And You Will Know Us by the Trail of our Tweets
Phoenix was over in a flash. All the hard work and time put into organizing the event is astounding, and being on this side of the registration booth was an eye opening experience, and I’m grateful for being able to experience it.
This first time around for me meant the administration of the conference that ran on Twitter. I’m pleased at the outcome, and look to learn from Phoenix as we shift gears in preparation for London.
First, some stats, and a huge thank you goes to TweetReach and their leader Jenn Deering Davis, for providing her excellent product to track the Tweets for the conference. Measuring from May 23-June 5, we captured what we thought was the beginning along with some lingering activity from the virtual conference. At a topline level we saw 3,874 tweets, from 706 contributors, reaching 460,375 accounts with an exposure of 2,656,789 impressions. These numbers outperform last year’s activity, but comparing to last year’s data (2,377 Tweets, 347 contributors, 287,356 accounts, 1,179,203 impressions on the #ica11 hashtag) is not comparing like data. Undoubtedly this tracker caught tweets that were tied to the conference that did not use the hashtags, but it caught tweets that were not part of our conference as well.
Tracker for ICA
#ica12, ICA Phoenix, #ICA2012, icahdq, ICA Conference, ICA paper, #ICA_
| Tweets | Reach | Impressions |
| 3874 | 460,375 | 2,656,789 |
Overall this was great activity and interactivity between people who attended the conference and those who did not. What came as a surprise (kind of), however, was the lack of use of the division hashtags. We saw great disparity of use and exposure from certain divisions. Here’s the breakdown:
| Tweets | Reach | Impressions | |
| #ICA_CAM |
3 |
283 |
544 |
| #ICA_CAT |
260 |
31,999 |
125,635 |
| #ICA_CLP |
5 |
943 |
1135 |
| #ICA_ENV |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| #ICA_ERIC |
1 |
41 |
41 |
| #ICA_FSD |
25 |
4851 |
6732 |
| #ICA_GCSC |
4 |
281 |
337 |
| #ICA_GLBT |
11 |
1490 |
1784 |
| #ICA_GS |
161 |
17,721 |
56,927 |
| #ICA_HC |
1 |
976 |
976 |
| #ICA_HIS |
1 |
41 |
41 |
| #ICA_ICD |
1 |
209 |
209 |
| #ICA_IDD |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| #ICA_IGC |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| #ICA_IPC |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| #ICA_IS |
3 |
92 |
94 |
| #ICA_JSD |
5 |
1389 |
1603 |
| #ICA_LSI |
5 |
1077 |
3236 |
| #ICA_MASS |
5 |
410 |
819 |
| #ICA_ORG |
57 |
7687 |
15,308 |
| #ICA_PHIL |
3 |
2415 |
2467 |
| #ICA_POLI |
9 |
597 |
1629 |
| #ICA_POP |
4 |
115 |
169 |
| #ICA_PR |
1 |
15 |
15 |
| #ICA_VIS |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| #ICA12 |
741 |
128,343 |
513,915 |
| TOTAL |
1306 |
200,975 |
733,616 |
Communication & Technology was the most active division followed by Games Studies. Anecdotally, I heard of some Twitter burnout and the waning of live tweeting as a worthwhile function. To me, the assignment may have taken some of the organic nature of Twitter out of the equation, but I also think that certain variables added to the reason why these numbers seem low – poor Wi-Fi, less attendees, Pinterest.
What certainly is true about the connections from Twitter is a very real relationship building that happens from the platform. I’ve known many followers by Twitter handle only, but to meet them in real life was an amazing feeling, and a special connection that this community at ICA promotes. The back and forth from followers, the flow of information, and the humor is something that is truly astounding. We are a growing association and through these social media platforms it feels like a smaller, more cohesive one. It is obvious the ties from member to member, and from member to association are stronger than ever before.
If you missed out on Twitter at the conference, we pulled some of the best tweets using Storify to sum up each day. You can see them here: http://storify.com/icahdq. Look for the ICA Crush account; you might have a secret admirer.
Eventually, overhearing, “I know you from Twitter!” will be par for the course and we will interact seamlessly from the online world to our face-to-face interaction each year. When that happens, I’ll have a great sense of satisfaction. Until then, I’ll need feedback from the conference, so send me an email on what you would like to see from Twitter at the conference in London: jpgutierrez@icahdq.org.