The very first #NHLTweetup Hashtagging
There could be a million things I could write about after all the hockey action that has happened within the last 48 hours (Vancouver Giants going to the conference finals, Vancouver Canucks taking game 1) but I’ve decided to leave that to the pros and talk about something else. Thanks to inflation and the ridiculous popularity of the Canucks in Vancouver, I couldn’t afford to attend the first playoff game for the Canucks tonight. However, thanks to the NHL sponsoring an official ‘tweet up’, I don’t feel like I missed a thing. Before I go any further, a ‘Tweetup’ is really just a meetup of people from Twitter.
Canucklehead Twittering away at the NHLTweetup
Now a couple hours later, I realize that I just saw two of most powerful community driving things work together: sports and social media. There is nothing quite like what a sports team does to a city. I walked down the street in downtown Vancouver at 11:00pm at night without any fear that I would be shot for the first time in a long time because I knew I was just surrounded by other Canuckleheads, just like me. People would honk at my friends and scream out “Go Canucks Go”. You could start a conversation with anybody on the street by throwing random player’s names around. The feeling of community is tremendous and it is just as the marketing suggests: we are all Canucks.
NHL Tweetup Pregame, Picture taken by Miss604
Social media is a different beast. There’s tons of blogs and marketing ‘gurus’ who have been preaching this web 2.0 stuff for years, but regardless, I thought that it might be a quiet night (other than the screams in joy and agony) in terms of conversation since I was just hanging out with a bunch of strangers. But when I walked into the room, I quickly realized that I actually knew these people. It wasn’t like walking into a mall; these were people that had the same hobbies and interests as me and the night went by like any other night with your regular friends would. Is it possible to become real friends with somebody without ever meeting them? Five years ago, it would have been a straightaway ‘no’ (unless you’re one of those pen-pal advocates). But now, I’m not so sure. We sure looked like we had fun here:
To wrap things up before I forget what I’m talking about, the impact these two seemingly forms of ‘entertainment’ on community building is amazing and anybody doing business, politics, or anything that requires people to be involved should pay close attention.
Special Shout Out to Richard, who did an awesome job organizing the first ever #NHLTweetup.
