Using Twitter To Save Money

Larry Chiang edits the BusinessWeek channel “What They Don’t Teach at Business School”. After a Harvard Business School keynote, Harbus wrote: “What They Don’t Teach You at Stanford Business School“. If you read his scandalously awesome “What They STILL Don’t Teach You at Stanford About Getting Revenge” and, “What They STILL Don’t Teach at GSB About Public Speaking” you will like his latest post about “Using Twitter to Save Money- The Broke Diaries”.

By Larry Chiang

I love learning from mentors. Nichelle Stephens, founder of Keeping Nickels and editor of Pepsi We Inspire is leading a panel called Broke Diaries. Joining her is me, Hayes Davis, co-founder of CheapTweet.com, and Faye Penn, editor/publisher of Brokelyn.com,

Here is what I will be talking about so if you want to pre-learn, pre-study, pre-prepare… Here are some great tips on using Twitter to save money and make money.

-1- Use Twitter To Save Money on Your Education
Of course I am the guy that teaches “What they don’t teach at b-school”. People marvel at how you CAN learn what Stanford and Harvard teaches without paying full tuition to go. Here’s how EXACTLY
-Download course agendas

-Learn what the professors have loaded up on the internet for free

-Participate in networking events with great speakers. For example, subscribe to twitter.com/basesevents for Stanford b-school events to rsvp for

– Attend community outreach conferences like Harvard’s eWeek for very little money

I once even hosted an event during Stanford’s eWeek. The event was called the Reverse VC Pitch Party and I got venture capitalists to pitch. I guess some people pay to attend business school, but I make money producing b-school events for no money. I got the founder of PayPal to sell his venture firm. How I did all this is below…

…but first how did I meet the founder of PayPal.

-2- Get Smart!

Find mentors and more mentors by wooing them via Twitter.

Twitter is full of experts in a multitude of categories. Wooing and access to them is pretty easy via Twitter. I wrote about “How to Work a Twitter Party” and I would highlight the following points:

– Search and get keyword alerts for phrases that signal an expert is posting tweets. I’d use gmail keyword alerts
– Avoid the surf and pray method of finding thought leaders
– Mentors are at expensive conferences. Access is easier (and free sometimes) if you tweet. (see #3)
– Producing and hosting events future mentors want to come to (This is HUGE! I expand on this in #4)

-3- Use Your Twitter Account to Access Expensive Conferences

Twitter can be your all-access badge if you tweet right. Most conferences charge $300 to $6000. You can increase your probability of getting access if you read and execute on some of the stuff below:
– Conferences need bloggers SO BADLY So blog about the conference before the conference.
– Pre – blog a CONFERENCE helps you and the conference producer
– Live – blog and live tweet using the conference hashtag
– Cover last year’s conference to preview this year’s conference
– Use the 3,2,1 formula- 3 paragraphs, two pictures, one focus for each blog post
If a blog post takes you longer than 2 hours, you’re over-thinking it. In three paragraphs just answer: What’s up. What this means now and in the future. Where things could go. What is next.
-4- Host Uber Low Cost, Highly Attended Events Using Twitter

When I say HOST most people get really nervous. Don’t.

If you host something your likelihood of getting a mentor goes up. It goes up because the number of people you meet goes up. Here is how to produce, organize and promote highly attended events using Twitter for very little working capital.

• Announce a 5-30 person party on Twitter
• Beg, email and comp to get retweets
• Invite an author and buy 5 copies of their book (If you invite me, I will fly across the country if you buy my mentors book)

Guest Blog somewhere and then tweet the bit.ly link
First 25 free – Rebate if you show up (example is bit.ly/vc0406)
Quasi-Celeb CoHost or Celebrity
Value Addedly hi-jack the conference PR

Let me stress the $25-free-with-a-rebate manuver. You don’t want to just give something away and have them not show up. I recommend doing a rebate. It is free and I will rebate you IF you show up.

Well, it’s been a slice and I hope to see you on Twitter. Find me or my panelists on Twitter @niche @LarryChiang @HayesDavis @Brokelyn.
The panel is Friday March 12 at SXSW at 2pm

See the nuggets of learning compiled on a wiki page that you can chip in money saving and making ideas
http://duck9er.pbworks.com/Broke+Diaries+Panel%3A+Pre-learning+before+SXSW

CONCLUSION
larry@duck9.com and put your cell in the subject line to bust spam
bit.ly/BrokeDiaries (a wiki to chip in your ideas)
text me with stuff: 650-283-8008
email my PDA if you want me to retweet something chiang9@duck9.com

I wrote this in 40 minutes. If I missed something, email me… larry @larrychiang dot com and include your cell in the subject line.

DISCLOSURE: I kick a lot of butt. Text or call me during office hours 11:11am or 11:11pm PST +/-11 minutes on my cell: 650-283-8008.

Larry Chiang is the founder of Duck9 , which educates college students on how to establish and maintain a FICO score over 750. He is a frequent contributor to BusinessWeek. His earlier posts on GigaOm include: How to Work The Room ; 8 Tips On How to Get Mentored ; and 9 VCs You’re Gonna Want To Avoid . You can read more equally funny, but non-founder-focused-lessons on Larry’s Amazon blog .