I was chatting with PASS community pollinator Karla Landrum recently and she asked me my thoughts on the auto tweets that get posted when attendees, sponsors, and speakers sign up, especially with regard to privacy.

I implemented or drove the implementation of the auto tweets, trying as best I could to build some starting point for social media integration (and reminding you that I’m not the king of social media, far from it). I also wanted to help events with marketing. Marketing often gets short changed and anything we can build in that generates a little buzz is a plus for the event team. Agree or not, that’s what drove this to be implemented.

As far as privacy, I’m not a fan of complex privacy rules. I think if you’re willing to provide your Twitter information that is the on switch – you’re on Twitter and we should be able to interact with you there, in a mild, useful, and respectful way. Don’t want to be announced as attending? Don’t enter your Twitter handle! We just need to make sure that users are clear on that when they enter the information, not just having it tucked away on the privacy page.

I think there have been more wins than losses from this feature (and the same is true for the networking page). That doesn’t mean it’s perfect or can’t be improved,we just need a vision. Mine is keep it simple for attendees,make sure the privacy stuff is clear, and encourage them to join us in the social media world – and if I could add one thing today, it would be Foursquare check-in for sessions. Think about how that might change things.