Monday, October 24, 2016

Live Tweet Your Next Event to Kick It Up a Notch!

Whether your event is a small local business meeting or a large conference, live tweeting will help to publicize your event, extend your reach and get more followers. Live tweeting at an event is a way to convey minute-by-minute activities as they are happening. It's a great way to communicate what's going on and being said at an event as it unfolds. Live tweeting allows people at the event to really engage and those who aren't there to feel like they are.

Quite a bit of work goes into preparing for live tweeting. Here are a few tips to help you with your next live tweet experience:

Preparation

Create an event hashtag to help attendees and others track conversations and the event's activities. Do your research to be sure the hashtag you pick is not already being used! Then use the hashtag with every tweet, before, during and after the event. Use the hashtag on pre-event promotional materials and be sure to announce it at the event so people can follow along or post using it.

Pull together a list of the Twitter handles of all the key people associated with the event(speakers, presenters, journalists, influential attendees, etc.).  Save this list to a document that you can easily reference during the event.

Prepare tweets and branded visuals ahead of time. Based on your event schedule and planned content, create tweet drafts so that you aren't scrambling to create all your tweets from scratch during the event.

Make sure you have strong Wi-Fi access and a mobile hotspot to use as backup. Be sure your phone, laptop and all device are charged and bring your chargers.

Live-Tweeting

Provide a tweet narrative that keeps your audience interested in following the action!  Make your tweets concise. Each tweet should make sense out of context.  Focus on quotes, brief sound bites of information, calls for action, photos and videos.

Engage with people who are using your hashtag. Respond to their tweets and retweet them. Start conversations to enhance your event and to get other people interested. Tag the people in all the photos you post to bring even more attention to your tweets.

After the Event

Continue to monitor your hashtag. Days later, your audience could be posting images and feedback that you'll want to respond to or take note of!

What other ways has live tweeting enhanced your events?  Please share by commenting below!