[Since I wrote this post, I changed my Twitter handle to .]
The increase from #HIMSS12 to #HIMSS13 Twitter statistics is impressive. If they didn’t go through the roof, they at least went through the ceiling.
Especially impressive is the almost doubling of number of actual tweeters using the #HIMSS13 hashtag, since conference attendance dipped from around 37,000 to 35,000. I think this qualifies for “going through the roof” proportionally. Then there is this interesting visual, in which I overlay tweet volume from 8AM on Monday to 2PM on Thursday.
I think the folks on social media and the folks not on social media experience different conferences. I know that as my involvement with Twitter at HIMSS has increased (now pretty much all in!), my experience has changed dramatically. It’s easy to explain to others on Twitter. All you have to say is “You know what I mean,” much harder to otherwise explain.
For me, the major change between pre-Twitter and post-Twitter HIMSS conferences is that post-Twitter HIMSS seems smaller, much more intimate and personal, like HIMSS conferences used to be. Perhaps this is because the 3,000 odd tweeters operate as a conference with a conference. The massive receptions and exhibit hall can seem so large, with familiar faces so sparse, that they can be intimidating and exhausting. In contrast, Twitter plays matchmaker (delighted to meet you, how did I miss you, follow, follow, follow…), sidewalk entertainer (I wish I has smarts/wits/speed to have tweeted that!), and real-time location system (where are you, where are the presentations, where are the products and service you’re interested in?).
By the way, from opening #HIMSS13 bell Monday at 8AM New Orleans time to closing bell Thursday at 2PM, I was the top #HIMSS13 tweeter, if you don’t count which simply retweeted tweets containing the #HIMSS13 hashtag. I barked with the big dawgs! (Tweeted with the big birds!)
I’m in the following tweets.
Top Influencers of : @ @ @ @ @ @ via @
— Drew Horton ()
The top tweeters at are: @, @, @, & @! See the top ten on Epilogger: epilo.gr/x6HYy
— Epilogger ()
Top Influencers of : @ @ @ @ @ via @
— Valeria Duflot ()
Top Influencers of : @ @ @ @ @ @ v @
— Robert West PhD ()
@ @ @ made the top 14 list for Wednesday. Thanks!
— CDW Healthcare ()
Qualitatively, what I wrote in #HIMSS10 Best Ever: Due in Large Part to Social Media also applies to #HIMSS13. Except for the red rose in my lapel, now I wear a camera on my head. Quantitatively? Multiple by ten! (Hmm. I wonder if that is literally true, tweet-wise.)