A Beginner's Guide to Live-Tweeting

In an age where every business and individual owns a twitter profile, more and more networking is happening over the internet. A great way of utilising and expanding like-minded followers is by live-tweeting an event. Whether you are hosting an event or have signed up to attend one, Twitter is brilliant for getting people involved.
Last month, pop sensation, Robbie Williams, live-tweeted the birth of his second child with an unconventional collection of photographs and videos as well as textual messages. These tweets received bucket loads of engagement and secured Williams as a Twitter trend for hours afterwards.
Big brands like Apple promote their product launches exclusively on social media through the use of live-tweeting. Frequent updates allow those unable to attend the multi-million extravaganza to keep in the loop with what’s happening as if there themselves. Attendees are also able to communicate with each other and discuss any parts they’ve enjoyed or have particularly interested them.
Taking inspiration from these high flyers, in this article we’ll consider the best ways to prepare for live-tweeting an event and how to keep the momentum going well after it’s happened.

1. Promote the Event

It’s a common sense one really, if there’s going to be an event and you’re going to be there tweeting about it you should probably let people know.
If you’re hosting your own event, creating a hashtag that can be connected specifically to the company and what’s going to happen will widely promote it. It will also enable users to follow your exploits throughout the day, advertising the company as you go. It needs to be a short, memorable one that can be integrated seamlessly into any blog posts, emails, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ updates. By promoting your hashtag you will in turn promote the live-tweeting session and the event.

2. Prepare

Nearer the date of the event, tweet often about the fact that it’s happening and try to build hype about the day. The day before, remind your Twitter followers that you will be live-tweeting and give them a time so that they can keep an eye on their newsfeeds during the event. Also remember to push the use of your chosen hashtag so they can get involved with any ongoing conversations and make it easier to search for you.
Why not write and schedule tweets a few days in advance so that you’re extra organised? There are many social media schedulers available nowadays making it easier than ever to organise live-tweeting sessions. You won’t be able to pre-plan everything of course, but writing tweets that introduce the time that certain events happen in the day will save you from being glued to your iPhone.
On a more practical note, it’s vital that you remember to keep any device that you’re using – smart phone, tablet or laptop – fully charged with a back up if needed. Without an appropriate device to tweet from your live-tweeting is useless.

3. Think about Content

Like all social media posts, remember to be as engaging as entertaining as possible. Although the focus of this activity is to keep followers updated on what’s happening, don’t feel like you need to tweet every hour on the hour. Expect there to be more updates that day than on others but don’t go overboard. The more tweets you send the more likely you’ll look like spam.
Try to tweet consistently throughout the day but be wise with your choice. Before you post an update ask yourself, ‘Is this interesting?’ ‘Will my followers want to read this?’ Why not quote speakers, referring to something relevant, maybe even funny, that they’ve said during the day. Don’t forget to cite them directly, if they have their own Twitter profile tag them directly.
It’s not just textual tweets that attract interest in what you’re doing, remember that huge Oscars ‘selfie’ earlier this year? It was the most retweeted picture ever. You may not be Ellen Degeneres or Bradley Cooper, but posting a compelling image of a guest speaker or a huge plate of promotional cupcakes is more likely to receive ‘favourites’ and ‘retweets’ than an announcement about how great the food is.

4. Engage with Users

The success of a live-tweeting event is measured about the amount of engagement you receive throughout. Using your designated hashtag as a connection between your tweets and any others commenting on the event, you are able to communicate directly with other users.
Try to keep up to date with any conversations that develop due to your updates. Respond to any comments by tagging the user with their handle and ask them for their insights on the event. Ask questions in your tweets, try and get as many users involved as possible. Although it may seem like a waste of energy, taking the time to reply to someone’s interaction may mean that you get a few new followers and potential customers.

5. Follow up

So you’ve promoted your event, it’s been a successful day and you’ve engaged with a lot of like-minded people, but what do you do now? Don’t just leave it until the next event, follow up with your updates by thanking your followers and the hosts of the event for a great day. Giving necessary thanks to the speakers and commenters will give you lead to a great online reputation.
Why not compile the best of your tweets and user responses to use in a blog post? Describing the day’s events and reviewing the usefulness of the speakers will showcase how great it was and inadvertently promote the next one you plan to attend.

To Wrap Up…

Live-tweeting is a great way of keeping followers up to date with news and information from the industry as well as promoting any other events you intend to host or attend. Keeping your audience entertained with compelling sound bites, images, videos and textual messages will excite your followers and have them lining up for the next event!

Have you ever used live-tweeting? Why not share your thoughts below…?