We’ve all seen that one super active person at a conference tweeting away furiously. Are you that person? I’m not, but I sure would like to know why people do it and what they get out of it. So this week, we spoke to Anita Kirkbride about live tweeting at events and why brands should do it more. Here’s a summary of our chat.
Topic: Live tweeting at events
Guest: Anita Kirkbride
Format: Eight questions directed at the guest. Everyone’s welcome to share.
There’re a lot of reasons to live-tweet at events. As our guest pointed out, one of them is so that you can recall and remember key points of a presentation or session better. It’s also a good way to share your learnings with others in your network.
A1 Live tweeting at an event has several benefits for me. It helps me remember some of the most important points of a presentation, for example. #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/uyZClbxPR9
— Anita Kirkbride 🦚 Social Media Since 2011 (@anitakirkbride) May 12, 2022
It’s also a signal to your audience—by live-tweeting, you tell them what kind of events you normally attend and what topic interests you the most.
A1.b Live tweeting also lets other attendees know you’re there and shows your general audience what kinds of events you attend, which all helps build your personal brand. #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/uyZClbxPR9
— Anita Kirkbride 🦚 Social Media Since 2011 (@anitakirkbride) May 12, 2022
As our guest added, live-tweeting is an excellent way to personally engage with the presenters and organizers of an event and build relationships.
A1.c Live tweeting can also help you build a relationship with the event organizers or the speakers. #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/uyZClbxPR9
— Anita Kirkbride 🦚 Social Media Since 2011 (@anitakirkbride) May 12, 2022
The easiest way to find others attending and live-tweeting at the same event is to follow the event’s official hashtag. Click the hashtag and scroll through the tweets to find other tweeters.
A2 To find others who are at the same event, simply click on the event hashtag and scroll through the tweets. It’s always interesting to see who’s there you might know! #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/DQFXBovbgO
— Anita Kirkbride 🦚 Social Media Since 2011 (@anitakirkbride) May 12, 2022
Also, keep an eye on the event organizer and presenters. They or other attendees might create public lists of all attendees, presenters, and crucial brand sponsors. You can also subscribe to the list to get updates from those who’re live-tweeting.
A2.b The conference or other attendees might also create a list of people in attendance that you can follow or check out, but the hashtag is always there. #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/DQFXBovbgO
— Anita Kirkbride 🦚 Social Media Since 2011 (@anitakirkbride) May 12, 2022
Jeremy also suggested following members of the speakers at the event, as well as their audience—who’ll likely be attending or tweeting about it too. It’s a great way for you to find others interested in similar things and engage in meaningful conversations.
A2: I like to follow the speakers and follow their people.
The majority of the time, their community is tweeting about the conference. A lot of the time, they are as well.
Use the resources and communities to their full potential. #TwitterSmarter
— Jeremy Linaburg (@jeremy_linaburg) May 12, 2022
Our guest said she’d only add the event’s hashtag to her display name on Twitter, as a way to inform her audience that she’d be attending and live-tweeting.
A3 I don’t do anything special to my account for live tweeting if I’m just attending. I might add the conference hashtag to my bio and/or pin a tweet to the top of the profile so I’m easier to find. #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/nyiYwxvMxX
— Anita Kirkbride 🦚 Social Media Since 2011 (@anitakirkbride) May 12, 2022
Christine shared a few more tips, including announcing to your followers that you’ll be live-tweeting. It’s a simple tweet but it will give context to your audience when you tell them you’re about to post a flurry of tweets. Another good thing to do is to thread your event tweets so that people can easily find them and follow through with the goings-on. Adding a photo at the beginning or the end of the thread is a nice way to summarize a thread.
A3.
I never, ever remember to warn my followers that my feed will be on fire…oops!
I like to keep things in nice, neat threads with a pic at the top, so it’s hopefully at least a little less chaotic.
Oh–and I add the event hashtag to my bio!#TwitterSmarter https://t.co/2FHbRkEXYa— Christine Gritmon ❤️ #ChatAboutBrand (@cgritmon) May 12, 2022
Variety works well. You can do quotes, photos of slides that jump out at you, video responses and opinions about a presentation, selfies—either solo or with other attendees—threads, and replies to other attendees’ tweets. You can also mix and match, such as posting a few photos and videos in a thread.
A4 There are lots of things to live tweet from a conference:
👍Quotes from presentations
👍Photos of slides
👍Selfies
👍Video thoughts
👍Threaded recaps
👍Back and forth with other attendees#TwitterSmarter https://t.co/5puc9yfLrM— Anita Kirkbride 🦚 Social Media Since 2011 (@anitakirkbride) May 12, 2022
As for what type of messages you should share, Madalyn recommended sharing key takeaways you gained from each presentation or session. These can serve as recaps or reminders for you later on, and also as information nuggets for those who wanted to attend but couldn’t. What’s more, if you’re at an event with multiple sessions running simultaneously, your recaps could be valuable to those who were attending another session at the same time.
A4: Share your most valuable takeaways from the conference! Not only is this a great reminder for you later, but it gives you the chance to share tips and tricks with others who couldn’t be at the event. Don't be afraid to share videos & selfies too. Be visual! #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/46YDQHCaze
— Madalyn Sklar Digital Marketing since 1996 (@MadalynSklar) May 12, 2022
There’s no hard limit on how many tweets you can post during a conference or even in a one-hour session. Most people would do 3-5 tweets for an hour-long presentation, but it could be more or less depending on the topic, how interesting it was, and how comfortable you are live-tweeting.
A5 As much as you can/want! You don’t want to give away an entire presentation, of course, but 3-5 tweets from a 1 hour speech is not unusual at all. And not very much for some of us prolific tweeters! #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/j68RyAlp4H
— Anita Kirkbride 🦚 Social Media Since 2011 (@anitakirkbride) May 12, 2022
Our guest shared some of the most basic things to keep in mind: use the event hashtag for every tweet, make sure you tag the right person in your tweet and prepare templates or designed images if you’re trying to be on brand.
A6. When live tweeting from an event be sure to:
✅Include the event hashtag in every tweet
✅Know & use the appropriate usernames
✅Have quote templates & apps easily accessible if you want to keep it branded#TwitterSmarter https://t.co/v1peN66BCA— Anita Kirkbride 🦚 Social Media Since 2011 (@anitakirkbride) May 12, 2022
Joana shared some great tips as well. Take a power bank so you don’t run out of charge in the middle of an interesting session, have a plan B in case the wifi doesn’t work or is too slow, and compile your tweets into a Twitter Moment that you can summarize into a blog post afterward.
a6
📍wrap it up on a twitter moments and use it to write a blog post
📍don't forget the power bank
📍 have a plan B in case the wifi doesn't work!#twittersmarter— joana rita sousa 🦄 💩💎 (ela/a/she/her) (@JoanaRSSousa) May 12, 2022
Don’t let any tweet disappear into the Twitterverse! As our guest suggested, save tweets so you can re-use them in your marketing. You can bookmark them, compile them into a Twitter Moment, or recap them as a thread.
A7 As the organizer of #SMDH22 @SocialMediaHFX I will save all the tweets, maybe make screenshots to use in future marketing efforts. #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/xuhQidUKij
— Anita Kirkbride 🦚 Social Media Since 2011 (@anitakirkbride) May 12, 2022
Our friends from Clover Media also suggested converting tweets into a blog post or posting screenshots of your tweets on other social channels like Instagram and LinkedIn. You could also re-post your media on platforms like Facebook and Instagram where photos and videos perform well.
A7. Gather all of your best tweets from the event into a blog post & share it with your followers. Or repost screenshots of them to your IG Stories. Photos of the event or an image featuring a quote from a speaker are great for Facebook or Instagram, too #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/pO85kunZxn
— Clover Media (@clovermediahq) May 12, 2022
Our guest prefers to have her laptop so she can type faster and have a dashboard showing live tweets as they come in.
A8 Ideally I would have my laptop in front of me as I can type much faster there than on a phone. Also, it’s easier to have a dashboard up with the event hashtag open to see everything coming in. #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/FGccPTyyOL
— Anita Kirkbride 🦚 Social Media Since 2011 (@anitakirkbride) May 12, 2022
However, if she’s on her phone, she’ll post fewer tweets and do more photos and videos which are easier to upload directly from her photo gallery.
A8.b If I am just using my phone to live tweet I’m going to be slower and tweet fewer times, but I have the advantage of being able to add spontaneous photos to the tweets. #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/FGccPTyyOL
— Anita Kirkbride 🦚 Social Media Since 2011 (@anitakirkbride) May 12, 2022
Whichever device you use, make the most of the functionality it inherently offers.
Well folks, that’s all from me this week. Thanks a lot for reading through and for more great insights from our chat with Anita, have a look at this Twitter Moment that Joana put together for us. If you think this summary is pretty good, you’ll love the real-time chat. Join us every Thursday at 1pm ET on #TwitterSmarter. We also hang out on Twitter Spaces at 5pm ET to continue our chat. Catch you there!
About me, Narmadhaa
I write all the things—marketing stuff to pay the bills; haiku and short stories so I feel wholesome. A social media enthusiast, I hang out with the #TwitterSmarter chat crew, and am always happy to take on writing gigs.
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