CHESTER businessman Neil Lewis was delighted this week when freelancers showed their social media power by sending his Brookson Enterprise Freelance Fair to the top of Twitter trending topics.

For a short period on Tuesday morning, #EFFManchester – the Twitter hashtag for the event held at UMIC, Manchester’s Business Incubator – ranked above Manchester United, Lord Sugar and footballer Carlos Tevez.

Alistair Beech, the freelancer in charge of social media activity at the event, said: “The response we received via Twitter was great – we had a room full of freelancers who were tweeting key points from the workshops and introducing themselves to other attendees via Twitter use on smartphones or laptops.”

The event was also the subject of a live blog, run by Beech and presented in real time on the Enterprise Freelance Fair website through live blogging desktop software Cover It Live.

“By using Cover It Live, we were able to reach people unable to attend the event and give them a feel of what happens at our fairs from their desk. The live blog was our main hub of communication and gathered all the morning’s Twitter conversation in real time using key word and hashtag filtering.

“One of the most popular re-tweets (RTs) was the advice from John Brazier of PCG to make three phone calls to potential, existing and former clients every day.”

The next Brookson Enterprise Freelance Fair will take place tomorrow (Friday) at Daresbury Innovation Centre. For more information, visit www.enterprisefreelancefair.co.uk.