Regardless of how many events we attend and how many times we’ve talked about live tweeting effectively, some how, we fall short. It happens to us all. Perhaps the emcee didn’t remind us about the official hashtag or we were so hungry we forgot to take a picture of the food first, or—the best of all—we were so busy networking in real life that it completely slipped our mind to tweet about it too.
We’ve all been there.
That’s why it’s all the more important to keep learning from our mistakes. So we figured the best way to start over would be to start discussing about live tweeting. We invited personal branding expert Ryan Foland to walk us through some of the best practices of live tweeting at events.
Here’s a summary of our chat.
Topic: Everything you need to know about live tweeting at events
Guest: Ryan Foland
Format: Eight questions directed at the guest. Everyone’s welcome to answer.
Our guest emphasized the importance of using the official event hashtag in your tweets and quote retweets. That’s how you get your tweets in front of other attendees tweeting about the event. Adding emotional elements, emojis, and images cropped to fit Twitter’s banner size are also great ways to grab attention in a busy feed.
Hi! ?
A1: ?This may seem obvious, but when people share great info and don't use the conference #, your potential visibility is lowered.
?Exception is if you RT.
?But if you quote retweet, reply, use an emoji, & include the conference hashtag.#TwitterSmarter pic.twitter.com/JUBgS28rUL
— Ryan Foland (@ryanfoland) September 26, 2019
Be careful not to over do your enthusiasm when tagging others in your tweet. Tagging one person too many times can quickly become irritating and you run the risk of being a spammer instead of a genuinely interested attendee.
If you’re tagging fellow attendees or delegates, however, consider adding an image and tagging them in it. That way, like Ryan pointed out, you won’t lose tweet characters.
A1b: If done respectfully, tagging people in tweets can help you to gain more exposure and reach. If you direct mention someone in the body of your Tweet, those characters count against your limit. If u add a pic you can tag up to 10 people in the photo(s). #TwitterSmarter
— Ryan Foland (@ryanfoland) September 26, 2019
Bernie also shared some ideas for what you can tweet about. Tell others what you learned from the various sessions you attended. If you have the presenter’s permission, you can also share slides and quotes. It’ll help people in different sessions to take something away from your tweets.
Don’t forget to tell the world about your growing networking skills. Take pictures, share your selfies, and tag people on Twitter with a humble thanks. All these can help you expand your network and keep in touch with the many people you meet at conferences.
A1: With event hashtags…
– Do share your experiences
– Do share value
– Do share items from sessions
– Do share selfies w/ other participants– Don’t spam
– Don’t sell
– Don’t highjack #TwitterSmarter— Bernie Fussenegger #Digital360Chat (@B2the7) September 26, 2019
Follow and observe other attendees who’re tweeting. See that you’ve got the event hashtag on your display name so they can identify and follow you back. As Ryan put it so well, listen to what others are saying and notice how you react to their perspectives.
Sometimes you’ll love it so much that you want to retweet with a quote. Sometimes, you’d just agree but don’t have anything to add. In that case, a retweet should do fine. However you choose to respond, if at all, let yourself take in the stream of tweets before rushing into a decision.
A2a: Listen to your initial reaction to tweets:
?Share what you like
?If a tweet makes you think, think about retweeting
?If a tweet makes you want to respond, reply to the tweet
?If you don't like the tweet, move on#TwitterSmarter
— Ryan Foland (@ryanfoland) September 26, 2019
As for frequency of tweets, Emma reminded us you shouldn’t tweet for the sake of tweeting. Make sure that your tweets, images, and observations add value to your audience. Most of them aren’t attendees at the event itself, but even then, your tweets should contain something for them. A good tactic for live tweeting is to summarize your lessons based on topic. Consider threading them so it’s easier to access and follow through in order of occurrence.
A2) as often as *actually* interesting making sure you are adding value to your audience, mix up the content so not just the same picture, the strongest sound bite, not every sound bite, and I personally like to sum up my ? take-aways at the end to wrap things up #TwitterSmarter
— Emma Gilmartin (@embrooksy8) September 26, 2019
First things first: you have to acknowledge that you can’t do everything at an event. There’s so much information to absorb, so many people to meet, and so many conversations to engage in.
That said, Ryan also mentioned the power of online. Even if you can’t meet them all, you can still connect with people you meet in real life, and continue building relationships online.
A3: I have found Twitter to be one of the most powerful networking platforms at conferences. There are so many people you can’t meet them all. But I use Twitter to connect with people and oftentimes meet them IRL at the conf. #TwitterSmarter pic.twitter.com/1GjQo4MerW
— Ryan Foland (@ryanfoland) September 26, 2019
During a dilemma at an event though, start prioritizing. Based in your purpose for attending the event, sort out how much you’ll be tweeting and how much you’ll be observing. Lance shared a great strategy: identify your role. Are you—
#twittersmarter A3: Decide in advance if you’re a correspondent, advocate, participant or observer. Each “role” tweets less in descending order; whereas the correspondent types out a transcription real time; advocate relays key facts; participant gives overview; observer recaps.
— Lance A Schart (@LanceASchart) September 26, 2019
As Sam told us, use Twitter to spread the event hashtag extensively. This means, you should be sharing your observations, learnings, and questions. You can also follow the conversation on the hashtag and reply to questions others are asking. Conference spaces can be huge, and sometimes it’s great when a fellow attendee guides you to the nearest coffee station.
A4. Keep connecting with the folks on Twitter who's you're meeting them.
Keep an eye on the event hashtag and use it (extensively).
Always make sure you click GOOD pictures (visual duh).
Tweet meaningful content (not just some random thing you heard someone say)#TwitterSmarter— Smiling Sam ? (@ISpiriTualist) September 26, 2019
Twitter loves visuals. Use that to your advantage. Share photographs, videos, and other pre-made graphics to grab attention and keep conversations going.
Our guest Ryan advocated for Twitter polls. He pointed out that it’s a less-known feature full of potential, mainly because it’s anonymous. You can run a poll with 2 to 4 options for anytime between a minute and 7 days. And at the end of the poll, if you’re the host, you’ll have a wealth of feedback for future events. If you’re an attendee, you’ll have a bunch of contacts and a ton of knowledge that you can take away from the event.
A4: Use Polls – a native feature embedded into tweets.
?Polls can have 2-4 answer options
?Duration can be 1 min – 7 days
?Polls show how long is left to vote, & how many people have voted
?How u vote is not shared publicly— Ryan Foland (@ryanfoland) September 26, 2019
Ryan is a big fan of GIFs, and for good reason too. Who doesn’t like seeing a quirky cartoon pop up while scrolling through a text-heavy feed?
Twitter search is also a great underrated feature. Like Ryan mentioned, you can search for the event hashtag and toggle between the Recent and Top tabs to keep up with the most engaging conversations about the event.
A5a:
I live in my search feature and notifications when tweeting at a conf. I search the conf hashtag and toggle between Top and Recent, and that helps me stay up on the most recent tweets, and get involved in conversations. #TwitterSmarter pic.twitter.com/hrZJEatLsj
— Ryan Foland (@ryanfoland) September 26, 2019
You can also check out other features like Threads and Moments to compile your tweets in a neat and easy-to-access manner. This makes it so much easier to look up content afterwards.
Use questions, images, and videos in your tweets to incite a response from the community. Tag people in photos (with their permission, of course), to reach a wider audience, and see how others use the hashtag to share ideas. Respond to them and engage.
If you’re using Tweetdeck, take Jonathan’s advice: create a separate column for the event hashtag and watch the tweets whizz by, You can retweet, reply, and like all from a single place. It’s fast and doesn’t take a toll on you.
A5: I will create a column in Tweetdeck with the official hashtag to track everything. That’s my fave event tweeting feature. #TwitterSmarter
— Jonathan D Gaby (@JonathanDGaby) September 26, 2019
Ryan’s top tip is to be genuine and be yourself. No matter what you’re doing, if you’re not having fun, you won’t get much out of it anyway. Stick to the basics: share original ideas and observations, post photos, and use the event hashtag. Don’t let live tweeting stress you out—enjoy the process.
Q6: Nothing beats original tweets.
?Your original thoughts and insights are great
?Let your personality shine
?Make it readable
?Make it conversational
?Make it high value
?Have fun with it
?Make sure to include the conference hashtag#TwitterSmarter— Ryan Foland (@ryanfoland) September 26, 2019
And remember, your Twitter profile is a testament to yourself. Sometimes it’s the quirky tweets that resonate with your audience.
A6a: Be yourself!
Let your twitter feed be a reflection of who you are. The good and what goes wrong. Some of my most successful tweets are about silly things, like losing an airpod, or being tired. @ditchtheact and share what is actually going on. #TwitterSmarter pic.twitter.com/O6eZnqvGfX
— Ryan Foland (@ryanfoland) September 26, 2019
While you’re at it though, don’t stay in your own bubble. Twitter thrives on engagement. Look up others at the event, retweet their tweets, pin their work, follow them, engage in healthy conversations, and do your part in nurturing the community.
A6b: Share the love!
?Support others
?Take time to check out people's profiles
?Check out their pinned tweets
?Quote retweet
?Replying with a meaningful comment
?Stay connected after the conference dust settles #TwitterSmarter pic.twitter.com/zAUEsRLEyF— Ryan Foland (@ryanfoland) September 26, 2019
Jack shared some other ideas as well. Before you even show up at the event, look up the various speakers and follow people you’re interested in. Start tweeting using the event hashtag to share some early thoughts and ideas about the event.
During the event, make sure you’ve got the event hashtag somewhere accessible so you can quickly copy-paste it in your tweet.
A6
– jump on the event hashtag early with something original so you stand out
– have the hashtag copy paste ready
– follow speakers before the event
– tweet at anyone interesting using the hashtag to meet up during the networking hour#twittersmarter— Jack Appleby (@JuiceboxCA) September 26, 2019
Videos are so versatile that you can use them to communicate a range of things. Show behind-the-scenes elements of events, record interviews with speakers, post a short clip of you networking with a bunch of people, or even create a GIF out of group photographs.
A7: Videos are great. I will…
?Share short vid clips of speakers
?Go live on @PeriscopeCo
?Do short vid interviews
?Show behind the scenes#TwitterSmarter pic.twitter.com/AvqELiXmTE
— Ryan Foland (@ryanfoland) September 26, 2019
Of course, as Rachel reminded us, you don’t want to make your videos too long. No one likes to drain their mobile network on a single video.
A7 This depends largely on if you're live or if you're recording. Either way, make it brief and relevant – don't try to live broadcast 20 minutes of a speaker if your audio capture and/or signal isn't pristine.
If they're short and poignant, WINNING.#TwitterSmarter— Rachel Gets Real about… (@RachelMooreRS) September 26, 2019
Short clips always perform better than lengthier ones. Keep your recorded videos to about 1 to 2 minutes. And if you’re broadcasting live, anything over 20 minutes will be a bore. You don’t want to drag your audience down.
Ryan shared the three types of ROI he got from live tweeting at events.
Kristin told us about the time she became a celebrity by live tweeting at an event.
A8: I literally went from barely known to famous in an event of 12,900+ people! It gave my nonprofit the most visibility in a few months span around one conference than we had seen all year! ? #TwitterSmarter
— Kristin Smedley?Champion of Hope (@KristinSmedley) September 26, 2019
It’s absolute proof that a single conference can change your business forever. So what’s holding you back?
That’s all I have for this week, folks. If you’ve got any questions or comments about our weekly chats, feel free to tweet out to Madalyn or myself.
And if you’ve got some time to spare on Thursday, grab some lunch and join us at 1pm ET for the next #TwitterSmarter chat.
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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