.
1. The Right People
SacTweetup for some crazy reason (I know exactly what the reason is) always brings out the best crowds, hands down. We normally get about 150+ at our Tweetups so there’s tons of energy. I think we’ve done a great job really focusing on the “2 Part Social, 1 Part Business” approach and people really appreciate that. It isn’t one of those stuffy and boring business networking groups. There’s enough networking groups out there, we wanted to create something different and attract a different crowd.
I’d say 75% – 85% of the crowd are either entrepreneurial, freelancers or small business owners but if you come, you’ll never get that sense and someone asking you your elevator pitch every few minutes and have the Amway guy promoting his business to you (which is great… for other groups)
If you’re interested, I’ll go into more deep about how to drive the right type of crowd to your events.
2. The Right Partnership
This was the first Tweetup that we actually partnered with another organization to cross promote. We partnered with an awesome organization called Xoso Sports which is an adult sport social league that has over 4,000 members. Pretty cool huh?
I’ve had at least 50+ organizations wanting to “partner up” and host an event with us but I’ve been very protective of the community and wanted to make sure that we keep the integrity of the group and partner with another community that is a lot like ours = fun, social, and has the right people in the community.
Nick has done a great job with his community; they raise money for non-profits, they’re doing something cool for the city that’s different, and they want to add value to other organizations.
3. The Right Place
This is so important, you gotta have the right venue! When I say the right venue, I’m not just talking about having a “cool place” which is always easy to get, but it’s gotta be more than that. It’s gotta be an organization that is remarkable and interested in creating great customer experiences.
I’ll say this, EVERY SacTweetup that we’ve ever had, has been with an organization that is definitely remarkable and is passionate about this city as much as we are. Organizations like: Zocalo, de Vere’s Irish Pub, Mikuni Sushi, the Hornblower Boat (yes we were on a boat), Lounge on 20, L Wine Lounge, Cafeteria 15L, & the Mix just to name a few.
Not to mention the Blue Cue which we’ve had it twice at now. These folks went over and above tonight. One of the owners, Dominic, literally made it his & his crew’s mission to make sure that we were taking care of, and we were.
So because of these 3 things, I believe this is the reason why we had over 200 people at Blue Cue tonight for the SacTweetup and why we were a Trending Topic. Again, I’ll be posting a “How To” type of post to show you how to run your own successful Tweetup or Meetup.
Here’s a video of the buzz last night.
Do you have any specific questions about hosting a Tweetup? I’ll include your Twitter ID & Website if I use your question.
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