How to use Twitter and other Social Media Tools to engage your audience
The World Wide Web is connecting people and things faster than ever. The use Twitter, Blogs, Social Media, Mobile Media has become part of main stream culture. You can leverage the power of your audience and new media to build exponential value into your existing efforts.
The Three Points of View for an Event
Audience
Speakers
Event Coordinators
Three Thoughts About Events
How Event Coordinators Can Make Their Job Easier
How Speakers/Presenters Can Make Their Job Easier
How The Audience Adds Value
Events 2.0
Events are much more interactive now. The trend for events is similar to the trend we see in how people use the Internet. Web 1.0 (Mostly one-way communication) to Web 2.0 (Very interactive with at least two-way communication). People are working together now, more than ever. The current economic conditions and busy lifestyles creates a condition that leads us to doing more with less. People are smart and will spend their time and money where they see the most value. Adding more value is key to success.
Social Media Tools
Twitter: “Just-In-Time” Communications
Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick rich text messages. Twitter messages are available through mobile devices, web services, and third party applications. http://twitter.com Conversations can be connected by the use of a hash tag.
ParaTweet: Engage audience and speakers
Paratweet Supports Speakers interacting with the audience through live or delayed Q&A and spreads user generated conference info. This tool supports filtering. http://www.paratweet.com/The view can be filtered by the event hash tag.
Twitterfall: A tool to help display questions/conversations on stage
Twitterfall is a way of viewing the latest ‘tweets’ of upcoming trends and custom searches on the micro-blogging site Twitter. Updates fall from the top of the page in near-real-time. http://twitterfall.com/ Views can be filtered by hash tags.
Free WordPress Blog: Blogging service for your online journal
You can get a blog started in less time than it takes you to read this sentence. All you need is an email address. You’ll get your own WordPress.com address (like you.wordpress.com), a selection of great free and customizable designs for your blog (we call them themes), 3 gigabytes of file storage (that’s about 2,500 pictures!) and many other great features. You can blog as much as you want for free, your blog can be public to the world or private for just your friends, and premium features are completely optional. http://wordpress.com/ Event related posts can include event hash tag in title & body so others can find the extra content by a simple search.
Google YouTube to share your event and presentation videos
Google YouTube allows people to easily upload and share video clips on www.YouTube.com and across the Internet through websites, mobile devices, blogs, and email. http://www.youtube.com Event related videos can include event hash tag in title & description so others can find the extra content by a simple search.
Google YouTube example: Service Oriented Architecture-SOA
Slideshare automatically converts your presentation into sharable content for social media
Upload and share your PowerPoint presentations and Word documents on SlideShare. Share publicly or privately. Add audio to make a webinar. http://www.slideshare.net Event related presentations can include event hash tag in title & description so others can find the extra content by a simple search.
Yahoo Flickr to share photos/videos of people, ideas, and information from your events
Event related photos/videos can include event hash tag in collection title, tag, & description so others can find the extra content by a simple search. http://www.flickr.com
Yahoo Flickr example from #ajaxworld 09 NY
How The Audience Adds Value
People are going to talk about the event and the speakers. Most of these conversations will take place on the web in the form of social media. The current trend of using Twitter and mobile devices during an event opens new opportunities. Giving the audience resources to use in these social media channels will benefit everyone. A simple resource could be a hash tag (a key word that identifies the event ex:#web30), more on this later. Additional resources could include content that people could simply copy and paste into their blogs, twitter posts, and other created media that adds value. Twitter offers the ReTweet function. Google YouTube, Slideshare, & Yahoo Flickr offer copy/paste code for bloggers. Most of these tools also have APIs that will support Mashups.
Resources on how to use Social Media for Events and Meetings
About Hash Tags
Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. They’re like tags on Flickr, only added in-line to your post. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag. http://twitter.pbworks.com/Hashtags
TweetGrid gives bloggers and web site owners the ability to include event related widgets in their pages: http://tweetgrid.com/
EventVue provides easy-to-use social networking tools that help your attendees get the most out of their networking experience at your event: http://www.eventvue.com/
Experiments with #hashtags
The hash tag for AJAXWORLD 2009 New York was #ajaxworld. This event spanned more than one day and had several sessions across multiple tracks. This event also happens annually. I would think the annual hash tag would be something like #ajaxworld09. This event also happens in multiple locations within one year. I would think the hash tag would now look something like #ajaxworld09NY.
Here is what we have so far:
#ajaxworld: What
#ajaxworld09: What When
#ajaxworld09NY: What When Where
I would think that this type of structure easier and I would still have space within my 140 characters to add value. That would be difficult if I had to include “#ajaxworld #2009 #NewYork #RIA #SOA #iPhoneDevSummit“.
Now we have “what”, “when”, and “where”, I am thinking about how to identify the tracks and sessions. Track 04 was dedicated to iPhone Developer Summit. Seems like the hash tag for that track at this event would be #ajaxworld09NY04. This hash tag would allow people to monitor the iPhone Developer Summit Track of AJAX WORLD during 2009 in New York. The hash tag could also be used to tag related resources for current or future review.
What about the session part of the event matrix?
I would think that session 05 of the iPhone Track on the second day would look like #ajaxworld09NY040502. This would identify the “iPhone Development in an Enterprise Environment” session that took place on the second day.
Ideal hash tag structure:
#{What}{When}{Where}{Topic}{Details}{Time} Most hash tag users seem to use a two digit number for the year, which makes me think about also using two digit numbers for Topic, Details, and Time. This type of structure will support an event with upto 99 Topics through 99 sessions across 99 days. Events that go beyond these limits would be broken up into multiple events.
Searching on #hashtags (This does not work on all services)
#ajaxworld: return everything about ajaxworld
#ajaxworld09: return everything about ajaxworld in 2009
#ajaxworld09NY: return everything about ajaxworld in 2009 New York
#ajaxworld09NY04: return everything about ajaxworld in 2009 New York related to the iPhone Dev Track
#ajaxworld09NY040502: return everything about ajaxworld in 2009 New York related to the iPhone Dev Track on iPhone/E 2.0
The current twitter tools seem to search for the hash tag followed by an empty space. A search in some services for #ajaxworld does not always return results that contain #ajaxworld09NY.
#Hashtag Thoughts
Using a hash tag for an event is a common practice. A standard that software developers could understand will help users take full advantage of the power that hash tags provide. A simple hash tag that identifies the event and its parts should support the ability for user filtering.
What are your thoughts about hash tags and their structure?
What do you think about using twitter and other social media tools during events?
Thoughts about this post
I hope more people will think about putting their content into shareable content objects and leverage the work of others.
We seem to spend a lot of time talking about adoption rates and ROI when working with organizations and people using Enterprise 2.0 tools. I have found countless sites with fancy charts and graphs along with endless text explaining the value of these technologies in the Enterprise. I have also helped many people in a wide age range with various backgrounds learn about and use Social Media. Enterprise 2.0 is different than Social Media, but people are the same when you relate to them in ways that transcends age and background. I have not met anyone that wants to do things the harder way. Life and work is easier when we have fluid communication and collaboration. Real relationships and understanding current culture will clear the path to transformation.
Today I was reading Peter Kim’s Blog and found this amazing book review presentation he created for “The Blue Sweater” Take a look.
I wanted to share some key points from Peter without the details because I want you to visit his site.
Have you ever found yourself in a check-out line reading those paper and magazine covers?
I try to fight the magnetic attraction of these short phrases, but how can I resist headlines like these:
10 days to a BETTER YOU
A Diet Plan That Works
Woman gives birth to Alien Baby
6 Secrets to improve Your Sex Life
These Tax Tips put Cash In Your Pocket
I was happy about the person in front of me demanding a “price check” while forcing expired coupons on the frustrated cashier. The magnetic attraction over powered me and I found myself reading all about the “Alien Baby”. I also purchased a magazine that included tips on 30 minute meals, Rachael Ray is awesome! This experience got me thinking.
Why Should I Care About Headlines In My Social Media Posts?
Connecting to your audience is important
Headlines are important
People are busy
Attention spans are getting shorter
Competition for attention is increasing every day. People and technology are getting better at filtering data. Do you want to be filtered? Connecting with your target audience will help prevent you from being filtered. I know my inbox, RSS reader, Twitter stream, and search results contain lots of important information, but some things get filtered out.
Do any of these social media posts from Twitter stand out?
Which post stood out to you? I liked “Things To Think About To Create A Successful Social Media Campaign“. I continued the conversation by reaching out and now I am connected and will continue building a deeper relationship with @mrktgeek. I found a lot of very interesting information about social media in her Twitter Stream and her tweets are very well written, which makes it easy for me to understand what her content is about. I like easy!
Building Relationships With Effective Communications
Twitter Fans To Twitter Followers
Take a look at this Twitter Stream from a writer that knows how to communicate with his target audience. Do you see a difference in the writing style? Do any of these posts stand out?
Which post stood out to you? All of them stood out to me. These tweets are from Pete Cashmore (Mashable), he has over 600,000 followers. These tweets are some of the most retweeted tweets on Twitter. A “retweet” is the action of other people sharing your tweets on twitter. I recommend following these tweets at @mashable Do you think you could benefit from having a million or so people helping you with your ideas?
How are these Social Media Posts Different?
Well formed and to the point
Magnetic Attraction
Uses question style well
Uses announcement style well
Great use of trigger words
Crafting A Headline For A Social Media Post
I am not a great writer, but I wanted to share some information from a very intelligent person that I believe my target audience would find very interesting. I carefully chose the right words to create a headline for my target audience and submitted a quick post to Twitter. The target article received over 90 extra views in the matter of a few minutes. You can review the article for yourself at http://bit.ly/ukZLt
5 + 2 Tips On How To Improve Your Social Media Post
Think about your target audience
Create a strong headline
Include reader trigger words in headline
Read your headline out-loud
Update your headline
Communicate directly to your reader in your headline
Create a relationship early in your copy
What is your advice for improving social media posts?
What is your best tip for creating an effective headline?
Please share your tips in the comment section here.
The United States Air Force Raises the Social Media Bar
Happy Fav Five Friday!
All I can say is WOW! I am really glad you are here. I seem to jump all over the place with Enterprise 2.0, Social Media, and Government 2.0. I try to include a little something for our wide audience of web strategist, developers, designers, government followers, and social media folks. In a previous post we covered some points on the difference between Enterprise 2.0 and Social Media. Today I would like to share some amazing things our government agencies and warfighters are doing with Social Media. Read the rest of this entry »
Hello, I am really glad to see you here today. I wanted to share something from my heart that has stirred my soul.
We seem to spend a lot of time talking about adoption rates and ROI when working with organizations and people using Enterprise 2.0 tools. I have found countless sites with fancy charts and graphs along with endless text explaining the value of these technologies in the Enterprise. I have also helped many people in a wide age range with various backgrounds learn about and use Social Media. Enterprise 2.0 is different than Social Media, but people are the same when you relate to them in ways that transcends age and background. I have not met anyone that wants to do things the harder way. Life and work is easier when we have fluid communication and collaboration. Real relationships and understanding current culture will clear the path to transformation.
