How to plan for a tweetup; Your before, during and after to-do-list

We’re just three days away from our first Triangle Tweetup of 2009 and if you’re like me then your excited about seeing some old twitter friends and meeting new ones in real life for the first time. Attending a tweetup can be valuable for increasing your relationships with existing twitter friends and it can lead to new ones offline and online as well, therefore you should plan ahead of time to take advantage of the situation. Here’s a list of few things you should do before, during and after the tweetup on Thursday.

Before the tweetup

1. Learn about Hashtags: – the official hashtag for the Triangle Tweetup is #triangletweetup . Hashtags started with http://hashtags.org/ and can be tracked here http://twemes.com/triangletweetup also using http://tweetgrid.com/search?q=triangletweetup
2. Update your twitter profile: – You’re going to meet new twitter friends, make sure your twitter bio is updated and has a link going to your company website or blog. Also you may want to update your profile picture and bio description. @dtraleigh profile is cool
3. Update your blog: If you haven’t posted in a while, you might want to post something new especially if your twitter profile links to your blog.
4. Have your business cards ready: Do I need to explain this one?



5. Bring your store items: If you sell twitter t-shirts it might be a good idea to put some in the trunk of your car, especially if you wear yours and people would like to purchase one.
6. Charge your devices: This one really applies to me but charge your mobile phone, camcorders and camera batteries. Tweetups are known for a lot of texting and pictures being taken.
7. Bring your non-twitter friends who don’t get it: I’ve heard so many people say they don’t get twitter or see the value of using it. Bring them to the tweetup to listen to how others use twitter.
8. Get some rest the night before: The tweetup is scheduled for 2 hours unless you attend the pre-drinks gathering but after the tweetup, tweeple are known to hangout late and continue the conversations.



9. Schedule a tweet saying: “ Looking forward to the @triangletweetup tomorrow at @edgeoffice 7pm. Are you going? “  using Brightkit.com or tweetlater.com or futuretweets.com to go out on Wednesday morning 9:00 a.m.  (optional)



10. Bring your can foods. Remember it’s a food drive too. Follow @ginnyskal and see blog post for details here.
    

During the tweetup

During the tweetup there’s only one rule, Tweet a lot, in past tweetups people have won prizes such as iPods and t-shirts for live tweeting the event. hint, hint!

After the tweetup

1. Tweet hello to your new twitter friends you met the night before.
2. Write a blog post about the tweetup, what you liked, didn’t like or would like to see at the next one or you can just recap the event. Here’s a good example blog post from @covati from Triangle Tweetup 2.0
3. Post your pictures to flickr and tagged: triangletweetup
4. Tweet thanks to the sponsors, host, guest speakers, etc.

These are just a few suggestions and all are really optional but good to do. Do you have any other more?