July 13, 2012 : The Houston Chronicle hosted an event to review the redesign of its web site, Chron.com. They installed a TweetWall in the room. Alison Sutton, Director of Social Marketing, tells us more about it.
What was your event?
The Houston Chronicle hosted an event for approximately 500 of Houston's most influential business leaders to review the redesign of our web site, Chron.com.
What is your job?
Director of Social Media Marketing; I oversee social media strategy for the Houston Chronicle newspaper and web site, as well as other brands under the Houston Chronicle umbrella.
What was the goal of the TweetWall?
We wanted the event attendees to Tweet their reactions to the new site design reveal.
How did the audience react?
The majority of the conversation actually took place before the design was revealed, with attendees tweeting their anticipation and hopes for what they'd see. After the design was revealed, we had some conversation about what they saw and liked.
The majority of the tweets came from attendees, with a small handful from followers who were not there. There were more funny tweets than serious. There was a good amount of Twitpics, more than I expected.
What do you think of the moderation feature?
The live moderation tool was extremely helpful, particularly the mobile interface. I found it very easy to use and not at all time consuming (approving one tweet at a time). I did reject a small number of tweets, not because they were offensive, but some were just off-topic and not specifically related to the site design reveal.
Why did you choose us?
I chose TweetWallPro because the interface was the most sophisticated that I found in my search. Other services did not offer as many choices in visualizations. I also liked that the tweets were displayed one at a time and seemlessly faded from one to the next. The look of the wall was very "rich" and fit the mood of our event.
(Alison had choosen the Twitter Like Interactive visualization.)
Do you think TweetWalls might be usefull in your field?
Yes; as Houston Chronicle continues to try to grow our Twitter audience, I see this being a useful tool to use at events so that attendees are inspired to follow us and engage witih us.
What did you think of our service?
I liked the ease of set-up and the speed at which everything was taken care of. I liked the user-friendly dashboard.