Jan 15, 2010

Recap: General Mills Gluten-Free Twitter Party

It was wonderful seeing so many people at the General Mills gluten-free Twitter party last night, especially people newly diagnosed with celiac disease and those new to twitter. The party was organized by @foodallergybuzz and @bestallergysite for General Mills. I enjoyed being a panelist, along with @glutenfreedee and the two General Mills employees.

In addition to many bloggers, @larabar and @BettyCrocker attended. There were also international guests: @GFLifeIreland and several people in Canada, including @AllergicLiving magazine. GF Life magazine, the first gluten-free magazine in Ireland, will be launching in February 2010. When I tweeted that I like the new peanut butter and jelly Larabar, about ten people tweeted that they also like it. Larabar said it is a favorite at their office.

Over 100 people RSVP’d for the party. There were approximately 1,300 tweets during the party, which lasted for about two hours, instead of the scheduled one hour. During that time, I surprisingly did 131 tweets. All of the tweets from the #glutenfreely party can still be read on Twapper Keeper. I use Tweet Grid during twitter parties and find it generally works well. It automatically adds the party hashtag to tweets.

Most people probably didn’t realize that General Mills provided me with several of the conversation questions that I asked during the party. It is great to know that General Mills cares about us sharing gluten-free tips on a variety of topics and wants to know what new products we would like to see. There were many great ideas, including eggrolls, carrot cake mix, sugar cookie mix, ready to bake cinnamon rolls, croissants, biscuits, Bisquick, frozen pot stickers, tasty lower calorie food, petit fours, and wonton soup. General Mills also provided trivia questions, and five prize packs were given away.

General Mills announced that more products will be added to their Live Gluten Freely website in the middle of February. "Look for frosting and soup, green giant vegetables and more yoplait!" There is a General Mills gluten-free product locator and a new recipe for gluten-free chocolate chip cookie cheesecake on the Betty Crocker website. Subscribe to the General Mills gluten-free newsletter and join their Facebook fan page.

Follow me on Twitter and follow my Twitter list of 110 gluten-free bloggers and Examiners.

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