Twitter Holds Exciting Possibilities At SHOT Show 2012
Let’s face it…if I was to poll my Facebook friends I would guess less than five percent own a Twitter account. Of that dismal number, my guess is even a smaller percentage really understand the social media concept of “tweeting,” “following” and as far as “hashtags” go—let’s not even start that discussion.
But it’s such a shame. Twitter is an awesome social media tool that has possibilities reaching far beyond our current imaginations. And few places or events have the necessary ingredients to maximize the effectiveness of Twitter than at the annual SHOT Show where thousands of exhibitors, dealers, manufacturer reps and media converge.
Certainly the only event that comes to mind as having better exposure for Twitter than SHOT is the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) also held in Vegas. Not only does this show attract the so-called geeks that would obviously have a stronger affinity to use this technology, but CES annually itself attracts nearly 150,000 people to the Las Vegas Convention Center. In fact, just registered media alone typically attracts three times as many media individuals as does SHOT. (side note: CES begins its annual show this week—one week before SHOT in 2012)
But my intent is not to compare numbers between SHOT and CES, per se. Each event stands largely on its own. Yet, if you look at a typical list of names who use Twitter at the CES it’s pretty impressive. Consider this list of nearly 500 tweetin’ individuals compared to the overall attendance at CES and it still represents a number less than one percent of total attendance. The point is there’s plenty of room to grow and for those people who have invested in learning, understanding and using Twitter, their pay-back potential can be huge.
Times Are A Changin’
Back during the fall of 2009 my very first tweet consisted of announcing what I was cooking the family for supper on the grill. Yeah, I know, rather boring I agree. But then several months later, and still a newbie at this Twitter game, I tried to connect with people at the 2010 SHOT Show on a more professional level. As I recall, there might have been, at best, 30 or 40 of us tweetin’ fools talking about the show that year.
Then, in 2011, I saw the number increase substantially. If I was to render a guess, I would say there were approximately 200 people talking about the 2011 SHOT Show and using the #SHOTshow hashtag. Now, that’s not to say more people might not have talked about the show last year…but if the hashtag doesn’t get used within their tweets they have virtually no readership, but for their followers.
This year I can already tell things are going to be much different at SHOT…and I dare say exciting for those of us who thrive using Twitter. The hype over this year’s show began several weeks ago on Twitter and I have to believe it will crescendo into raw excitement by the time the show finally opens its doors next week.
Honestly, if you are new to Twitter I can’t teach you how to be savvy using the social media forum within a single blog posting. Yet, that’s one of the great things about Twitter. People need to understand that you can learn and discover what people are saying on Twitter even if you don’t want to actively participate.
Over the next week or so readers with limited experience using Twitter should remember this link: #SHOTShow (note: if this link doesn’t work on one browser, try a different one) By clicking, it will provide you an opportunity to eavesdrop on what those of us are actively doing, saying and experiencing while at SHOT 2012. By reading our tweets I hope it eventually inspires greater participation in this social media forum to discuss important matters about hunting, shooting, etc. Seriously, the learning curve for using Twitter is not that great to overcome.
As always, if you want to follow just what I am saying on Twitter, or perhaps you want to connect and follow me, you can use the following link: www.Twitter.com/jim7226 I promise, now 2 1/2 years into this Twitter experiment, occasionally my tweets get a bit more exciting than announcing what I’m planning to eat for supper.
©2012 Jim Braaten. All Rights Reserved. No Reproduction without Prior Permission.
