Twitter at Supersonic take two

You may remember last summer I masterminded the Twitter backchannel at the Supersonic Festival. This year Lisa from Capsule has asked me to do it again.

Fifteen months is a long long time in Twitterland so things will be very different this year. For a start I’m expecting a lot more volume as not only are people more comfortable with Twitter, the use of smartphones (iPhone, Android) has grown. I don’t think encouraging use is going to be an issue. The issue is going to be capturing the activity and making connections within it.

Capturing looks like becoming a hell of a lot easier thanks to The Archivist, a relatively new service which captures Twitter data for a search and not only gives you some sexy graphs but also gives you the raw data in a spreadsheet. Here’s a screengrab for the Supersonic search the day before the festival begins:

Of course having a spreadsheet full of Twitter data and turning that into something useful is another matter altogether, but I’ll cross that bridge at 3am on Friday night when I’m producing the print out for the next day.

Making connections is going to be the tricky part. It’s worth remembering this isn’t simply about data capture. It’s about creating another space at the festival for people to connect and communicate. We want people to be able to share knowledge, discuss their experience and, hopefully, form new friendships in the same way they’ll be doing so at the bars and around the festival.

The big thing, then, is to establish a hashtag, something Lisa sorted the other week. We went with #ssonic for uniqueness and length but you’ll notice my search also includes mentions of the @supersoncfest account. This is because it’s not just a target for conversations, it’s a thing people converse about. And it’s actually more useful to say “I’m having a great time at @supersonicfest” because people can click on that to get immediate context. The hashtag isn’t an explaining tool, merely a gathering one. It creates a community of mutual interest, not a dictionary definition. So people will use one or other or both depending on their needs. And, since this is a top-down hashtag defintion rather than one that’s emerged organically, if they use neither I’ll still be tracking “supersonic“, jet planes and Oasis songs included.

The final thing I need to do is construct the Twitter Station. Last year it was done in a bit of rush and looked like this. This year it’ll look different, but not too different as it’ll also be done in a bit of a rush. Starting now.