Do you use Twitter on occasion?
Do you attend business events?
Whether you are a participant, speaker, panelist, sponsor, reporter, listener, or demonstrator, this post is for you.
Mass e-mailing to announce the event you’ll be attending, reserving a booth, sponsorships, designing elegant posters, putting on your best suit, printing 1000+ business cards, setting up a demonstrator, etc… These are just a few of the costs that your business incurs. You’re in it for the long haul with one coveted goal in mind: gain visibility and win new clients.
Don’t wait for them to come to you
While most of us apply these tried and true methods, there is one way of getting your brand ou there in a clever, non sales-y way saving you $$ down the road. It’s called Live-tweeting, the true marketing haven. Live-tweeting is defined as posting on Twitter during an event in an ongoing way. This is not to say that you should save away and not display a physical presence, these are also important in the event marketing mix. But to optimize your return for the dollar, you should set aside resources for live-tweeting.
Live-tweeting – to be the eyes and ears of those who could not attend and who will thank you later
How to prepare for live-tweeting?
- Announce and blog a few weeks prior that you will be attending the event, the value you expect, how it fits within your vision and that you will be live-tweeting . With that comes call-to-action: inviting followers and customers to join and surveying them on their preferred topic of discussion.
- Designate someone from staff to be the live-tweeter. That person will unquestionably be in tune with your marketing strategy, at ease on social networks, have a good command of the language and show the ability to write both compelling and informative statements in less than 140 characters.
- Ask other staff members to engage with the live-tweeter. It can mean any or all of those things: retweeting (sharing), “favorit-ing”, replying to tweets. The more staff engages, the greater the visibility for your brand.
- Select the <#keyword> that will be appended to your tweets, one that best represents your business, and stick to it before-during-after! Make sure not to overpopulate your tweets with # as it will have an adverse (spammy) effect. Need inspiration for hashtags? Check out hashtags.org for those trending. Remember to add the conference tag, that way users will know you are attending the event and may request a meeting on site.
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Live-Tweeter in Action
- Letting attendees know that you’re psyched to be here: if you have a booth and will be demo-ing, tweet where to find you, if you’re presenting, tweet the topic and room number.
- Capturing key moments: do you see familiar faces, is there a special guest or a new product advertised? Tweet this! And ad on photos to create more engagement. Why not a short video to transcend the ambiance?
- Transcribing insight from speakers: this is the top reason for live-tweeting – to be the eyes and ears of those who could not attend and who will thank you later. Tweet the most ah-ha statements you believe your customers will need to hear. I could write an entire blog post on this one task alone. One important take-away, make sure you transcribe what is most clever and unique. We all know by now how important it is to put the customer at the heart of our strategy, tweeting this will not ad value to your message. But tweeting how the speaker actually went about it, may be insightful and a conversation-starter with your potential clients. You’ll be surprised at how your tweets generate engagement (retweets, favorites)!
This may seem overwhelming at first but practice makes perfect. I suggest starting out with an event that you can attend virtually such as LeWeb live broadcast. As you can see below, to the right, users tweet in, as they listen to Jeremiah Owyang’s presentation. You can also get inspired by what others are tweeting.
The event is over, now what?
This is where it gets interesting. The event stays online for days thanks to users engaging and is simple to follow the thread thanks to hashtags. Businesses use this thread as a way to continue the conversation and to link to more content such as an event review or slideshare presentation. The possibilities are endless to capture new opportunity and maintain a close relationship with your customers. For more insight, join me this fall at Infopresse where I’ll be live-demonstrating tips and tricks on how to harness the power of Twitter.
How has Live-tweeting helped you? We’d love to have you share your experience.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
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