by kate.oxton@silverbear.co.uk
12. May 2011 00:42
Share this: Twitter to communicate effectively with their delegates.
In the first of our Twitter and events blog posts we introduced how event managers can start to use
In part 2 we are going to look at #Hashtags in Twitter, how to generate a quality network and what you should be tweeting about.
#Hashtags
Hashtags are used to mark keywords or topics in a tweet. Hashtags were originally created by users of Twitter as a way to categorise messages. When you create a hashtag for an event you should create one that matches the event in question. A good tip is to try and keep the hasthtag to a minimum number of characters as possible so as not to take up valuable space in the 140 character limit of tweets. You now need to let your delegates know about the hashtag and promote it to all stakeholders involved in the event, encourage them to use the hashtag when anyone is tweeting about the event and to monitor any updates on the event. This way both thte event organisers and delegates can monitor what is being said and answer any questions and respond to any comments.
Generating a High Quality Network
Ensure you add your Twitter username to all relevant marketing communications. Include it in the event collateral, emails and direct mail. It is key to start building your followers and the owner of the account should then start to follow the relevant Twitter users such as:
- Delegates
- Suppliers
- Speakrs
- Prospect Delegates
- Those in the local community
- Those from relevant industries
It is important that the account generates a high quality network, the quality of your followers is more important than the quantity of your followers. Ensure that you continue to update your Twitter account with interesting and relevant information on the event and try not to leave the acount inactive. You should work towards ensuring your network consists of relevant, high quality users; those in your industry and those who can help promote your event further.
What should you tweet about?
This is a toughie, planning your tweets can be a pretty daunting task. It is vital tht you come across as useful, engaging, helpful and interesting. If you are constantly promoting your own agenda this does not tend to do well on Twitter. Therefore the goal is to share information, provide advice and help to others and to become a trusted platform for those in your industry. But this still doesn't answer what you should be tweeting about, my suggestion would be things like:
- Event announcements - new speakers, new key delegates, sponsors etc
- Updates - Changes to agenda, location, registration process etc
- Answer Questions - people might ask questions about the event - the speakers, presentation items, logistics
- Ask Questions - Ask your network of follower's questions that can help improve the event, engage with your followers, what do they hope to achieve from the event, what presentations are they looking forward to, what do they think can be improved?
- Retweet (RT) - This is where you RT another users tweet, such as positive feedback regarding the event that you'd like to share, tweets from suppliers or sponsors talking about the event, industry news, anything you deem as worth sharing to your followers
- Links to useful content - If you come across an article online that is relevant to your event or industry you can tweet a link to the relevant web page.
In part 3 of our Twitter and events blog post we wil be covering Managing your Twitter account and responding to negative tweets. If you would like more information on Improving your events using Twitter then please download our Whitepaper, "The Benefits of Twitter to the Event Management Industry" or if you would like to talk to one of our team about your event software requirements then please contact us
Subscribe