Here is a summary of Boston Sports & Social Marketing Tweetup #BSSM hosted by @peterstringer (Peter Stringer), Director of Interactive Media for the Boston Celtics, and @marketcait (Cait Downey).

This tweetup is an example of what great hosts can accomplish regardless of external factors like the weather.  The weather in Boston last night in Boston can be summed up by this picture by @BostonTweetUp friend @BostonTweet

It was very slushy outside but this didn’t deter the 30 or so people that showed up! (30 is actually the average size of a tweetup)

I generally go to about 2-3 events a night to not only network, but more importantly for the @BostonTweetUp brand, to discover the latest event best practices that we leverage for our @BostonTweetUp clients.

Some of the things that made that made this tweetup special:

• The tweetup hosts, they were great! They greeted everyone they knew their roles. Cait handled the event logistics including bringing name tags and signage for the event and Peter handled the on-site registration and entertainment!.

• Great sponsors! Magners brought to us by Ben Maitland-Lewis and team did a great job of promoting the brand but also explaining how the brand was different.

• The People! Everyone was awesome! There were conversations up until the very end which is always a good sign of a great tweetup. Shout out to some of the tweeple in the house that night @Amanda_ZW, @whimsicalcookie, @greenmelinda, @TixList, @YouTryOut, @The_Xman, @courtneymegs, @derjue, @the_fliz, @cutlerdave, (want to be included please comment below and we will add you)

TweetUp Tips

• Research Hashtags before event. It turns that the #BSSM hashtag was already being used by a group in Asia.  And because they were an active group it had a side benefit helping us Trend for the night. A simple fix, add “Up” to the end ie BSSMUp. Done. 😉
• Always have name tags. There are at least 2 reasons for this. One is to make it easy for people to connect offline ie at the tweetup and another is to make it easy to connect online ie connect with people after the tweetup because names are easily visible in photos
• Provide signage – This is especially critical at the beginning of the event when people are arriving and need to know where to go.
• Post promptly – It was great to see that Peter created a BSSM blog post an hour after the event was over.
• Stay communicating – It was great to see both Cait & Peter communicating on twitter status updates about the event and confirming it was still going on.
• Consistent Branding – From the eventbrite page to the signage at the event, it was all consistent

Tweetup Photo Album

(to have your photo included simply tag your photo with #BSSMUp on Flickr)

If Twitter search above is empty is because there is an issue with using some advanced search operators like Near:Boston. Once Twitter resolves this, the tweets will display appropriately.

Were you there? Let us know what you thought.

More information:

• Hosts: @peterstringer (Peter Stringer), Director of Interactive Media for the Boston Celtics, and @marketcait (Cait Downey)
• Social: Boston Sports & Social Marketing Tweetup, Hashtag: #BSSM