Warning: this is more than 140 characters. Event Planning and Twitter.

The age of interactive communications is here, and people are far too busy to read long-winded messages anymore. The days of reading two page emails on a particular subject are dwindling. They have been replaced by a very different, but now very common phenomenon that can be summed up into three words “just tweet me”.

Twitter Changed the Game

Now people participating in the online community can communicate with the brands, people, and associations they care about in 140 characters or less. This form of communication is very friendly to users who wish to keep in touch with mobile devices. Almost everybody has a phone, and now everybody can use their phone to send communications through tweets, while going about their daily routines. This is huge because everybody is busy. With twitter they can communicate with everyone they want to and they can do it quickly. Amazing.

Twitter in the Business World

Twitter is great for businesses because it allows for businesses to connect with their consumers by providing a medium in which to begin and continue conversations. The new age of interactive marketing is all about important two-way conversations between a business and their customers. This provides an excellent forum to begin and mantain conversations around products and services. Twitter also allows customers to share their thoughts with other customers which is important because people trust their peers more than businesses. Assuming that businesses are contributing and handling objections effectively, it gives their customers a sense of trust for the brand.

Having said that Twitter is not designed for everybody on the Internet. Businesses need to determine to what extent their target customers are using Twitter before determining how much energy to put into it. Another important point is that all feedback is user generated and cannot be controlled. This is not an automatic negative to the medium rather a threat. If concerns are handled effectively this can be a positive for the company, if not the results can be disastrous.

Using Twitter for Event Planning

Twitter can be very beneficial while planning events if used properly. It is very easy to promote events using Twitter because everybody that follows you will get all the necessary information from your stream on their home page. This allows you to send all the information including links to itineraries, important updates on the event, and even links to the keynote speakers presenting at the event. This is great because rather than having to go to different pages or make a phone call, everything is laid out using one medium.

It’s not all positive though; Twitter is only beneficial if the target market for your event actually uses it. It is important to target the demographics and psychographics of your customers before utilizing Twitter. Twitter is also somewhat unorganized and this can be difficult for an event planner because the main goal for any event is for it to be as organized as possible. If conversations or updates are not sorted in consistent hashtags, important parts of conversations could be lost in the clutter. This is a threat because not everybody uses Twitter as effectively as others. If used improperly it can create a disconnect between the coordinators and the target audience rendering it ineffective.

In summary Twitter has become a major form of communication on the internet. This can be very beneficial to businesses, and more specifically event organization if handled correctly. The trick is using Twitter effectively based on the needs of the consumers.