#140tc How To Grow Your Followers with Events

#140tc LA Twitter Conference 2009 was a spectacular event. I barely slept the night before in excitement to meet so many new people. I met so many beautiful, intelligent, business savvy people. I wasn’t surprised in any way because I knew that the Twitterverse is full of people like this.

In order to avoid major LA traffic, I left my house super early and was the first one to arrive at the event (even before the event coordinators! ) I decided to take a few pre-shots before the rush of people that would be bustling around the place. Here are a few of my favorite pictures:

It is vital to be prepared to be giving at these events and really get to know people. It is definitely not the time to be a fly on the wall and observe. It’s a time to engage, have quality conversation and answer questions. This statement was an actual answer that I tweeted during the Branding Your Business panel:

@NaomiTrower #140tc What are key metrics to measure social media branding? Engagement, quality of conversation and answering questions.

Do an evaluation of your Twitter and Facebook stream. Is there engagement? Is there quality conversation? Are you answering questions? This is just food for thought that helps to grow your followers and fans on Twitter and Facebook.

Here are the first people that I met and had breakfast with at the conference:

@GroceryOutlet (Kelly, in charge of Social Media for her job)
@XavierDao (Works for Avery Dennison)
@NaomiTrower
@UnbelievaBeal (Stephanie works in PR for Ketchum)

Here are some more people that I met later on that day:

@RoseannHiggins (S.P.I.E.S. Single Professional Introductions for the Especially Selective)
@NaomiTrower
@ValleyGirlShow (Jesse Draper from Nickelodeon’s Naked Brother’s Band)
@UnbelievaBeal (Stephanie works in PR for Ketchum)

As the various panelists spoke, I quickly wrote down so many great quotes and notes and was often RT’ed during the conference. It was neat to see all of our tweets on a big screen. I wasn’t even aware of all of the new followers I gained just from tweeting the tidbits of info that stuck with me most. Here are a few examples:

RT @NaomiTrower Social openness can create great partnerships! quote from Biz Stone about how he and Evan met.

RT @NaomiTrower “Twitter is the triumph of humanity, not the triumph of technology” quote from Biz Stone

RT @NaomiTrower Keep it real and stay engaged with your friends on Twitter

RT @NaomiTrower I love @LoniLove’s comments about making efforts to respond to @ messages. It makes people feel *special*

Of course, I was especially jazzed to meet some celebrities, entrepreneurs and social media mavens. I had great talks with Denise Wakeman about business blogging and I wasn’t even aware that she has fitness blog too! We exchanged cards and I made a note to check out her fitness blog and she said she would check out my fitness blog as well.

Isn’t this a great photo of Denise Wakeman and Mari Smith? I told Mari that the camera didn’t have to do much work to capture the beauty of these two women! I have really learned a lot from these two as I’m a business blogger as well as an avid social media user.

Here are a few more celebrities and entrepreneurs that I was able to get a few shots with or listen to as a panelist:

@GuyKawasaki @LoniLove

@iJustine   @Tyrese4Real

@Chamillionaire @AdventureGirl

@TonyHawk (I’m now officially a COOL MOM! )

It was interesting to see and hear everyone’s reaction when I told them that I’m in the real estate and mortgage business. Here is what I heard:

“Oh wow! How is that going?”

“Are things rough for ya?”

I answered honestly and said there were a few slow months but we decided to stay ahead of the game by finding what our clients want most:

TRANSPARENCY in the Real Estate / Mortgage Process

We provided that online technology for our clients and new business continually flows into our office. As a real estate or mortgage professional you may think, why would I want to go to an event like this? Well as Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter stated,

“Social openness can create great partnerships!”

Stay tuned for Part II (Top 7 Newest Twitter Apps) and III (3 Ways To Grow Your Business) of my LA Twitter Conference 2009 series. There were just too many golden nuggets of information to put in one post. What event are you headed to next? I need to check my calendar…

Naomi Trower
Real Estate Broker
Premier Equity Group, Inc.
Real Estate Social Media Marketing
“Teaching Professionals Social Media”

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