Helping event planners leverage Twitter effectively begins with imagining a convention hallway. At first, all the noise blends together. But the more skilled you become at picking out the right conversations to listen to, the more interesting and valuable the tool becomes. Many of the conversations will lead nowhere, but a handful might spark further conversations and business deals, perhaps even lifelong partnerships.
The more that you understand Twitter in this way as a natural, never-ending conversation connected with your event the more rapidly you will be able to put the tool on the mobile event app to good use, both to market the conference and help attendees connect more deeply.
Here are some key strategies you can employ when Twitter is installed in your mobile event app:
- Well before your event, announce an event hashtag, which is an abbreviation or word online that brands the event, starting with the pound sign. So World Economic Forum might be #WEF. This creates a channel that can be used by everyone on Twitter, regardless of whether they are attending, so they can tune into the public conversations about the conference.
- The hashtag also brands your event online not just during the conference but as a central channel for people to discuss topics related to the conference year-round. Prior to the conference, be sure to monitor the hashtag to be sure some other group is not using it regularly.
- A popular use for Twitter at conferences includes live tweeting of speaker quotes, statistics, and interesting points made during sessions and even asking questions for a panel or speakers. Live tweeting has become so popular that occasionally a break-out session will experience an influx of attendees half-way through, as those reading comments on the hashtag stream opt to abandon another session in favor of the one on Twitter that multiple people are tweeting about.
- Encourage speakers prior to the event to prepare tweet-bites into their presentations, specifically so people will be more inclined to tweet that material in the same way a candidate for office prepares key statistics and snappy one-liners that the media will use in their stories.
- This helps those points get amplified online, creating a viral impact to the sessions as audience members tweet out the most interesting snippets of sessions. The most interesting subject matter can be passed on or re-tweeted by followers of those in the audience. It is not uncommon for heavy users on Twitter to have tens of thousands of followers.
- With so much going on at the average conference it is critical to make tweeting easy to do, so the option is not ignored by attendees. Having the Twitter feed integrated into the mobile event app and prominently displayed keeps people looking at it and makes it simple to post updates, driving interest, attention, and engagement.
- Placing your event Twitter feed directly on the home page of the mobile event application also makes Twitter accessible to those who do not have an account, but will read what others say.
- The value of having attendees tweet is so valuable that some event planners have even offered rewards for those who tweet the most. Event organizers of the Green Meetings Industry Council 2011 (GMIC) decided to provide attendees with game-style incentives to use Twitter featured prominently in the mobile web application resulting in 3,000 tweets on the mobile event application from 200 attendees over the three-day conference.
- Perhaps most importantly, Twitter helps create a narrative storyline that attendees can connect with on the mobile event guides. It feels like everyone is taking part in one big conversation. This helps the audience bond with the event and one another, and can be particularly effective for the more introverted attendees who find it easier to make connections through Twitter or another online social tool, prior to meeting in person.