FIRST Meme [Archive] - Chief Delphi

RogerHebert

21-12-2010, 00:42

I'm wondering if we could get FIRST more "on the map" and help spread the word of FIRST by having a concerted effort on KickOff Day to generate some social media buzz around the NASA telecast. Looking at Twitter, for example, the top "Tweet" at this moment in time has 746 tweets. I'm assuming FIRST will be putting out a tweet on kick off day, and if we had, say 1000 (or many more) retweets of it, we'd be on or close to the top.

Similarly, if a bunch of us all Googled/ASKed/BINGed "What is FIRST" or something similar on kickoff morning, we potentially could get a meme started. And, if enough of us changed our Facebook status on the morning of Kickoff to "watching the NASA Telecast of the FIRST Robotics Challenge" or something similar/better, it might register...

If this were to work, we'd have to have enough people on enough teams all encouraging every one of their teammates to participate in order to get the numbers needed to make something happen. Could be interesting! After all, we made Barbie a computer engineer!

Karibou

21-12-2010, 02:52

The twitter hashtag that we used last year was #omgkickoff. Even with a lot of us tweeting like crazy, IIRC it didn't make much of an impact, but it was interesting to see all of the tweets afterwards.

Jessica Boucher

21-12-2010, 09:08

I've actually decided to stick to the #omgrobots tag for kickoff this year and hope to be livetweeting over at @j_boucher.

Twitter is an interesting being, and I enjoy watching the evolution of the hashtag. Both #FRC and #FIRST are too overrun with other traffic, hence why #omgkickoff (and later #omgrobots) took off. Since the popularity of #omgrobots has spread enough into non-FRC areas, it's more impactful than changing it back for kickoff.

BTW, for those of you coming to Manchester to kickoff, the official hashtag for the city is #MHT (after the airport code). It's another case of overrun hashtags elsewhere, as #Manchester is primarily associated with Manchester, UK, #manchesternh is too many characters to be useful, #manchattan never took off and #manchvegas is just silly.

SavtaKenneth

21-12-2010, 09:49

*disclaimer - all I know of twitter algorithm is one article's worth*

The Twitter trends algorithm works by comparing past to recent activity, that is to make it on the front page you'd have to generate more present activity compared to past activity on the tags. So I guess having a new tag has a higher chance of making it to the trends on the front page.

*end disclaimer*

I'll join in to whatever tag is decided upon ^^. Would love to see more mainstream interest in FIRST :)

synth3tk

21-12-2010, 10:43

#omgrobots, while it's pretty much the unofficial "official" FIRST hashtag, has been in use throughout the year. I think using a separate tag, even if it's #omgkickoff, would have a better chance of landing the Trending status, especially if it was never Trending anyway.

I also think we should make a concerted effort to retweet a tweet, and get as many FIRST members and supporters to retweet it as possible. TopTweets is a semi-automatic account from Twitter that retweets some of the most popular tweets happening at the current time. I'm not sure of the algorithm used to choose certain tweets, though, so there's a chance this may or may not work. But the exposure of the tweet to everyone's followers would at least be a positive.

unionylibertad

22-12-2010, 13:14

please use #omgrobots!!!!

synth3tk

22-12-2010, 15:38

please use #omgrobots!!!!
It has less of a chance of trending, though. If we're trying to get this at least close to a trending topic, then we probably need a new tag. #omgRobots gets activity almost everyday.

Jessica Boucher

22-12-2010, 15:50

I'm not following - how would a new tag have better chance of trending than an older more used one? I'd love to read an article about it if you can point to it, please.

SavtaKenneth

22-12-2010, 16:55

This info on the trending algorithm was posted in the official twitter blog

http://blog.twitter.com/2010/12/to-trend-or-not-to-trend.html

It makes for an interesting read

ATannahill

22-12-2010, 17:03

Here is the important sentence.

Topics break into the Trends list when the volume of Tweets about that topic at a given moment dramatically increases.

Tim Delles

22-12-2010, 20:09

Here is the important sentence.

Topics break into the Trends list when the volume of Tweets about that topic at a given moment dramatically increases.

Basically... you would all have to tweet about that topic at the exact same time... ie. 9:01AM EST of Kickoff.

As for 'tricking' Google into making it something that appears on Google Instant... It's pretty unlikely considering the volume that they receive, and if you set up a bot to just have it search over and over, it's very likely Google will just start to ignore searches that you do as it pertains to Google Instant Rankings.

synth3tk

22-12-2010, 21:02

Here is the important sentence.

Topics break into the Trends list when the volume of Tweets about that topic at a given moment dramatically increases.
Notice I kept using "less chance", not "no chance".

dag0620

22-12-2010, 22:06

Something else besides twitter/facebook.

If you live in the CT area you know about Channel 3 and Scott Haney. He's our morning weatherman and does a lot of announcements for community stuff etc. I'm planning on sending him an e-mail close to kick-off to get him to just send a good luck to all the teams etc. Another little thing to get FIRST our there, even with the non techy people.

SavtaKenneth

01-01-2011, 12:07

Can I propose the tag #omg20yearsforFRC ?
Would be a unique enough tag for it to break into trends if we can get enough of the community to use it.

Karibou

01-01-2011, 17:46

Can I propose the tag #omg20yearsforFRC ?
Would be a unique enough tag for it to break into trends if we can get enough of the community to use it.

I would like that hashtag...but I can't afford to waste 17 characters on it :/

artdutra04

01-01-2011, 19:11

Twitter search showed #omgfirst and #omgfrc have zero results.

#omgfrc would be a better option, since this will be for the FRC Kickoff event. Perhaps kickoff tweets can be tagged with both #omgrobots and #omgfrc for greater chance of being retweeted due to the semi-official status of #omgrobots.

Zholl

01-01-2011, 19:31

I would like that hashtag...but I can't afford to waste 17 characters on it :/

How about something shorter yet still in the same vein? Like maybe #omg20thfrc? That's only 11 characters long

Chris is me

01-01-2011, 20:28

There's no reason there has to be an "omg" on the tag. #frckickoff #20thfrckickoff and #frc all work.

Brandon_L

01-01-2011, 20:40

There's no reason there has to be an "omg" on the tag. #frckickoff #20thfrckickoff and #frc all work.

I agree, I don't know where "omg" came from, I'd rather just have #frc. Short and sweet, easy to remember.

What server would this be on, if I were to connect?

ATannahill

01-01-2011, 20:43

I agree, I don't know where "omg" came from, I'd rather just have #frc. Short and sweet, easy to remember.

What server would this be on, if I were to connect?
I believe you are referencing IRC. The theory is to get a hashtag trennding on twitter (twitter.com).

rsisk

01-01-2011, 20:55

I'm not sure if the #omgrobots existed prior to last year, but I think JBoucher is the one who first suggested the hash tag. It has become quite popular and has developed a bit of a branding.

We went through several iterations last year, but #omgrobots seem to continue with a life of its own.

I'm not sure it makes sense to try and change it at this point considering the amount of people familiar with it. And of course, the only way to really change the "going" hashtag is to come up with one more popular than the current leader. That's going to be tough to do considering the wide spread use of #omgrobots and you always run the risk of diminishing the brand recognition already inherit in #omgrobots.

I guess that's a long way of saying, I'm sticking with #omgrobots again this year. I may use variations to make certain points, but if I want general recognition, #omgrobots is what I will use.

Karibou

01-01-2011, 22:39

ATannahill

01-01-2011, 22:46

How about #omfrobots, oh my FIRST.

Zach O

01-01-2011, 23:07

I'd just assume stick to what people have been using. #omgrobots

whytheheckme

01-01-2011, 23:14

I believe that it started with #omgkickoff, then went to #omgbuild, then competitions (and build as well) were #omgrobots.

And then of course #omgeinstein
:D

musicgurl1329

02-01-2011, 15:13

I think it would be best just to use #frc (or something like that)... Simple, easy to remember and can be used year round. :)

Mike Schreiber

02-01-2011, 16:10

I think it would be best just to use #frc (or something like that)... Simple, easy to remember and can be used year round. :)

Doesn't being used year round defeat the purpose if you want there to be a dramatic increase in usage?

musicgurl1329

02-01-2011, 16:58

Doesn't being used year round defeat the purpose if you want there to be a dramatic increase in usage?

If we start off with kick off and then once a week go on about the build, competition, and then championship, showing that it is quite popular I am sure a lot of people would take notice outside the FIRST community.

dag0620

02-01-2011, 17:12

Now I could be wrong, but wouldn't be better if we did put our efforts at getting the hashtag trending on only 1 or 2 dates? I feel if we were trying to do it all throughout the 15 weeks, it would be a bit harder?

I personally am going to be doing most of my #omgrobots tweeting this Saturday, during regionals, and defiantly during champs.

ATannahill

02-01-2011, 17:42

Maybe keep the #omgrobots as the usually tag but make a special one for use on kickoff and other big days. #omgmyfrc?

synth3tk

02-01-2011, 19:12

Maybe keep the #omgrobots as the usually tag but make a special one for use on kickoff and other big days. #omgmyfrc?
Yes. I don't think the original intention was to change the usual tag. #omgRobots is even in use by Bill and some regional accounts.

At this point, I don't care what happens. I'll use #omgFRC or #omgKickOff, or even #omgDean (probably during his traditional 3-hour speech*) during the Kick-off, along with the #omgRobots tag.

* Note: His speech has never been that long, though some would swear it has happened once or twice.

Frenchie461

03-01-2011, 19:15

lets see if we can get it all over facebook too

rsisk

03-01-2011, 20:13

I'm going with this hashtag. I can tweet it all day long without having to come up with something to say :D

#omgChiefDelphiConfusionHashTagUhIMeanTrendingTagT oReplaceRobotsFIRSTKickoffRegionalChampionshipDean RandomPoliticianIsItHereYetGameHintOneNoMore

demosthenes2k8

03-01-2011, 20:27

rsisk has clearly found the optimal hashtag.

Karibou

03-01-2011, 20:33

demosthenes2k8

03-01-2011, 21:01

Darn. How about #omgChiefDelphiConfusionHashTagUhIMeanTrendingTagT oReplaceRobotsFIRSTKickoffRegionalChampionshipDean RandomPoliticianIsItHereYetGame instead?

SamC

04-01-2011, 02:26

There's always Twitter's trend-promoting (http://business.twitter.com/advertise/start)...

synth3tk

04-01-2011, 09:03

There's always Twitter's trend-promoting (http://business.twitter.com/advertise/start)...
When did they open that up? For as long as I can remember, trend-promotion was only available for "select partners".

Regardless, unless we can raise ~$10,000+ every month, that's not exactly a viable option at the moment.