Twitter Tip * Use Hash Marks to 'Go Viral'

Milt Haynes suggested that it is time for BDPA to 'go viral' in honor of our past national president Ollie Morgan. The process can begin immediately at your upcoming program meeting.

Get signed up with Twitter right away. The BDPA Foundation is on Twitter! Did you know that Twitter grew 900% in the past year. In fact, it's grown 33% since New Year's Day ... currently with 8 million users .... estimate is that they will be up to 50 million users by the end of the month. It is time for your chapter to take advantage of Twitter. Are you ready to 'make it so'?

Invite the Twitter community to buzz about your next program meeting. At the beginning of the meeting ask attendees to feel free to tweet about the meeting. Encourage them to use a hash tag, and then tell them what it is.

A hash tag is the character # followed by a short word that describes the event, or a particular topic, on Twitter.

For example, program meeting attendees can mark their tweets by typing "#BDPA" within each one.

That makes it easy for other BDPA members, including those that can't attend the meeting in person, to go to Twitter's search box and type in "#BDPA" to find all the tweets about the event.

You might be asking: Why would BDPA want the rest of the world to take advantage of information at an event that only members and their guests can attend?

Here's why:

1. It creates interest in BDPA programs, services and memberships. I guarantee that if you search for all the "#BDPA" tweets and read them, you will find at least three tips you can start using today to increase your bottom line. BDPA has a miniscule presence on Twitter right now. Shouldn't we get on this wave early in 2009 as we build towards the annual conference?
2. 51 chapter program meetings over the next 30 days ... if only 5-10 people at each meeting has a Twitter account ... that gives us 250-500 people each month tweeting about a technology topic or some other aspect of program meetings designed to advance the careers of African Americans in the IT industry. Each of these 250-500 people have 'followers' on Twitter. Some of those followers might think the tips are so valuable that they're worth "retweeting," thereby exposing thousands more people to BDPA.
3. No more whining about "BDPA being the best-kept secret in America." By using hashtags, we turn our entire program meeting audience into journalists and let THEM report on the BDPA for us. Often, their reach on Twitter will be far greater than the reach of many media outlets in your city. Plus, those tweets live online forever, just waiting for the search engines to find them.

Are you on Twitter yet? Are you ready for BDPA to 'go viral'?