Twestival helps local businesses stay ahead of the curve

Tweeple in over 200 cities all over the globe met up on Thursday March 24 with other avid Twitter users to learn new and innovative ways to use the social networking site.

Brussels was no different. Twelve businesses and organisations convened at the Radisson Royal Blu Hotel in downtown Brussels to share their experiences in using Twitter as a business tool.

“I tweet excerpts from our sightseeing audio guides,” said Valy duMoulin of In Hand Guides. “I also tweet pictures and facts about the cities that we have guides for, because I figure if I find them interesting then our followers will be interested as well.” She explained that when she posts pictures of locations on the In Hand Guides’ Twitter account, she gets many queries about them, which in turn spark interest in her products.

“Twitter has revolutionised the way we run Use-It,” said Tine Declerck, talking about the tourism agency for young travelers in Belgium where she works.

“Before, we used to have a white board in our office where we would post the events of the week and people would have to come in and check it if they wanted to know what was on offer. Now Twitter is our white board,” said Declerck.

“It’s the most profitable 10 minutes of my day,” commented Fabian van de Wiele of Click Trust Marketing about the time he spends on Twitter. “It’s free to sign up and I’ve already made three business connections just from the few daily messages I tweet.”

Van de Wiele has a slightly different outlook on the social media tool from the other presenters. He finds it more beneficial to pick and choose his followers rather than to accept everyone who wants to follow his account. That way he can tailor his tweets to just those people interested in his marketing strategies.

The goal of the event also served a great cause. The Twestival is an annual event organised by the Connect the Dots Foundation (not officially associated to Twitter) to raise awareness and funds for non-profit organisations. This year the small entrance fee was donated to the charity Europe’s Children Our Concern.

Van de Wiele best summarised the atmosphere at the Brussels Twestival when he said: “It is important to stay ahead of the curve, and being able to collaborate and learn at an event like this makes it much easier.”

The final slide of Fabian van de Wiele’s presentation at the Twestival on Thursday March 24 2011, explained rather succinctly that Twitter responses can’t always be planned. Fabian runs the company ClickTrust Marketing under the Twitter name Clicktrust.

Tine Declerck shows off the new Use-It map of Brussels at the Brussels Twestival 2011. Declerck can be seen tweeting away the times of different events and locations of fun spots in Brussels on her Twitter account Useitbrussels.

The publishers and writers of Together Magazine also attended the Brussels Twestival on Thursday March 24th 2011. Melanie Loth a writer for Together says she uses Twitter to update subscribers on her most recent feature articles at “”.

Posted on March 29, 2011 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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