White paper - Using Twitter for events
What is Twitter?
Twitter is a way of communicating online in short, bite sized messages. These messages are known as ‘tweets’. Tweets can be up to 140 characters long. They’re kept short so that people reading them can scan through them quickly.
It works by allowing you to follow the updates of people or organisations you’re interested in hearing about. When you follow someone on Twitter, you’ll be able to see their updates whenever you log in, via a web browser or on your mobile phone.
What you end up with is an easy to read feed of what everyone you’re interested is up to or thinking about. And unlike email, you don’t have to manage that feed. If you don’t get around to reading it, it’s no big deal.
The best description I’ve read of Twitter for business is this. “It’s a virtual office water cooler”. In other words, it’s just like having those water cooler chats which may or may not result in something useful or interesting being said. Either way, it keeps communication flowing.
So what’s the fuss about with Twitter?
Other forms of communication, like emails and phone calls, are used to communicate information you know the recipient will be interested in. But what about the information that you think people you know might be interested in? This is the need that Twitter addresses.
For example;
- If you were going to Moscow for a few days and you wondered if any of your friends had been there and had some tips, you could ask them on Twitter. You probably wouldn’t use email to do this, as a question like that is too speculative to warrant an email.
- If you were going to an event, you might like to let your industry contacts know that you’re going. Then if they’re going too, you can hook up.
How does Twitter help with events?
Events are basically communities that meet in the same place at the same time. Twitter is great for helping community members communicate amongst themselves, and for making announcements.
Typical uses that the event organiser can take advantage of include;
- Announcing speakers and new agenda items
- Allow the CEO to communicate on a more personal level with their targeted audience
- Announcing last minute news, e.g. travel updates
- Encouraging pre-event feedback, e.g. “what would you like to hear about at the event?”
- Showing the event’s Twitter feed on the registration web site creates a ‘buzz’ around the event. Delegates can see real time updates about the event, including those from other delegates. As the event draws nearer, naturally there will be more tweets and therefore more buzz!
- At the event itself, presenters can ask delegates to interact with speakers in real time by posting their thoughts on Twitter using their laptops or mobile phones. This is a great way to get questions feedback and address them at the event itself. It needs some moderation to work effectively. The advantage is that you generally don’t have to issue any special hardware to the audience.
- Twitter can also allow the conversation to continue after the event. This usually takes the form of discussing topics that were brought up in the presentations, and provides a good feel for whether key messages got through and were received well.
Typical uses that delegates can take advantage of include;
- Getting their thoughts on key topics in front of the organiser, speakers and other delegates
- Finding out which of their contacts are going to the event and arranging to meet up
- Organising car shares
- Sharing information other delegates might find useful. E.g. traffic they’ve heard about, recommend places to stay or eat nearby
- Exhibitors may use their Twitter feed to encourage their contacts to attend the event
How to use Twitter effectively for your event
1. Create an account.
This is free and takes two minutes to set up at twitter.com.
We suggest choosing a name that describes the event, is easy to remember, and is short. Remember, the name you choose will take up some of the 140 characters people are allowed to use in each tweet, so make it too long and it’s restrictive to them. Use an acronym if you need to.
2. Choose a hashtag to use in your tweets.
A hashtag is like a flag that people can look for so they can find every tweet related to your event easily. It starts with a hash character, and could be multiple words but without spaces.
Again, it needs to be short. For instance, there’s an event in the US called South by South West – the hashtag is #SXSW. People talking about this event on Twitter have got into the habit of including #SXSW in their tweets, so it’s easy to find what people are saying about that event.
3. Embed your Twitter feed in your web site.
Of course people can go to Twitter.com to see your feed, but if they’re visiting a site you’ve had built, why not save them the trip? If you’re using Dataflow Events to build your event web site, we’d be more than happy to embed your feed in your site for you.
4. Start tweeting.
It sounds obvious, but it’s surprising how many people think just by having a Twitter account things will just start to happen. They won’t. You need to start using the account yourself to encourage people to follow it and interact with it.
The best way to do this is to show people that there’s some useful or interesting information to be had by following the event on Twitter. This should include information you wouldn’t normally publish on the site. Good examples would include:
“We’ve just spoken to the Hilton Metropole. Just a few rooms remaining on Tuesday – be quick if you need somewhere to stay!”
“The CEO is putting together the keynote speech at the moment. Some interesting info in there on expansion plans.”
“@BillButler has offered a ride to anyone coming to the event from near Croydon on Monday. Contact him directly if interested. Thanks Bill!”
“For the eco-conscious, you may be interested to know we’ve reduced printed materials at this year’s event by 40%. suggestions welcome!”
Tip: If you’re more familiar with the Facebook interface, you can set up a Facebook account for your event and feed Facebook status updates automatically into Twitter.
When should you NOT use Twitter for events?
Twitter tends to have more benefits for larger events, so conversely it’s less useful for smaller audiences. Remember that only some of the audience is going to be familiar with it, and only a percentage of them will actually follow the event on Twitter. So if you’re organising an event for a hundred people, take a view on it.
It also helps if your audience is a bit tech-savvy. Without wishing to make too broad a generalisation, I wouldn’t recommend using Twitter if addressing the grey market, and would probably question whether it would get heavily used if the target audience is composed of shop floor workers.
I don’t think you necessarily need your audience to be familiar with Twitter already. They’ll get useful information just from reading your feed on your web site. They may also discover Twitter via your feed.
Related Resources
Video – What is Twitter (in plain English)
5 Ways to Use Twitter During a Presentation
How to Present While People are Twittering
Should You Display the Live Twitter Stream on the Big Screen?
Twitter and hashtags at conferences - organiser-user viewpoint
Paratweet - utility to moderate tweets using your hashtag before they appear on the big screen!
Twitterfall - visually attractive utility for displaying real time tweets relating to your event. Great for projecting between presentations.
VisibleTweets.com - another beautifully animated tool for displaying real-time tweets on the projector (this link demonstrates it using a popular event hashtag, #SXSW).
Author notes
Nick Thompson is Director of Event Services at Dataflow Events. Based in London, Dataflow Events provide technology solutions for conference and exhibition organisers. Services include development of online registration websites,delegate management, delegate badge production and onsite attendance tracking. For more information see www.dataflowevents.co.uk
