By Victor Van Scoit

Photo Credit: http://crazy4comiccon.wordpress.com/
Photo Credit: http://crazy4comiccon.wordpress.com/

San Diego Comic Con is a behemoth with opportunities for any number of unique experiences. Its attendees create a micro-ecosystem for four days that can be difficult to manage, but isn’t impossible. While Facebook is great, Twitter is king when it comes to riding the information vibes of what’s happening in the moment. At first the information flow might be overwhelming, but with a little curation you can turn the fear of missing out into the joy of being in.

CREATE YOUR LISTS
Use Twitter to create not just one, but multiple lists that you can manage and review for information. Maybe you’ll have one for celebrities, another for movie studios, brands, and one for hashtags. It’ll take a bit to setup but it’ll keep your sanity. But who do you add?

WHO TO FOLLOW
The kind folks over at the Unofficial SDCC Blog (@SD_Comic_Con) have put together a few list of twitter handles inside and outside the convention. Don’t add every single one. Take a moment and remind yourself why you’re at SDCC and what you want to get from it, and be picky as to what to follow.

  • Your favorite celebrities might be good to follow because you get to see the con through their eyes, and sometimes they post surprise meet ups for their fans.
  • Your favorite publishers and studios, besides their normal marketing, sometimes tweet their swag give aways and even passes to private events
  • Offsite events (like Geek & Sundry and NerdHQ) also often tweet surprise guests, swag, and signings
  • I tend to avoid following hotels and restaurants as their information is pretty boring – save for @SDFoodTrucks. I’m always down for food trucks

HASHTAGS
While publishers, studios, and brands ask you to tweet with their hashtags, it appears SDCC attendees are lacking in organizing their own. Searching through twitter I didn’t see any call outs for food, drinks, lines, or parties. At the SXSW Festival the crowd was able to help themselves by helping each other with updates on great swag, free nibbles, line updates, and parties. Here are a few that I think could treat us all well besides just using #sdcc:

  • #sdcclines: Line updates whether for autographs, booth experiences, or offsite experiences. Optional add ons could be #hallh #ballroom20 #indigoball
  • #sdccnoms: Free food, great food finds, and food warnings (avoid con food when possible)
  • #sdccdrinks: I don’t tend to see free beverages of the alcoholic nature, but even free coffee or coconut waters is great
  • #sdccrsvp: Usually all RSVPs are done by now, but sometimes there’s some late comers
  • #sdccparties: Which party is popping? Which party is at capacity? And which party can take on more folks?
  • #sdccwhoah: Go see this now moments. Maybe you got a selfie with the cast of The Avengers. Maybe Bill Murray stole your french fry and now Jim Lee is sketching with ketchup?! Let us know about it
  • #sdccwtf: Because even at SDCC it’s still possible to get weird
  • #sdccburrito: Heidi McDonald is still looking for San Diego’s best breakfast burrito downtown. Okay, so this one is very niche, but we all win here.

Can’t wait to see your tweets. You can follow along with us The Beat (@comicsbeat) and myself (@victorsentme) all throughout the con.