Data from @eacconference

Editors’ Association of Canada Vancouver 2011 Conference

Twitter in 200 days

Dec 2010 to Jun 2011

The purpose was to interact with the existing writing and editing communities and specifically:

• Build awareness of the EAC

• Heighten interest in the Conference • Promote EAC’s professional services

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Three paths were planned to achieve these goals:

• Broadcast messages about the EAC and the Conference

• Build an online community of communicators – This became the main goal

• Offer relevant help, advice and resources

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From March onwards, the account was consistently linking/pointing people to the website via tweeting with them about:

• Conference schedule, speakers and location • Becoming a member • Benefits of membership • Hiring writers, editors and communicators • Existing prominent members • Professional development seminars • Etc.

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200 days of activity

0100200300400500600700800900

TweetsFollowersMentionsDMs

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Graph key

• Tweets shows the number of Twitter micro-blogs published by @eacconference

• Followers refers to subscribers of the @eacconference Twitter account

• Mentions are often re-tweets but also any occurrence of “@eacconference” tweeted by someone else

• DMs refers to direct messages sent by @eacconference (you can only send a DM to someone who is following you)

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What some were saying

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Activity, days 1 to 50

0

50

100

150

200

250

1sttweet

Jan-05Jan-08

Tweets

Followers

Mentions

DMs

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Highlights, days 1 to 50

• December: Initial activity revolved around tweets and re-tweets about blogs and related stories on writing and editing

• Jan 5: Connections were made with conference speakers, presenters and organizers

• Jan 8: @congredelacr Twitter account started • Jan 10: New avatars for @congredelacr and

@eacconference launched

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Activity, days 51 to 100

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Feb Feb-24 Mar

TweetsFollowersMentionsDMs

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Highlights, days 51 to 100

• January and February: Tweets are pointing to EAC’s professional development seminars and workshops

• Feb 23: The first tweet about the conference—a reply to a question for more information about the Conference and speaker schedule

• Feb 24: Conference website goes live and details are released throughout March

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Activity, days 101 to 150

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

Mar-18

Mar-25

Apr Apr-08

TweetsFollowersMentionsDMs

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Highlights, days 101 to 150

• March 18 and 25: Follow Friday(FF) lets people with similar interests network and these two dates were productive for the @eacconference community

• April 1: Early-bird pricing on conference tickets closes • April 8: Conference details are extensively tweeted, on a Friday no less, so

anyone sent to the @eacconference Twitter page via an FF mention will also see the tweets carrying Conference information and links

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Issue #1: Fluctuating subscriber rate • In general, increased tweeting and mentions

led to an increase in followers • There are two notable exceptions where

increased tweeting didn’t result in an equivalent increase in followers – April 1: Early-bird registration deadline – May 27 to 29: Conference, when most

tweeting and mentions happened

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Issue #2: Adapting to flux

• Twitter plans were based on the overall conference plans

• E.g. As interest in the event and @eacconference climbed, when venue-capacity in particular became a factor, attention was taken away from looking for potential attendees and used to further converse with the established community of communicators

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Activity, days 151 to 200

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

May-27

TweetsFollowersMentionsDMs

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Highlights, days 151 to 200

• May 27: The three-day Vancouver 2011 EAC Conference begins • The Conference and the city are enjoyed by attendees • Conference participants tweeted throughout the conference while

attending sessions and networking in the real-world • During the Conference there is an increase in tweeting and mentions,

but there is no equivalent increase in followers • There continues to be a slow increase in followers into June

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Tip #1: Know your followers • Twitter allows the creation of lists/groups

– Looking at the Ontario list would show editors following @eacconference that are based in Ontario, and so on

• @eacconference only listed people that were both – part of the writing and editing community,

or provided a relevant service, and – followed the @eacconference account

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Breakdown of 150 followers, mid-Jan

EAC Members 10% Editors in

Vancouver 9%

Calgary 3%

Toronto 3%

Victoria 1%

Canadian Writers

17% West Coast multimedia

talent 22%

Misc. 35%

Identifiable Twitter Accounts

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Breakdown of 300 followers, mid-Apr

EAC members 8%

Editors in and around Metro

Vancouver 11%

Editors in Alberta

4% Victoria

1% Ontario

5%

West Coast Multimedia

19% Resources

13%

Canadian Writers

25%

Indexers, 2% Misc.

12%

Identifiable Twitter Accounts

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Tip #2: Watch for spam

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Tweets will appear that bear no relation to the event and are trying to hijack the audience

Via twitter.com, or TweetDeck etc., you can take steps to prevent the user from spamming you again

Tip #3: Connect courteously

• @CTVCanadaAM started following @eacconference in April and only then did we follow back

• We said thanks for the follow • @eacconference invited it and its followers

to participate and follow the conference via Twitter – Referred them to the Twitter hashtags #EAC2011

and #EAC11

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