Marketing conference attendees can use twitter to learn the latest scoop.

• Position: Conference news

For the first time, you can use Twitter to enhance your experience at the ABA Marketing Conference, Sept. 13-15, in San Antonio, Texas.

Twitter, as many know, is a social networking service that enables its users to send and read updates in the form of short text messages (known as "tweets").

Starting in June, the Web site for the Marketing Conference will have a link to enable viewers to read updates--in the form of tweets--about the upcoming program. The tweets will cover event updates, presenter information and conference-related topics.

"This will give attendees an inside view by providing them with the most up-to-date information about conference happenings," says Maggie Kelly, vice president of marketing for the ABA Professional Development Group.

Tweets are posts of up to 140 characters in length that are displayed on the user's profile page, in this case, the Marketing Conference Web site. Tweets can also be delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as "followers").

During the conference itself, Marketing Network members will tweet highlights from many of the learning sessions while they are in progress.

"We're hopeful that attendees will read the tweets to help them decide which sessions to attend or which session recordings would be most useful," says Kelly.

If you go to the conference's interactive Web site, www.aba.com/event/ mktg and follow the "Tweet" link, you will find a video tutorial explaining how to use Twitter as well as how to tweet. The site will also run a compilation of all the tweets as they are posted.

Attendees might want to check the tweets about the first day's sessions to see if they are interested in attending a session that is repeated later in the conference.

"This is a great opportunity for marketers who are not yet familiar with Twitter to get acquainted with the technology for possible future application in their bank," says Kelly.

Attendees can also follow conference developments and tweet about them on Twitter Inc. by logging into their Twitter account and using hashtag #abamc.

To register for the conference online, go to www.aba.com/events/mktg or telephone (800) BANKERS.

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