ASHA Vendors: Come Party With The #SLPeeps

[Updated: Conf Call moved to Tuesday @ 4PM EDT]

Have a booth at ASHA this year? Party with the #SLPeeps!

If you're hosting a booth at ASHA and you're not involved with the #SLPeeps on Twitter, you're really missing out!  They've been a huge help in launching LessonPix, and we're really glad to be working with them at the ASHA convention this Nov. 14-17.

PediaStaff (mainly Heidi, who's very active with the #SLPeeps) has sponsored a separate #SLPeeps booth (#1823) at the show so that the community can have a central location to meet #IRL (In Real Life) and keep the non-attending members in the loop.

In addition, we're trying to coordinate some cross-booth promotion between the vendors who are a part of the #SLPeeps and the rest of the community!  If you're already a active the #SLPeeps community, you might want to Jump Down to how you can join us!

But if you've never heard of the #SLPeeps or you want to learn more, here's a basic rundown.

Who are the #SLPeeps?

They are a fantastic group of SLPs from around the country have gathered on Twitter around the #SLPeeps hashtag to support each other, trade ideas, and generally have fun with like-minded geeky SLPs.  With several years under its belt, the hashtag is one of the best organized and most active health and education hashtags, and really has few equals in terms of the quality of participant and general "good behavior".

Hashtags.org has this to say about #SLPeeps

Why would a Vendor care?

It's easy to see why an SLP would join this group, but what about folks like LessonPix: we're not SLPs, but they're some of our biggest customers (and fans!).

Well, the #SLPeeps are, by their very nature, outgoing, influential and passionate SLPs.  Many have their own blogs, many of which are very active.  That makes them perfect for :

1. High-quality, free R&D (they make fantastic beta testers).  Check out this Chirpstory around some some SoundFinder changes we made last weekend.
2. Spreading the word about your product (organically, which is great for SEO & more)
3. Product ideas (they aren't shy when you're not given them what they need)
4. A good laugh (they're really very funny, outgoing people!)

How do I Get Involved?

Well, you can't just send out ads and add the #SLPeeps hashtag.  Technically, you can, but you'll be marked SPAM immediately, and generally the idea will backfire.  In our case, we lucked into joining well, and I'm happy to tell you how we did it.

1. First, Just Listen: Search for the #SLPeeps hashtag and just read the posts for a few days.  You'll quickly learn who's asking questions, who's answering them and what the general topics are
2. Second, Learn: These are your customers (presumably), so before you ever say a word, it's likely that you'll see a need that's not being met, or a product you could bring to market.
3. Finally, Try to Help: Note that I say, "Try"... you don't actually have to end up being helpful - they will appreciate the fact that you tried.  In our case, someone (@ndnspeechmom) ran a silly baby-picture contest and asked if anyone had a prize to donate.  We did, and got fantastic press across Twitter for weeks - total cost: two subscriptions.

 Ok! What's next?

If you're a vendor active in the #SLPeeps (even if you're just getting active), join us for a discussion this Tuesday afternoon at 4pm EDT to talk about how the we can work together to make the most out of our investments!

Specifically, we're looking to:

• Provide Posters for your booth, identifying you as active #SLPeeps
• Create some type of cross-booth promotion (Bingo Game, Scavenger Hunt) to drive traffic
• Coordinate in-booth activities (announcements, etc) to make help each other make the most of the show!

Contact @LessonPix on twitter for details!