This coming Thursday is the next NFPTweetup, taking place at JustGiving‘s new offices.  As part of a blog series leading up to the event, I was asked to share some thoughts on the event, especially for those coming along for the first time that may not know what to expect.  As I started to collect my thoughts, though, I realized that my impressions and recommendations were really applicable to any tweetup or offline gathering of online networks.

I’m sure that you’ll have more to add—and I hope you will—but, here’s my list of key tips for making the most of tweetups!

Tip #1: Share Great Stories

You aren’t bound to 140 character updates any more, so let your storytelling flow! NFPTweetups and other events where online networks come together offline are unique opportunities and hear from practioners and colleagues and get the “real story.” There’s time and space to sit down and learn more about how others are doing what they do: the success stories and the not-so-successful stories. Lesson: Listen!

Tip #2: Ask Hard Questions

Whether it’s Twitter or email or a social network, people often find it difficult to ask hard questions online because it could be seen as overly negative or critical, maybe the shared glossary of terms don’t match up and the question is misunderstood, or there’s details that one side or the other don’t have access to.  That’s not the case when you get to meet up face to face.  This is a great chance to ask hard questions (when someone’s telling a success or not-so-successful story, ask for more details, ask why/how/what/when) and know that you will be able to be understood as will the answer.  Especially with the NFPTweetup, these events are intended to be educational and valuable.  Lesson: Ask!

Tip #3: Meet Real People

We all work hard to present ourselves online the way we want to be seen, either for our job/professional careers or to keep a line between personal life and work.  Only knowing someone by their avatar or their username may make it difficult to share stories and ask hard questions, online. But, now you’re offline and can enjoy the presence of lots of other real people (note: we assume you’re a real person, too!).  So, make friends! Find out what you have common (hobbies, music, travel) and what drives people to do the work they do (personal stories, passions, skills).  It’s okay to be human, and it will actually strengthen the network when the offline event is over and people move back to the online connections. Lesson: Socialize!

Tip #4: Stay Present

I know it can be tempting to tweet, blog, and video every moment of the event. But, remember why you’ve come together. You are here to tell stories, ask questions and meet/make friends. Most events, like NFPTweetup, will have set up a live stream and nominated people to tweet and share in real time for those who couldn’t attend in person. The reason that those roles are selected and covered ahead of time is to free up all the other participants to stay present. Say thank you and enjoy the freedom!  Lesson: Participate!

What are your tips for making the most of a tweetup? Have you attended the NFPTweetup before – will you be there this time? Look forward to connecting with you!

Learn more and connect with Chain Reaction!

We succeed when we work together… Chain Reaction is a community of people, passionate about social change, who are saying ‘we can make a difference’.

Chain Reaction is a unique and challenging project based on a very simple idea – that we all have the power of our own actions, but that none of us on our own can change the world, not governments, not businesses, not charities. We succeed when we work together The Chain Reaction Networks helps individuals and organisations to connect together. We provide spaces – at ‘real life events’ and on line – in which people can collaborate with others across the boundaries that divide us and commit their energy to new ideas and new ways of working that will change the world.

Social by Social at Chain Reaction

David Wilcox and I will be leading a round of the Social by Social game!

Drawing on the learnings included in Social by Social: a practical guide to using new technology for social impact, the Social by Social Game walks participants through the strategic steps of creating a social media program for your community, whether you’re part of an organization, a geographic community, a campaign, or anything else.  The game is a fun way to collaborate with others and learn more about what’s needed to create a project that leverages social media.  We promise: it’s fun!

NFPTweetUp after Chain Reaction

The next NFPTweetUp will take place in the evening after the main Chain Reaction event.  This is a great way to pull in new people to the tweetup experience and a super opportunity to keep conversations going even longer from the event.

A meet up of social media users and those interested in the potential of social media for themselves or their organisations.  This event brings together organisations for peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and networking – it will be part learning, part sharing, part social, collaborative, casual and very friendly. Note:  You need to reserve a ticket for this evening session as spaces are limited – tickets are free of charge. (Read more about NFP Tweetup here)

Connect. Collaborate. Commit.

Chain Reaction is taking place November 12th, 2009, at Canary Warf, London.  To find out more, use these links:

• Why are people coming together this year at Chain Reaction 2009?
• What will happen at Chain Reaction 2009?
• Who is speaking at Chain Reaction 2009?
• Who should attend Chain Reaction 2009?
• How can I register at Chain Reaction 2009?

You can also follow Chain Reaction on Twitter: use the hashtag #cr09 (you can also follow activity @chainreaction or @cr_events).

You can see who was there and how it was organized on the NFPTweetup wiki if you are interested in organizing one in your area!

Collaborative Presentations

To add to the educational side of the meetup, Rachel Beer (the woman who wrangled the event together completely) organized a collaborative presentation.  Each of us created a slide about nonprofits using Twitter and sent it to her.  The topic was pretty broad and the slides covered all kinds of information.  Plus, none of us saw the slides, but our own, until the event!  It was great fun to see a new slide pup up and someone surprised to see their work on the wall.  We each took a minute or two to quickly explain our slide and got a lot of discussion going.  Today it was even featured as a Top Presentation of the Day on SlideShare!

My slide is the one focused on The Womens Museum’s use of Twitter.  Here’s what I did:

A bit of Twitter Metrics:

I visited The Womens Museum’s twitter page online at http://twitter.com/thewomensmuseum

I created some categories and tallied the messages into the applicable categories to measure how balanced the messages were.  Here were the results:

Self Promotion with Links: 6
Self Promotion without Links: 6

Questions with Links: 4
Questions without Links: 3

Fundraising with Links: 1
Fundraising without Links: 0

Affinity Promo with Links: 4
Affinity Promo without Links: 0

Information with Links: 0
Information without Links: 3

I think the numbers are quite balanced!  The messages are true to mission/vision of the museum by including retweets (or forwarding on the messages of others), links to websites other than their own, compliments, transparency, and inclusion.  If you use Twitter for your organization, try measuring the messages with the above categories and see how balanced your messages are!

Congrats to the NFPTweetup for a tons of fun, connections, and a great way to share information!