by Rich Drake
October 1st, 2008
We do love Twitter and all the good tweeps we have connected with. I just wanted to take this opportunity to let you know that as part of VR ID Cards, Tweetupbadges can do a lot more than just tweetup badges. We also produce high quality event badges, photo ID cards for small business, and key tags. Here are a couple examples of other badges we have produced lately.
Whether you have an organization that would like to have membership cards, own a company and need photo IDs for your employees or would like to have custom key tags to promote your business or organization I hope you will give us a look.
by Rich Drake
July 9th, 2008
Where did the idea for Tweetup Badges come from?
In late March of 2008, I was introduced to Twitter. Not long after that I attended a social media presentation lead by Nathan Wright, founder at Lava Row. Nathan’s presentation got me exited about the potential power of social networking, and Twitter in particular.
I have never been that comfortable in face-to-face networking situations. I find it difficult to meet someone for the first time and form any kind of connection with them. I feel as though I come off as either bumbling or scripted. I usualy end up saying the same things over and over or I am searching for the correct language to get my point across.
Twitter, however, has allowed me to get to know people and form a relationship with them over time, all without the uncomfortableness that meeting new people offline can sometimes bring. When we do finally meet face-to-face at a tweetup, it feels like I already know many of them.
I had so much fun at my first tweetup and connected with so many interesting and fun people that I wanted to give something back. My company, VR ID Cards, produces name badges for companies and organizations, so making badges for the local group seemed like a no brainer. I arrived at the next couple of tweetups with name badges and lanyards in hand, and thus Tweetup Badges was born.
The badges created for that tweetup were a huge hit and I received many compliments on them. Now when I show up to a tweetup, new people always come up to me and ask, “have you made a badge for me yet?” If I have done my homework, the answer is normally, yes.
TweetupBadges.com was born out of fun.
After having so much fun with the #dmtweetup crew, word started to make it’s way around Twitter and across the blogosphere about the badges I had produced. Wayne Sutton, a social media evangelist from North Carolina, contacted me on May 11, 2008, in regards to producing tweetup badges for the group he belonged to, Triangle Tweetup, located in Raleigh, NC.
I worked out the details with Wayne and then produced their badges. With Wayne’s large following on Twitter (over 4,000 followers), word continued to spread even more.
In order to accomodate others looking to do the same thing, I wanted to come up with an easy way for other groups to:
- find out more about the Tweetup Badges
- be able to order Tweetup Badges for their own groups
I kicked the idea around with Mike Templeton of Dosovo (whom I met on Twitter) over lunch one day and we came up with the idea of having a microsite dedicated solely to Tweetup Badges, which is what you see here.
I must admit I have to give most of the credit for TweetupBadges.com to Mike, as he was instrumental in coming up with the design and getting the site launched.
I don’t know where this will lead or how many Tweetup Badges I’ll end up producing, but I’ve made some great new friends through Twitter and it’s going to be a fun ride.
