Making people and ideas findable

What should Hoosier leaders Tweet from China?

Smoosier, Ron Gifford, in his role as President of Indy Partnership will be traveling with Gov Daniels to China this week.

Ron is a Twitter newbie, but he has agreed to attempt to Tweet and send photos throughout his tour. I suggested to him that the entire Indiana entourage (including the Gov who has a Twitter account) use a common hashtag (e.g. #inchina) so that we can follow along with all their Tweets in one place. (I will post Ron's @handle ASAP).

Meanwhile, does anyone have any suggestions to make this exercise more meaningful? The group departs Indy on Saturday. I am open to suggestions around content, or Twitter tips, or whatever you think would make sense. Imagine...our Governor and a delegation of folks from Indiana are touring China...and we can interact with them in real time as they go...how can we make the most of this opportunity?

On a connected note, Ron posted a forum thread recently asking if any Smoosiers have contact in s China (Read the thread here). That forum has produced fruit...Ron has a couple meetings lined up with Chinese contacts he made through Smaller Indiana!

Please share your thoughts here.

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jason Bean on September 2, 2009 at 11:31am

What a great idea! Let's spread the word about this on our twitter networks before the trip begins so we can all be looking for it and perhaps even setup our dynamic searches on the hashtag #INChina

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Diane Brooks on September 2, 2009 at 11:39am

What an exciting opportunity to be connected through twitter. The hashtag needs to be short to allow for RTs. Perhaps capitalize Indy like this #INChina.

I will touch base with an attorney friend whose firm does a lot of work in China to see if there are other possible connections. Thanks for letting us know of this chance to make a difference.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Erik Deckers on September 2, 2009 at 11:53am

Depending on what kind of phone Ron has, he may want to use TwitterMail.com and TwitPic.com. You can email tweets to TwitterMail.com and they'll post to your account. Take photos and send them to TwitPic, which then sends it to TwitterMail, and so on.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Denise Meyer on September 2, 2009 at 12:01pm

content content. Any updates they can provide on the conversations they are having, ideas shared, things learned, etc. would be beneficial to those back home. People want to know they are taking action and not just talking. They have posted their itinerary, we'd like some insight on the real conversations taking place at these events. http://www.mymanmitch.com/news_article.asp?pressid=1317

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Amy Stark on September 2, 2009 at 1:06pm

How exciting. There are lots of things I want to know:
1) How long was the twitter blackout before and after the 20th anniversary of Tienanmen Square protests early in June?
2) Do Chinese hackers have ways around the Great Firewall of China?
3) Are there any reliable Chinese to English translation tools?
4) Did Chinese tweeters pay attention to the #IranElection - did they see the Neda video specifically.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Amy Stark on September 2, 2009 at 1:19pm

I didn't participate in the initial discussion mentioned above, but I am connected directly to a few tweeters in China @weirdchina - supposedly an American family living and tweeting in China and @owhimsical @duanzi @ifanr whose tweets appear in Chinese characters. I have no clue what they tweet about.

I recommend Ron Gifford take a look at the top tweeters in China according to Twitter Grader.
http://twitter.grader.com/location/?Location=china
Twitter Grader is the only ranking service I trust. They not only measure number of followers, but also the type and influence of your follower base. @MyManMitch is the Gov's twitter handle, btw

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Chuck Lasker on September 2, 2009 at 5:41pm

I think Twitter would allow almost-real-time networking between Hoosiers and Chinese businesspeople. For example, the delegation will most likely have many conversations regarding import/export relationships that could benefit from Tweeting, "Any interest in wholesale flip-flops? #INChina," etc. Then, on our side, if we see something we're interested in, we could quickly respond. Imagine the power of saying, "oh yes, we have 4 people in Indiana saying they're interested in connecting with you..."

Maybe Smaller Indiana could create a Live Tweet Wall from the INChina hashtag for quick reference.