#NASDAQ bell ringing ...

On Monday I rustled up some corporate attire to attend a #NASDAQ tweet-up thanks to the super-awesome David Meerman Scott or @dmscott to his Twitter buddies. @dmscott was invited by GlobeNewswire to launch his book 'World Wide Rave' and ring the bell to open NASDAQ. How did I score an invite to such an auspicious occasion you ask? Well, Twitter of course. I stumbled upon this tweet-up looking for NYC gathering with my fellow tweeps. I was very lucky that @dmscott had room in the inn for this little Australian gal... in fact he thought it was pretty funny that I was representing Australia for this tweetup *pounds chest* "represent!!!"

To avoid being late, I caught a cab to Time Square. I was a little early and wandered down to check out the filming of Good Morning America. I walked down there, saw it and then wandered back. Saw enough!

Then I headed in and met up with some of the Twitter folk. Security check.. done. After some chit chat with new Twitter folks and meeting the star of the moment, @dmscott, we head into the studio. Its a bit of a fish bowl and you can watch the folks walk by Time Square. We're given a brief on how this will all go down ... lots of pics & tweeting required, an intro plus speech by @dmscott & we get up on stage to help cheer as @dmscott ring the bell. This is the first time that NASDAQ had a tweet-up so I feel very special to have taken part of it.

So there were 30 people there to support @dmscott open NASDAQ and we were all tweeting away. From the outsiders point of view, it may look like a very anti-social event as there were 30 people texting, tweeting on their mobile phones. But you also get a chance to meet new people and share such experiences with each other as well as all your followers who are watching you & 'taking part' from afar. This was one of my favourite experiences in New York City.

We got our photos taken at the podium and this was being beamed up to the NASDAQ big screen in Time Square. Who would've known that getting your face on a big screen would be so much fun. Suffice to say, I had a ball and was drunk with joy all day.

OK at this point I shall briefly explain what Twitter is, what tweeting is (as I'm sure most of my family & friends are thinking "WTF"?. Twitter is a social networking site like MySpace and Facebook... only better! I guess its micro-blogging as you only have 140 characters to say what you're doing. You follow people to see what they're doing and others follow you too. Its about sharing ideas, thoughts, experiences... you don't actually need to know the people you follow. But eventually you come to know them. What's great about this is you can Tweet (a twitter message) anywhere as long as you have a mobile phone. That's basically it... You may still be scratching your head, but I love it. I find it a useful way to find new information including current affairs, film, pop culture and even keep tabs on what the BF is up to. I got my updates in the Victorian bush fires by perusing #vicbushfires updates. I also found out about the plane landing on Hudson River before some of the Australian news outlets. Its quite a handy little medium (suggestion for recent convert or interested parties... its best to download an application like Twirl rather than using the website).

Anyone interested in learning more about social media and its impact on Public Relations and Marketing should also check out David's book and his blog. He has other book you can buy too. Shameless plug for something I haven't read... yet! I do stress yet and I'm definitely going to buy one when I return to Australia (just so it doesn't impact anymore on my luggage weight hehehe).

Check out pics from the #NASDAQ tweet up on my Flickr. You can also view this video posted by a new Twitter buddy @devindwyer - you'll get a jist of what the event was about (can you spot me??)