FRC Twitter Storm (#omgrobots)

[tz109]

Hey Guys,

My name is Tatiana, and I'm a mentor on Team 614 -- The Night Hawks. Lately, I've been doing a lot of volunteer work educating people on the urgency the situation in Ukraine. Back in January, a person that I've been working with on this cause came up with the idea of having a "twitter storm" to promote interest, to get the word out there. By definition, a "twitter storm" is the following:

"A Twitterstorm is a sudden spike in activity surrounding a certain topic on the Twitter social media site."

Anyway, we got so many people involved in tweeting and re-tweeting about Ukraine, under the hashtag #euromaidan, that the topic began to trend ("trending topics become popular either through a concerted effort by users, or because of an event that prompts people to talk about one specific topic. These topics help Twitter and their users to understand what is happening in the world").

What I mean to say, to cut to the chase here, is that I propose we organize an FRC twitter storm. I'm not sure if it's ever been done before, but FRC is such a fantastic program -- and one that not enough people are aware of. Given the fact that we have competitions going on now, I think it'd be great if we could somehow direct interest towards that.

I think the best time to plan to do it would be sometime before or around when competition rounds get started, so Friday morning for most regional competitions (maybe 9:30, 10?). I think utilizing the hashtag #omgrobots would be best, too (but we could also do #firstrobotics).

Let me know what you guys think -- terrible idea, or not? Also, feel free to add anything/help build on this. I think it could be really cool.

[karomata]

It would be a really cool idea. Especially if all the team pages could add the #omgrobotd or #firstrobotics when posting current win/losses, pictures, etc. This would be a great way to make it loud if executed well. Perhaps instead of trying to focus everyone on one time to do it, if we just really posted like crazy on competition days each wweek.
Just my 2 cents.

[M. Lillis]

I think doing a Twitter storm would be cool. But I also think that every team should have one person at each competition tweeting their latest match outcomes or updates and end them with #omgrobots. There are enough events every weekend, especially the next few weeks, that it could trend on its own.

[David8696]

I personally love this idea. We all know social media is the single most powerful communication tool not just of this generation but throughout history; if we want serious exposure, I can see no better way than to take it by twitterstorm. As for the hashtag, why do we have to choose between #omgrobots and #firstrobotics? I say both! If you can only fit one, then only use one; if you can fit both, all the better. But if we can get either one trending, we would increase our exposure by magnitudes.

[tz109]

Okay, taking into consideration what you guys have suggested, I've gone ahead and created a FB event so a bit of advertising can be done.

I think we should plan to "officially" start the storm at 9:30am (EDT/Wash DC time) on Friday, March 21. That allows for about a week to get the word out there to as many FIRST-ers as possible. The twitterstorm will continue on throughout that competition weekend.

Here's the link for the event.

https://www.facebook.com/events/5974...ng&sour ce=49

[Calvin Hartley]

I'll help when little I can, though I am competing this weekend.
@CalvinHartley

[kaywilson8]

Teams should use Megaphone to do this. It's at frcmega.com and just sign your team up for it and link it to the twitter. what it does is tweets wins and losses for you, and you can edit the message it post. On ours we added #frc4810 and #omgrobots . Just a suggestion.

[David8696]

I just want to bump this thread. It seemed like a great idea when it was posted, and it still seems like a great idea now. Let's get #omgrobots trending for champs.

[MrBydlon]

Awesome idea! @Team3313 will definitely be tweeting up a storm this weekend.

The two main hashtags to use are #omgrobots and #FIRSTChamp. Obviously though, you ca hashtag #anythingyouwant.

Cannot wait to see everyone this weekend!!

[Conor Ryan]

Back in the day when Digg.com was popular we coordinated a mass vote to get it on the front page, it worked several times!

[David8696]

Originally Posted by Conor Ryan

Back in the day when Digg.com was popular we coordinated a mass vote to get it on the front page, it worked several times!

Awesome; and Twitter has many times the number of users Digg ever did. This is seeming like a better and better idea, we just need to agree on a time.

[Libby K]

Now that this thread is bumped, #omgrobots and #FIRSTchamp are the official hashtags for this weekend (and #omgrobots is for everything!). Use it on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine, whatever!

Make sure you're using them on your personal and team accounts, especially though Megaphone tweets. I bet we get it trending on our own here at the Championship, especially if you're tweeting every match (and then some!).