Indianapolis Motor Speedway Social Media Garage

This weekend, I was invited to be a part of the Social Media Garage at the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS). This "Super Weekend" of racing has it all:

• Four races: NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide, GRAND-AM Continential and Rolex
• Exclusive @JimmieJohnson, @JeffGordonWeb, and Tony Stewart tweetups
• NASCAR Fan Tweetup
• Live Garage Cam
• Bloggers: me, @JessicaNorthey, @Nascarasm, @NASCAR_WXMAN, and @NewTrackRecord
• IMS Social Media Garage Crew like @CassieConklin
• Foursquare checkin prizes
• Facebook giveaways
• Twitter contests
• SMS (mobile text) contests
• Did I mention prizes, giveaways, and contests?

For those in town for the race on Friday night, you are invited to a Jessica Northey tweetup! She is the founder of the largest Twitter chat, Country Music Chat aka #CMchat. Jessica and I will be at the High Velocity Sports Bar in downtown Indianapolis around 6pm. All are welcome.

If you are at the track or at home, hope that you will be a part of the fun this weekend that IMS has put together for the fans. Join us on Twitter using the hashtags: #SuperWeekend and #SMGarage.

See all of the details regarding the IMS social media garage here: http://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/brickyard400/eventinfo/51674/?hide_sidebar=true.

VIDEO: Social Recruiting Summit #MonsterSocial Tweetup

Click here to view more photos from the event on Flickr taken by Alana Lombardi.

Thank you to Eric Winegardner (and his colleagues from Monster Worldwide), Alice Joy with 675 Bar, Kathy O'Reilly, Ernest Feiteira and Kathleen Smith for making the tweetup a reality. We appreciate everyone who joined us for the tweetup. Although I love keeping up with my professional network using social media, it is so much more fun meeting in real life.

Create a Well-Attended Tweetup

Tweetups are all the rage. You get to finally meet the people behind the tweets and have a real conversation. Right now, I'm honored to help coordinate the tweetup for the 2nd Social Recruiting Summit.

Here are my insider tips on how to organize a successful tweetup:

• Give yourself at least two weeks to plan and an additional month to promote your tweetup. Tweetups usually fail because of poor planning and marketing.


• Work with a colleague that you can depend on who may also have an interest in the success of this tweetup. This may help generate better ideas and give you an accountability partner.


• Schedule your tweetup during a conference or before a larger event. It reduces the amount of promotion that you will have to do all on your own. You can personally invite the speakers, organizers and other sponsors to attend and promote your tweetup as well.


• The best time to have a tweetup is after normal working hours like at 6PM. Motivational beverages usually help spark conversations.


• Work with the venue in advance to offer free or discounted food and beverages to your guests. You can promote this as well to get more interest in your tweetup and it will benefit the venue.


• Give the attendees free WiFi. It may seem like a no-brainer, however, I have attended tweetups where it was impossible to tweet. You can always work with a wireless vendor or pick a free WiFi hotspot.


• Create an invitation using Twtvite. It displays the hashtag that you are using for the meetup, who has RSVP'ed, location of the tweet via Google Maps, allows you to share this invite to other social networks, all of the other important details and most importantly, it's free. You can also print name tags using people's familiar Twitter names and avatars.


• Leverage your other non-Twitter networks, like LinkedIn or Ning Groups. You can easily find other professional groups with members who may also wish to attend your tweetup, even if they are not active on Twitter.


• Pick up the phone and reach out to those who you truly want to be there. I appreciate it when someone calls or even emails me directly about an upcoming event.


• Take photos at the tweetup and follow up afterwards with a link to a photo album via Flickr or on Facebook. This will help maintain the friendships online and in-person.

So get started and don't forget to invite me, @jennydevaughn.