If you’re in marketing, you probably attend events all the time. Whether you go to listen and learn or to share expertise you’ve gained over the years, you can’t miss the thousands of people who constantly tweet during the event. That’s the way our industry works—we use Twitter to exchange valuable information, not just to share cat videos. Sure, the occasional funny GIF pops out in the feed, but live-tweeting at an event is far more beneficial that most of us realize.
Now John Espirian is a freelance copywriter for the B2B industry. From sharing social media tips, to fixing content issues, and generating kickass blogs, webpages, help guides, and case studies, John does it all.
Since he interacts with business professionals all day, we figured John was the ideal person to ask how a marketer can leverage Twitter at events.
Here’s a summary of our chat.
Topic: The Power of Event Tweeting
Guest: John Espirian
Format: Eight questions directed to the guest. Everyone’s welcome to share.
John and a lot of the members in our community said they use Twitter to take notes. It’s faster and easier than waiting for the event organisers to send you slides of the sessions. So what to tweet?
A1/6 Because rich-text formatting isn't really possible on Twitter …
✅ I use emojis to add a bit of life to my tweets.
✅ They're great as list item markers.
✅ And they're easy to insert.Emoji shortcuts on Mac (white) and Windows (black) here:#TwitterSmarter pic.twitter.com/oluNANSwi1
— John Espirian (@espirian) July 4, 2019
However, like Jake said, you also don’t want to be a running commentary. We have all kinds of followers—consider those followers too, especially if the event you’re attending is niche and not relevant to them.
A1: You don't want to be giving a live commentary of everything that is going on.
Instead, select what users actually want. Give fun. The behind the scenes. The best tips, quotes and content for the day. #TwitterSmarter
— Jake Symons (@jakeswrites) July 4, 2019
We all respond and react better to visual content. Although quotes and stats are popular choices for live tweeting, consider images as well—photos of the sessions, the ambiance, lunch and goodies, people you run into, live music playing at in the background. Show your audience what you’re seeing as a way to convey how much you wish they were there.
And if you’re too busy tweeting about sessions you’re attending or speaking at, make sure you watch out for stuff you’re missing. Some events have multiple halls hosting simultaneous sessions that’s all important to you. Actively seek out tweets from people at other sessions so you can get the most out of the event.
A2 There are always conflicts with sessions and I want to know what happened in the rooms I wasn't in! #Twittersmarter pic.twitter.com/GDdRjozROR
— Dan Willis #SAIS2019 (@MLLNNLmotivator) July 4, 2019
Like John noted, if you create event summaries, acknowledging those tweets from others is a great way to share your experience.
A2/1 Speaker quotes, stats and images are the most common. I like to reuse these in my write-ups, which adds value to my content while also recognising the sharer. #TwitterSmarter
— John Espirian (@espirian) July 4, 2019
First up, if you’re a speaker, make sure people on Twitter can find and interact with you. As Kristin said, include the title, time, and location for your session, add your social media handles to your slides, and include the event hashtag and handle to get maximum exposure.
A3 when I’m speaking at an event, I put my headshot and session title, day & time on a jpeg with event logo & tweet about what participants will learn. Easy peasy to make in @canva and gets a ton of engagement with attendees #TwitterSmarter
— Kristin Smedley?#ThrivingBlind (@KristinSmedley) July 4, 2019
As an attendee, do some homework. Check who’s tweeting the event hashtag and follow them, before and after the event. They are your target audience. You can then create a public list of those attendees. Not only will that help other attendees, but it also serves as a conversation starter.
A3/4 You can create your own public Twitter list ahead of time if you know who's attending the event. When people see a notification that they've been added, they may be more like to engage with you. You can become a mini-hub for the event chatter. #TwitterSmarter
— John Espirian (@espirian) July 4, 2019
Want to be extra helpful? Create a public list of of the speakers and tweet it out along with the event’s handle and hashtag. It’s a great way to bring all speakers in one place, and it’s useful when you quickly need to refer to someone’s handle.
Make sure you’re identifiable as well:
Most people don’t, because at events, your learnings and reactions are spontaneous. However, you can plan ahead and schedule some tweets. Like Vraj and Jake said, you can plan ahead and schedule tweets about welcome messages, upcoming sessions, and even tag some people you’re expecting to engage with.
A4.
Yes, It is very useful thing to maintain Tweet Flud during event.
What to draft?
– Welcome Tweets
– Speaker Announcements
– Timings of breaks during eventsCan use tools like,@hootsuite @MeetEdgar @Crowdfire #TwitterSmarter
— ⚡ Vraj Shah ? (@vrajshahspeaks) July 4, 2019
A4: I think it's good to have a 'backbone' of content that's pre-planned. That's what you can fall back on that's going out anyway.
But then you need some of the 'in the moment' content as well – scheduling everything. It's important to keep things fresh#TwitterSmarter
— Jake Symons (@jakeswrites) July 4, 2019
Our guest John suggested creating a few visuals beforehand. Some event organisers have high-resolution photos of speakers that you can reuse. Use tools like Canva or Adobe Photoshop to create visuals of about 1200×630 pixels. That’s the ideal size—it auto-adjusts to Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook so you don’t have to create separate visuals for each platform.
Oh, and if you do post-event blogs, consider setting up a template you can quickly shove tweets and insights into and publish.
John’s a big advocate for personalized visuals as well. They stand out well in a stream of regular tweets.
A4/5 I sometimes use my BitmoJohn visuals to add a bit of personality to my tweets. Anything that makes your content stand out is good! #TwitterSmarter pic.twitter.com/HICdApJUPK
— John Espirian (@espirian) July 4, 2019
Another way to prepare for events is to create lists, as we mentioned earlier. Alternatively, you can save those details on an easy-to-access notes app.
There’s no right or wrong when it comes to time spent live tweeting. John tweets out his brain flakes throughout speeches so he can recollect them later, but spends break time networking with fellow attendees and sharing photos of the ambiance.
Tweeting at events can be overwhelming, though. There’s so much going on and even though you want to share about everything, you don’t want to be a broadcaster. Make time to respond to others’ opinions as well. It’s a give-take situation.
A5/4 It can be hard to keep up but if you have any spare time, check for tweets by others on the same hashtag and engage on them, too. If you support others' stuff, they'll support yours and everyone wins. #TwitterSmarter
— John Espirian (@espirian) July 4, 2019
Tim shared an alternative to one-sided conversations: go cross-platform. That way, you cover more ground and avoid overcrowding your audience’s feeds.
A5: I used to tweet too much at events, now I tend to go across multiple networks (especially Instagram and Facebook stories).
It can distract from your experience of the event if taken too far. #TwitterSmarter
— Tim Lewis @Stoneham Press #indieAuthorChat (@StonehamPress) July 4, 2019
This was a favourite question. And John and our community shared so many great hacks to help you get through live tweeting without burning out.
A1/6 Because rich-text formatting isn't really possible on Twitter …
✅ I use emojis to add a bit of life to my tweets.
✅ They're great as list item markers.
✅ And they're easy to insert.Emoji shortcuts on Mac (white) and Windows (black) here:#TwitterSmarter pic.twitter.com/oluNANSwi1
— John Espirian (@espirian) July 4, 2019
A6 The hardest part of live video at an event is the audio! #Twittersmarter pic.twitter.com/8yKTNQ45UT
— Dan Willis #SAIS2019 (@MLLNNLmotivator) July 4, 2019
A majority of our community uses a laptop most of the time. And it makes sense, too—a laptop is easier to keep up with conversations, and with tools like Tweet Deck columns you can respond in real time. And when it comes to photos, John suggested using a professional camera connected to your laptop for faster image sharing.
A7/3 To get the best photos in my tweets, I often use a DSLR camera and connect it to my laptop with a cable. Get the camera to save images as JPEGs and you can share the results on Twitter very quickly. #TwitterSmarter
— John Espirian (@espirian) July 4, 2019
But if you have to use your phone camera, don’t rely on WiFi for transferring images from phone to the laptop. Connect with a cable, for you can never be sure that you’ll get fast WIFi in large event spaces.
When you’re using your phone to tweet, you may want to stick to the phone camera and make use of in-built filters. And if you can manage the time, you could also follow Tim’s advice about using other photo editors like Prisma or sharing a time lapse video.
A7: Mainly Twitter, but I will throw in the odd Hyperlapse video (speeded up), sometimes use something like Prisma on a photo to spice it up.
If I was using a laptop then clearly Tweetdeck would come into play. #TwitterSmarter— Tim Lewis @Stoneham Press #indieAuthorChat (@StonehamPress) July 4, 2019
The biggest challenge in following up with people after an event is that they don’t always remember you. And if you’ve travelled across the country or overseas for the event, by the time you get back home, you’re too late to reach out.
John gave us the solution.
Use LinkedIn’s Find Nearby or Sales Navigator features to connect with fellow attendees instantly.
A8/1 I don't wait until after the event to make a social connection. LinkedIn's mobile app has a Bluetooth-powered "Find Nearby" feature. I use that with most people rather than swapping business cards on the day. #TwitterSmarter
— John Espirian (@espirian) July 4, 2019
I use LinkedIn
Sales Navigator to look up prospects post events and to connect and continue networking…#TwitterSmarter— Shruti Deshpande (@shruti12d) July 5, 2019
Once you’re connected, you can strike genuine getting-to-know-each-other conversations. If, like John, you summarize events, you’ll have a good reason to reach out to them and check if they’d like to add insights to your posts. They get backlinks, you get extra exposure. Win-win!
A8/2 When I do a write-up, I check in with some delegates to see whether they're interested in contributing any further thoughts to the content. It's good exposure for them (they get a backlink) and adds more value to everyone, whether they attended or not. #TwitterSmarter
— John Espirian (@espirian) July 4, 2019
In case Find Nearby isn’t an option, email is your next best option. But always, follow-up within 24 hours.
Hi, This is @SilenceIsWisdo1 A personal blog. I'm happy to be here. Q8: I use Linked In and Twitter to connect and send them a short email about our meeting during the event – within 24 hours. #TwitterSmarter
— Silence Is Wisdom (@SilenceIsWisdo1) July 5, 2019
Well, folks. If you’ve made it this far, congratulations and thank you. As you may have guessed, this Twitter chat was epic, and I tried my best to summarize it. Thankfully, John Espirian did a thorough summary of his responses to all our questions. Be sure to check it out on his blog.
And as always, you’ll find more nuggets of wisdom in this Twitter Moment Kyle Hetric put together.
Questions, thoughts? Let us know!
About me, Narmadhaa:
I’m a writer of all things—technical and marketing copy to fill the pocket; haiku and short stories to fill the soul. A social media enthusiast, I’m a member of the #TwitterSmarter chat crew, and always happy to take on writing gigs.
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