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Calgary house party Twitter post goes global
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Daily Brew
Social media may be a great way to let your friends know you're throwing a party, but a Calgary teen learned that it can sometimes be a little too effective.
As the Toronto Star reports, high school student Hunter Mills jumped on his Twitter account Monday to let friends know about a bash he was organizing this weekend at the home of good buddy Kris Morrey. He used the hashtag #projectkris to humorously link the party to Project X, a new movie about a house party that spirals out of control.
But in an example of life imitating art, it was the 17-year-old's tweet that did the spiraling. By the next day, #projectkris was trending across Calgary. By nightfall, it had gone viral across the planet. Twitter users as far away as Australia, Africa, Asia and the Middle East started retweeting the party details. Suddenly, Mills' simple high school bash had turned into a global event.
"I don't even know what happened," Mills told the paper.
"The original party was supposed to be for about 60 people. But when I started tweeting, well, now it's going to be thousands... I think it's kind of cool. I'm just a 17-year-old kid and I'm getting worldwide attention from what I've started. It's just the power of social media."
Mills may think it's cool, but Calgary police are less impressed. Since the tweet went viral, Mills said police have visited his home twice to warn him that the party would be monitored closely and shut down the second anything gets out of hand. Police also contacted Morrey's mother, who was going to be away for the weekend of the party.
"She thought there would just be a bunch of people coming over and that everything would be fine," Mills mentioned to the Star. "This was kind of a wake-up call."
Due to the hype, Mills has changed the event location to an undisclosed space and will no longer be holding it at the Morrey residence. Yet, he's surprised that what started out as a simple house party has morphed into something much larger.
"It seems like everyone wants this party to happen, so we may as well have it," he said. "It's just amazing how big it's gotten."
Mills added that a number of local DJs and rappers had contacted him and asked to perform at the bash.
Now for the stats. Mark Blevis, an Ottawa-based digital public affairs strategist who analyzed #projectkris traffic, told the Star Mills' original tweet has been retweeted around 5,500 times, with an estimated 870,000 impressions. That means 870,000 potential party guests.
So how did this happen?
"The difference now is that when I tell two friends, all my other friends on Twitter can see that same message," he said. "Social media is an amplifier… When you conduct your conversations in public, people are exposed to that conversation and they might jump in."
That's great for public events, perhaps a little dodgy for private ones. However, Mills may have stumbled upon a future career in party promotion.
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