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Earlier this year Joburg Tweetups died and #SATweetups was born. We’ve hosted numerous events over the last few years attracting over 428 people to join the group.
Our Tweetups was always simple and social events for people who follow each other on Twitter to meet in-person. There was no speakers or speeches. This is the most popular way social media spills over into the real world. Tweet about an event long enough and reach influencers, and people show up no matter what the actual occasion.
Since I took over I’ve introduced guest speakers like Melanie Minnaar, Haroun Kola, Bruce Mabuyiwe, Xavier Saer and Marc Rees. My aim is to provide an alternative to 27Dinner. After years of hosting and speaking at their events, I no longer participate.
For some time now I’ve worked diligently to recruit Ambassadors. WIFFM you may ask? What’s In It For Me? Search marketing guru Tony Roocroft always reminded me of the importance of asking this question when doing any form of marketing whether online or not. Here’s what Ambassadors gain from hosting events in your area:
- A cool badge designed by our graphic designer Rekha Kalan for your blog
- Access to the Meetup.com platform to build a cohesive local community with the full RSVP process integrated Twitter & Facebook marketing.
- Branded Posters & Nametags for use before & during events
- Support from the most well connected networking people in South Africa
- Gaining experience in hosting events
- Practising your MC skills
- Increasing your Social media profile
- Interacting with people passionate about their causes
To continue to host these events we must increase achieve the following goals:
- Grow membership to > 1,000 people
- Appoint Ambassadors in each province, so we need 9 people to volunteer for the training to host these events by July 2013, before International Social Media
- PR Co-ordinator to contact local media and set-up interviews for guest speakers
What can you do to assist?
Please help grow the #SATweetups community by joining the Meetup.com group. So help me by posting a comment with your suggestion and sharing this on your Twitter network. I’m very excited that we’ve been growing steadily from 2009 to date. In November we’ll be celebrating our 3 year anniversary.
To cover some costs like the Meetup.com dues, please donate $10 or more using Paypal. To assist with any of the above, simply contact our office between 8am-8pm daily.
Wonderful initiative Ramon let’s hope you get lots of responses 🙂
I agree with Fred, wonderful initiative, I attended and was a speaker at a tweetup in Jozi, and I fully endorse this. I’m up for a paypal donation, just don’t tell the Reserve Bank…:-)
Where should I send it to?
Am a bit cheesed off about the infrequency and loss of real purpose of the 27 Dinner as well. I put in an offer to host 27 Dinner in Durban, but was told someone else is handling it (yeah right). I believe my challenge is that i am able to gather large amounts of people in one space, and that event is for the exclusive few.
So i have been put off gatherings for techies and marketing types completely.