Introducing Twitter as an Effective Communication Platform

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As an event manager communication is key - you need to communicate prior the event, during the event and after the event. Maintaining that high level of communication is tough for event managers and trying to update your delegates via different mediums such as; website, email, post and telephone takes time and some of the less important updates are not communicated because of the difficulty in managing and updating these mediums. It is imperative that all delegates and those involved with events want to know accurate information and any updates on the event as soon as they happen no matter what communication medium they prefer.

A big concern for an event manager is that a delegate has missed something important due to lack of communication updates and in this day and age delegates are expecting more and more from their events. People and businesses want to be more actively engaged and network with peers and this is the same for the events world, it is no longer enough to come and listen to speakers, delegates want to have the ability to ask questions and comment on presentations as they are being presented.  So how do you, as an event manager, manage, control and encourage the active engagement between delegates in the run up to, during and post the event? Twitter!

BUT how can you use Twitter as an effective communication platform? The first step is to decide what kind of Twitter account to open, if you are organising a large event that runs regularly then it would be best to open an account dedicated to this event. If you are an event company that hosts lots of smaller events, a general corporate account might be better. You would need to brand inline with the event or the event company – a logo or icon should be used as a profile image and a succinct bio should be added. Make sure that the person managing the account understands the medium as if it is neglected or deployed badly, you could come under some negative criticism.

 To ensure effective communication with your delegates, your Twitter campaign needs to commence simultaneously with the initial marketing. If there is a dedicated micro site for the event or page on your website, you need to include the Twitter username and a link to the account.

Over this series of blog posts I will be covering #hashtags, generating a high quality network and what to tweet about. Or if you would like to learn more about events and twitter please download our whitepaper: “Improving communication before, during and after events with Twitter”  or if you would like a demonstration of our event management solution, evocos, then please contact us and request your free demo.