Entrepreneur and strategist Wayne Sutton is an all around great guy and was the first to order Tweetup Badges and has done a lot to help spread the word.
Robert ScobleWikipedia describes Scoble as “an American blogger, technical evangelist, and author.” I think I would add photographer and social media guru to that, but that’s just me.
I know I have left out a ton of notable people. If you have a photo of someone who you think should have been included please leave a comment with a link to it.
The QR code on the back of the tweetup badges is meant to be a time saver (and it’s cool). The concept is simple. With a phone equipped with a camera and a QR code reader, you simply scan the code on the back of the tweetup badge and the phone takes you to the badge holders page on Twitter. For example, if you scanned the back of my tweetup badge it will take you to http://twitter.com/tweetupbadges. That way if you meet someone at a tweetup and would like to follow them, you simply scan the back of their tweetup badge. There are QR code readers available for most “smart” phones, and most of them are free. There are several resources out there to find out more about QR codes and readers. One of the resources I use is mobile-barcodes.com. There you will find all the information you need on QR codes as well as lists of supported phones and links to readers you can download. For the i-Phone go to the app store and search for QR code reader.
I currently have a moto-Q and use the reader by i-nigma and like it a lot. Like a lot of readers it automatically captures the code when it is recognized.
I would love to hear about other phones and readers. If you have a reader loaded on your phone tell us about it.
Well it’s 12:45 in the morning and I am heading to Austin for SXSW in a few hours. I wanted to get something posted about the new Tweetup Badges I will be showing off while I’m there. I will be adding QR bar codes to the back of the Tweetup Badges. What is the code and what is it good for you ask. Well, a QR Code is a 2D bar code that displays data in a machine readable format just like any other bar code. What makes it cool is that a lot of smart phones these days can download an app that will allow you to scan the code with your phones camera. The really cool part is that you can format the QR code so that the phone knows what to do with it when it is scanned. What I am doing with the Tweetup Badges is putting a code on the back that, when scanned, decodes as the URL twitter.com/”username”. When a person scans the back of your badge it will take them to your profile on twitter with out having to enter anything manually. It’s very cool.
Well its getting late and I have to start a 14 hour drive in a few hours. I’ll post more info soon.
I’ll leave you with a video I found on youtube that demonstrates the QR Code.
Please let me know if you have questions or leave a comment.
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.
To celebrate our site launch and the public availability of Tweetup Badges for the masses, we are hosting a special on all badges purchased from now until the end of August.
Order a Unique Tweetup Badge for Yourself
Individual badges can be had for just $2.15 each, including a lanyard. This means you can get your own personal Tweetup Badge, in the colors you want, with your real name and Twitter username, plus a hashtag of your choice.
Wear the badge at your next tweetup or at any social function. It’s sure to spark some conversation and may even help you meet a few new people.
Check out the photos page (or our Flickr group) to see what color combinations have been popular so far and then head over to the order page when you’re ready to go.
Are You Part of a Tweetup Group?
If you belong to a tweetup group that you think might be interested in bulk ordering badges for everyone, we can do that to. Just use our slick order form, upload all of your details and off you go, still at the special price of $2.15 each (with lanyard).
This Special Runs Until the End of August
And remember, this deal is only good through the end of August, so get your Tweetup Badge ordered today and take advantage of our site launch special offer.
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.
