Learn the Art of Live Tweeting

Do you want to show to your followers how you’re staying abreast of the most recent developments in your field? Do you want to interact with others at an event you’re attending real time? If so, live tweeting may be something you want to try. Live tweeting is when you tweet throughout an event or conference providing commentary on speakers, sound bites, and also interact with other attendees or people following the event online. Below are the tips Corner Alliance keeps in mind when we, or one of our clients, will be live tweeting an event.

Before the Event

1. Set your goal for this live tweet. It may seem silly, but knowing the purpose behind why you are tweeting an event is important. Are you tweeting to impress your stakeholders with your analysis of the event? Are you mainly trying to gain traction with fellow attendees or participants? These two purposes will change what you choose to focus on in your tweeting. Think about your purpose and create a metric for how you will measure achieving that goal. Maybe you want to gain a certain number of followers or attain a certain number of retweets.

2. Research. Before the event look up any relevant hashtags that might be used. It will be important to use this hashtag in order to be a part of the conversation with other attendees. Keep in mind that sometimes other hashtags pop up the day of, or attendees may use different versions of the hashtag. You will want to check for these as well. Also research Twitter handles for any speakers who you might want to connect with on the day. Once you have completed your research you can draft some early versions of tweets you will send out. It also may be a good idea to anticipate what will or might occur at the event so you can collect related pictures or video that can easily be attached to tweets on the day of.

3. Pre-tweet. Let people know you will be at the event and intend to be tweeting updates throughout it. Try to get the conversation started early and be one of the first accounts people turn to when wanting an insight on the latest speaker or presentation.

During the Event

1. Make sure you’re logged into the correct account! The first thing you should do if you have access to multiple accounts on your device is make sure you are logged into the correct account. If you should be tweeting from a company account rather than your personal one, you do not want to find out all the day’s tweets came from your personal account.

2. Follow the hashtag. Throughout the event, search the hashtag to see what others are saying. Make it a point to retweet or interact with your key influencers or stakeholders. Reply to tweets you agree with and create a dialogue with those who may have a different viewpoint. Remember to put a period before a handle when replying to a tweet so that all your followers can see the interaction.

3. What to tweet. So you’re at the event; what do you want to say? If you’re at a loss for what to tweet, good fallbacks include quotes from speakers as well as key points or takeaways from a presentation. Is there anything going on in the crowd or on stage? Take a picture and send it out using the hashtag. Or maybe there’s a certain exhibit that you think everyone should check out. Tweet out where it is and why it’s important.

Remember: Bring your phone or computer fully charged as well as an extra portable charger. You don’t want your device dying midway through the event.

After the Event

1. Send a thank you. Who says the Internet has killed manners? After the event make it a point to send a thank you tweet to all those who were a part of your conversation. Live tweeting doesn’t mean anything if you aren’t interacting with your peers or stakeholders, so show them how much you appreciated their participation.

2. Assess your tweets. Read through what you sent out. What was favorite, and what fell flat? Did certain tweets catch a lot of attention and prompt more interaction than others? Did you meet the metrics you set out for before the event? Take stock of all this and incorporate your best practices based on your audience.

What other best practices do you follow when live tweeting?

Chelsea Matzen is an operations associate at Corner Alliance.