It’s rare that I chat about social media on my blog – after all, there are several credible sites that focus on best practices, and while I’m immersed in social from morning to night, I would hardly call myself an “expert”. (I prefer the term “enthusiast”… but trust me, I’m not enthusiastic about everything. However, that’s like any job, no?)
Hence, I seldom break out of family/ food/ fashion/ beauty/ musings/ contest mode, but once in a while, I like to jump in on a hot topic or give my two cents’ worth.
(Although we technically don’t have cents in Canada anymore, so let’s call it my nickels’ worth.)
Today, it’s all about Twitter Parties – particularly, the etiquette of scheduling, RSVP’ing and winning prizes at a Twitter Party.
1. Scheduling
First, let’s chat about scheduling. When Canadian twitter parties are scheduled, every effort is made to ensure that another Twitter Party is not being held at the same time. E-mails are sent; I give the heads up to brands who often throw Twitter Parties, and as a courtesy, I search Twitter for the terms ” Twitter Party” and the exact date I am looking to host one. If everything is clear, I then instruct our moderators to send out “Save the Date” tweets (I’m sure you’ve come across these if you’re active on Twitter). This is to further give others the heads up about our party while we are in the planning stage.
Translation: If two Twitter Parties end up on the same day at the same time, it wasn’t me.
Unfortunately, the courtesy my team extends to others is not always reciprocated, and once in a while, we’ll have more than one Twitter Party happening at the same time.
Do I take it personally? Nope. The double booking is rarely malicious. Often, the other person simply didn’t realize that there was another party going on, and sometimes, even if they do their homework, they can miss the announcement. In which case, there’s nothing to do but change the party time or plow ahead. And plowing ahead is usually the preferred option….