Last Thursday, Anthony and I attended the Texas Association of Environmental Professional’s (TAEP) Environmental Challenges and Innovations Conference: Gulf Coast 2010 . We volunteered to introduce environmental professionals to Twitter.
Check out the Twitter @ TAEP2010 video on YouTube. Anthony and I had a great time showing Twitter off to environmental professionals.
At the conference, the majority of people who we talked to had heard of Twitter, but less than 5% knew what Twitter was. Most people thought Twitter was the same as Facebook. So if you’re not sure what Twitter is, you are not alone. If you want to learn more about Twitter, check out the blog post “Why Planners Should Use Twitter.”
My favorite Twitter moment of the TAEP conference was when my new friend Bill sent out a tweet on my account (@cubitplanning). Within minutes of his tweet, one of my followers asked him question in response. So I got to chase Bill down and bring him back to the Twitter table to reply. It was a perfect demonstration of how Twitter results in conversations. I wish I could claim that I planned it!
On the board behind our Twitter table, we provided 3 reasons why environmental professionals should use Twitter. While there are many great reasons to tweet, here are the 3 reasons that we focused on:
1. Meet People
2. Find/Fill Jobs
3. 2 Volunteers to Help You Get Started
So a big thank you goes out to the TAEP Conference Planning Committee, especially Leslie Yoo of Perennial Environmental (@lyoo5) and Shannon Tyrell of ALS Laboratory Group. Thanks to Ryan Link of Michael Baker (@Ryan_Link), who had the original idea for a volunteer Twitter table at conferences. And a huge thank you to all of the curious environmental professionals who let Anthony and I share our passion for Twitter and using social media for business last Thursday.
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So are we crazy for using Twitter as part of our business marketing? Or are you an environmental professional and have questions about Twitter? You should leave me a comment below.
If you enjoyed this blog post, you should check out Cubit--my web application that helps you get cut-and-paste ready planning data in seconds for your projects.
Glad to see you’re getting good mileage out of twitter. Unfortunately, Iwas unsuccessful in convincing my project lead of the value of social media in getting our message out there. With more folks (like you) using it, maybe this stance will reverse on the next plan.
I’m so sorry to hear that! I’d keep trying in the future though; hopefully, agency policy will be updated to encourage social media. For example, here’s guidance from the EPA on using Social Media (http://govsocmed.pbworks.com/Guidance:-Representing-EPA-Online-Using-Social-Media). Just in case you didn’t see it, here’s how one EIS project team used different social media tools to increase public engagement for their project (http://www.cubitplanning.com/blog/2009/11/say-it-to-my-facebook-using-social-media-for-public-involvement/). Ryan Link (@Ryan_Link) was instrumental in getting permission from the different agencies to use social media tools on this EIS project. He might be able to tell you how he got everyone on board? Just a thought!
Kristen: Your web site is a marketing gem, and using social media for marketing purposes and as a planning tool is truly best-in-class. Kudos to you, and thank you for the education. Twitter and other forms of social media will continue to grow and become more widely accepted for “official” communication once it moves well past the early adopters (more than 5%).
Keith,
Thanks so much for the kudos! They are really nice to hear.
Kristen