Make Your Event Registration Form Tweet
Today’s guest post is from Noah Coffey, a web developer/designer and creator of Tweetbrite.
One of my favorite uses for FormSpring is throwing together a registration form for a conference or event. As the popularity of Twitter continues to explode, I’ve noticed more event registration forms asking for attendee’s Twitter user names. If you are organizing and event, wouldn’t it be nice if you could automatically tweet every time someone registers for your event?
A site that provides such a service has just integrated with FormSpring. Tweetbrite now allows you to connect your FormSpring account to your Twitter account. Every time someone uses your Formspring event registration form, Tweetbrite can automatically tweet through your selected Twitter account. For example, “@johnsmith just registered for MBO 2009.”
To get started, just create a new FormSpring API key from your FormSpring account (tutorial). Then, head over to Tweetbrite.com, create a free account, and click the big “Get started” link once you log-in. A simple setup wizard will guide you through the steps to link your FormSpring account, your Twitter account and create your mashup. Another great feature provided through the use of the FormSpring API key is that you never have to reveal your FormSpring user name or password.
For those interested in details of the integration, the FormSpring API was very intuitive and easy to use. Once Tweetbrite is granted access to a user’s FormSpring account and a mashup has been created, selected FormSpring forms are checked regularly for new attendee data. Based on which form fields the user selected, Tweetbrite stores the new attendee’s first and last name and their Twitter user name. Another process tweets the new attendees in the format specified by the user and marks the attendee as having been tweeted (to prevent duplicate tweeting). I wish I could go into more detail about the integration, but the FormSpring API is really straightforward and the documentation is excellent.
Noah Coffey is a developer trapped inside a web designer. While spending his days enjoying the challenges of web and email design, his true passion lies in side projects developing unique and creative web apps in the social media space. He is also the co-founder of Blog Indiana, an annual blogging and social media conference located in Indianapolis, IN. Noah lives and works in Indianapolis, is married and a proud new father