How to Live Tweet an Event With Purpose!

As Chicago’s Social Media Week came to a close, I was reminded that many people and organizations aren’t utilizing such events to their social advantage. I wanted to share some of the tips and tricks I use personally and professionally when live-tweeting events. Live-tweeting is a great way to network with like-minded individuals and also to leverage your brand (whether that be personal or business!).

BEFORE THE EVENT:

1. Do your research.
Just as you plan your hotel and travel accommodations, you should plan your social strategy! Ask yourself, who is hosting this event? Who will be speaking and sharing their expertise? Who will be attending? Find these people on Twitter and create lists! These can be temporary and private if you wish, but this will help organize your mind throughout the event. 

Make a list specifically of those who will be presenting and then make a list of those whom you wish to network with as well. A great way to find these people is to follow the event hashtag for at least a week before the event and see who is conversing. Connect with people before the event actually occurs and plan on meeting while you’re there! That leads to my next point…

2. Find or create the hashtag.
Assuming this event is not created by you, there will more than likely be an already established hashtag. Find it and FOLLOW it!  Set up a search column in Hootsuite of the designated hashtag so you have easy access to the conversation before the event actually occurs. If this an event that you are hosting, the hashtag duty will fall under your responsibility.

Be sure the hashtag you create is short, concise and to the point. You want this to be something that people can easily follow and spell. Make sure it makes sense! #SMWChicago is a perfect example of this. For those of you that are hosting, I also recommend asking for attendee Twitter handles the day of the event as part of the sign-in process. Have attendees write their Twitter handle on their name tags so that people have a way to connect during the event.

3. Make the announcement!
Let your fans/friends know what your plans are and let them know how they can receive updates from you. Let everyone know what the hashtag and what the conversation will be about so even those that cannot make it can stay up-to-date!

DAY OF THE EVENT:

1. Give fair warning.
Proper Twitter etiquette is to let your followers know that you will live-tweeting an event and to expect a lot of content from you in a short amount of time. This gives people the chance to ignore the conversation and helps prevent complete annoyance and stream overload.

2. Come prepared.
The absolute worst thing is to forget the essentials. Be sure to have a fully charged phone/computer and bring your charger in case you need some extra juice! Double check that you have the wifi login so that you don’t get stuck without it when you’re there and ready to get your tweet on!

3. Use tools to help follow the conversation.
When following a specific hashtag, the conversations can happen fast. If you’re on a computer, hook up TweetChat to your account. This helps to follow the conversations without much delay and it automatically adds the hashtag to the end of your tweets so you don’t have to. Convenient!! If you’re on mobile, download the Hootsuite app and making the event hashtag a column so that it’s easy to follow and track!

DURING THE EVENT:

1. Check in!
Okay so this isn’t necessary, but I like checking into Foursquare when I’m attending an event or conference. I like to see who else is there and I like to give a shout out to the venue! I think it’s good karma and another great way to make connections.

2. Provide thoughtful and purposeful content.
This is where many get it wrong and I see it a lot. (Yes, even at Social Media Week!) Just because you want to continuously tweet and provide information does not mean you should. Each tweet should come with purpose. For example, a tweet such as “Social media is so popular and businesses should use it!! #SMWChicago” is not going to get you anywhere. Ask yourself, “Am I providing my followers with useful information? Would I want to read this from someone else?” Cluttering up your newsfeed with useless information will just make people lose interest. And don’t forget photos!

3. Quote speakers.
If a presentation is interesting and you feel that the content is useful to share, then share it!! Be sure to give credit where it is due. Not only does this help others follow the conversation better, but it also allows you to create a connection with that speaker. This gives the speaker a chance to go back later and see that you were recognizing them. Check out some of the live tweeting I did below at our founder and president Mana’s presentation at Social Media Week.

4. Conversate!
Talk with others that are there! (Remember if you start the tweet with “@TWITTERHANDLE” the tweet will not come up in your follower’s feed, so don’t worry about overcrowding your feed! Follow the conversations and see what others are talking about. RT the tweets that you find the most interesting- preferably with some text of your own. Be sure to keep an eye out on your feeds and see who’s RT-ing and responding to you! Keep the conversation going. More than likely you’ll see people follow you throughout the event so be sure to share the love and follow back!

Check out how Tim McDonald responded to a post during Social Media Week. Instead of just hitting the RT button, he gave feedback and added his input. Create conversations!

5. Track your favorites.
Be sure to star your favorite tweets throughout the event/conference. You can use these later to create a Storify to summarize the event later. Check out ifttt– this tool helps you to create “recipes” to make social conversions easier. More on Storify in the next section!

AFTER THE EVENT:

1. Give shout outs.
Thank those who you conversed with the most. Thank those who did some major RT-ing of your posts and the speakers that gave you valuable information. Also take some time to again go through and follow those that you connected with! If you’re hosting, do some shout-outs to those who tweeted the most and gave great content during the event. One other suggestion is to compose a few #FF posts to schedule out the following Friday to some of the inspirational people you met. This continues the conversation even after the event!

2.  Summarize.
One of my favorite online tools is Storify. This is a great and easy way to summarize a social event. Remember how I told you to star your favorite tweets? This is where that comes in handy! You can easily pull your favorite tweets with your comments into a single area and publish it onto your blog. Storify allows you to easily notify those that are mentioned as well which again, continues conversation! This is a great way to highlight those that provided great content. Below is an example that Mana created from my “Gaga Experience.”

Long post, I know- but I hope this helps anyone who will be live-tweeting in the future! Please add tips of your own below!