Twestival is organized 100% by volunteers in cities around the world and 100% of the money raised from these events will go directly to support the global charities. In September 2008, a group of Twitterers based in London UK decided to organise an event where the local Twitter community could socialize offline; meet the faces behind the avatars, enjoy some entertainment, have a few drinks and tie this in with a food drive and fundraising effort for a local homeless charity.
Over weeks the idea was warmly welcomed by the global twitter community and Twestival Global was born. On 25 March 2010 hundred cities around the world will be hosting Twestivals in support of Concern Worldwide which bring together Twitter communities for fun and to raise money and awareness about education. As the local lead organizer of Penang Twestival 2010, that was the first time we organize such an event and we were given about 4 weeks by the global committee to organize, from scratch.
Strategy: Facebook as main channel, Twitter to support. The biggest challenge was to find the best channel to educate and effectively drive the community towards the goal of fund raising which is USD5,000. We analyzed the social networks usage in Penang and realize that Facebook users out‐numbered Twitter users, so we decided to adopt Facebook page as the main channel. At that time, no one heard of Twestival before. Education has to start from scratch. Mainly a few strategies were implemented:
- Identify initial influencers and start from this core group
- Help influencers to drive participation on the page and the event
- Constant communication to questions about the cause and What is Twestival
- Constantly promote the event on 25 March 2010
We also conducted LIVE updates on Facebook, Twitter and U‐ stream to broadcast the activities of the event night to the world, which also drove crowd to the event at last minute.
Key Results:
- More than 700 fans on Facebook and nearly 100 Twitter followers aware and understand, and actively involved in sharing to their friends about the cause within 4 weeks.
- More than 500 total interactions on Facebook and Twitter within 4 weeks.
- 130 ticket holders showed up at the event, unofficially more than 200 people showed up.
- Online donation before event night: USD439 (apx. RM1536)
- Ticket sales before event: Over RM2,000 (RM10/ticket)
- Fund raised via charity auctions and other activities during the event night: Over RM8,000
- Total fund raised: USD3,550 (apx RM12,425)
