HackerNest is an international nonprofit focused on building supportive “Silicon Valley”-type tech communities everywhere – strengthening local ecosystems through unpretentious social events and (hardware) hackathons. We’re nurturing cohesive communities today (over a dozen cities and counting!) to empower them with more relevant and accessible peer-based tech education tomorrow. I managed their social media and online marketing efforts at large from November 2012 to June 2014.

Along with the other core member, I assisted in the expansion of their tech social host cities from one, in Toronto, to 15 cities: Vancouver, Waterloo, Seattle, Dallas, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Sao Paulo, Montreal, Edmonton, Bogota, Boston, Calgary, Colombo, and Tbilisi.

Between November 2012 and June 2014, I managed:

• Blog posts
• Social Media + Online Strategy
• Social Media Management on: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+
• Content Creation
• Real-time Social Media Management for HackerNest Construct, and Tech Socials in all cities.

Blog Posts

After a website revamp for the HackerNest website in February of 2014, blogging became a larger part of their online marketing presence. A way to connect with brand evangelists, offer entrepreneurial and tech tips, with the addition of highlighting their communities around the globe as well as a means to announce and promote large scale events.

Social Media Strategy, Management + Content Creation

HackerNest uses social media for everything, from event promotion, sponsor outreach, to brand evangelist creation in areas where they are hoping to host a tech social. HackerNest’s personality online echoes that of their community. Geeky, weird and a little bit flamboyant at times. Social media has played a large role into their rapid expansion from 1 city in 2011 to 15+ in 2014. Identifying potential organizers, sponsors and attendees, while using location based hashtags to promote upcoming events has become the major focus of HackerNest’s ever evolving social strategy. Maintaining their brand over multiple cultures and countries is done through their social media and reaching out to burgeoning tech communities to continue the relaxed and laid back feel that HackerNest has towards technology at large has made them an international success. Through these successes they have been able to host one of the largest Hardware Hackathons in Canadian history, HackerNest Construct, which I also had the priveledge of executing their social strategy for.

By The Numbers

Facebook:

• Likes: November 2012 – 191 -> June 2014 – 2,161
• An average weekly page reach ranging from 3,000 – 12,000 people.
• An average of 5 new Facebook likes per day.

Twitter:

• Followers: November 2012 – 456 -> June 2014 – 2,865
• An average of 3 mentions per day.
• An average follower growth of 1 per day.

Custom Content Creation

This gallery showcases some of the custom content created for HackerNest followed by social media posts that show how those content types are used and the types of engagement they garner.