It pays to live tweet at an event. People who attended the MTN Business South Africa‘s digital entrepreneur masterclass literally saw how the best tweeters of the day got rewarded. The winners got prizes from the day’s sponsors.
Some of the tweets were direct quotes of the day’s speakers, while others posed questions relating to the topics.
As a journalist I learnt the importance of live tweeting a few years ago. At my previous job, Die Son in Port Elizabeth we even got paid airtime if we were great tweeters for a month. That was a great incentive for me – especially since I have family who lives in Cape Town that I had wanted to call. [I owned a Blackberry, I never bought airtime, only data 🙂 Ja, I’m a cheapskate.]
Reasons for live tweeting an event:
— Most people (especially those who love checking their social media platforms like Twitter for news) suffer from Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO).
— Your publication or business gets airplay, meaning their news gets seen by many people and if it’s great content, you get retweets.
— If you continuously share good content, you become a trustworthy source.
— Lastly, YOU GET MORE FOLLOWERS if you share good content.
So what do you tweet, especially if you’re at a live event?
Live tweets are especially great if you are at an industry-related event. Before you tweet, ask the organisers if they have a hashtag [#] for the event. Also find out what their Twitter handle is so that you can tag them. These organisers can then retweet any of your tweets if they’re good.
The Hubspot says that researching before an event is very important. You can create templates before the event and use it to promote the event beforehand – and while the occasion is taking place.
Tweet what you hear or see: Any interesting quotes of speakers will do.
Images and videos work well too. I sometimes take images of people attending the event, especially the speakers.
Try to be personal too: Ask questions relating to the topic discussed. You can also tweet your feelings about being at the event – being positive is key!
Regularly check your notifications to see if any tweeps send you questions about the event. Even if someone asks you where is the event or what is the agenda, try to answer – the more exposure the better.
Be engaging: look at what other attendees are tweeting. If anyone tweets something nice, retweet them. Also try to make a conversation with them.
My number 1 journalism advice: when in doubt, leave it out. This means that if you are unsure of any information, for instance you are not sure if the statistics mentioned at the event is correct, DO NOT TWEET IT.
I hope you found this informative. The above is my perspective. I wrote it as part of Sam Posselt‘s 7-Day #rsabizblogs Challenge. Sam is co-founder is the blogger and business network, SA Biz Chat.
To find out how to use Twitter, read more here.
If there is anything relating to Twitter or tweets you would like to teach me, please, you’re welcome to. Thank you for reading.
Thanks Mel. It took me a while to get used to people looking down at their phones during events. It bugged me for two reasons – being a massage therapist, I could see them developing text neck and also I thought they were disrespectful. But I soon realised that at least for me, both observations were actually business-building gold. Developing text neck might be bring me another client 🙂 and also the tweeting-for-marketing-thing was definitely worth doing. Your post has given me more valuable ideas. Thanks.
Yessssss! I am so happy that you got ideas out of this post. Good luck on implementing them.
And I also don’t like it when people are on their phones the whole time – it’s rude. I try to look people in the eyes when I am talking to them. Unless I am busy interviewing that person, then I sometimes look up from my notebook. Thanks for reading.
Great tips! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I am so happy you enjoyed it.