[Build Backlinks Online] How to Live Tweet Like a Pro

Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'How to Live Tweet Like a Pro'


Posted by RuthBurr

Those of you who follow me on Twitter have probably noticed that I live-tweet
the conferences I go to. Extensively. Some people love it, some people hate it -
but if you want to start live-tweeting for yourself, here are some things to
keep in mind.

Why I Live Tweet

I started live tweeting events a couple of years ago, when I realized that I
was spending as much time and effort tweeting out the most relevant points of
the session I was in as I spent taking notes plus, the notes I took were less
relevant than my tweets, since I was only tweeting out the best parts!

Once I committed to live tweeting conferences, I got a lot of great, positive
feedback about it from other attendees, so I kept on going. Ive also gotten the
bulk of my followers through live tweeting; it can be a great way to build your
personal brand at conferences and get increased visibility with attendees and
speakers alike.Live tweeting doesnt just build your brand among attendees of the
conference, either. People who are trying to follow along at home via the
conference hash tag are often even bigger fans of quality live tweets.

There's a noticeable uptick in people who read my name badge and say oh, youre
Ruth Burr! at the end of a conference compared to the beginning (when they
usually just say "nice to meet you").


@ruthburr Cheers for all the tweets, they are better than my notes, and much
neater ;)
Kingsland Linassi (@kingslandlinass) March 15, 2013



A big thanks for @ruthburr for live tweeting at #LinkLoveAppreciate it! :)
Dennis Seymour (@denseymour) March 15, 2013


So that's nice.

Why You Might Not Want to Live Tweet

A few caveats before we get in to the nitty-gritty of quality live Twitter
coverage:

You will lose followers. When Im covering a conference, Im tweeting multiple
times per minute, all day. That can really blow up someones Twitter feed. I
usually encourage my followers to mute me or the conference hash tag if they
dont want to be inundated, but some people just choose to unfollow and some of
those people dont re-follow after the conference is over.

Here are my daily follow/unfollow numbers from the last 60 days, courtesy of
Followerwonk:



As you can see, I get the most new followers on days Im live tweeting, but I
get the most unfollows on those days as well. With the 31 followers I lost
during SearchFest, my 54 new followers starts to look a lot more like 23. I'm
still at a net gain of followers, but if youre not prepared to (permanently)
lose some followers (especially those who aren't in the search industry), live
tweeting may not be for you.

It takes a ton of energy. Conferences can already be really draining, between
the late nights, the "always on" networking conversations and the stress of
trying to still get some work done while youre there. Live tweeting takes a
surprising amount of energy: the bulk of your focus needs to be on the session,
not on the session + your work email + your slides for later in the day +
Facebook. Tweeting live also means that even if a session is really boring or
not at all useful to you, you cant take a nice relaxing mental break and zone
out or work on something more important.

You're reporting the news, not making it. That's something that can get lost in
translation through retweets and replies. Youre going to get clarifying
questions and dissenting opinions about things you didnt even say (or
necessarily agree with). No matter how many times you say I didnt say it, Duane
Forrester did. Id suggest asking him if you need more information, some people
are still going to get hung up on the idea that youre the one advocating a
particular position. It can get sticky.

You'll probably get rate limited. I usually end up unable to tweet for at least
an hour per conference, because the Twitter API has blocked me for tweeting too
many times in too short a period.

So! Caveats firmly in place, let's talk about:

How to Provide Value via Live Tweets


Provide as much context as you can. Take this tweet from SearchFest:

Agility: Kinect was for games 1st, ppl hacked it, MSFT provided an SDK for
ppl to build what they want @melcarson #searchfest
Ruth Burr (@ruthburr) February 22, 2013


Just adding the word Agility to the beginning of the tweet puts the entire
factoid into the context in which Mel was using it. This increases the ability
for the tweet to be read and understood outside of the context of other
conference tweets. Which brings me to:

Think about the retweet. Each piece of information you tweet needs to be able
to survive on its own, independent of the tweets that preceded or followed it.
When you get retweeted, the new audience viewing that tweet may not have seen
your other tweets on the topic: make sure that tweet will make sense to them,
too.

Numbers are gold. When someone cites a statistic in their talk, tweeting the
specific numbers they mention really increases the relevance of your tweet.

Sites that regularly post content w/video have 200-300% more new visitors
and 2x time on page - key signs of relevance @thetoddhartley #SMX
Ruth Burr (@ruthburr) March 12, 2013



Dont try to live tweet anecdotes. Speakers will often use illustrative
examples in their talks, whether theyre passing anecdotes or full-on case
studies. These can be extremely hard to live tweet. Remember to stick to the
rules above. Its OK to sum up a two-minute anecdote or case study into one or
two tweets that are focused on the point.

Capture as many URLs as you can. If someone includes a link on a slide, Ill
usually type that out first and then write the tweet context around it, in case
they change the slide before I can write it down (this is especially important
with bit.ly links). Want to go above and beyond? If someone mentions a great
article but doesnt include the link, Google the piece and provide the link
yourself. That way youre adding extra value with your tweets.

Give shout-outs. Any time someone mentions a tool, tweet that out. If you know
that companys Twitter handle, include them with an @ mention. Do the same for
people. People love hearing about new tools to use, and businesses and
individuals alike love hearing they got a shout-out in a presentation. Doing
this also gets you on the radar of people who might not even be following the
conference.

Watch the conference hash tag. In addition to tweeting out the session youre
attending, keep an eye on the tweets coming out of other sessions. When you see
a juicy, highly-retweetable tweet come out, retweet it! Now youre providing
information on other sessions, too. Speaking of which:

Use the conference hash tag and speaker handles. I usually end each conference
tweet with the speakers twitter handle and the conference hash tag. It helps
mitigate the I dont make the news, I just report it factor I mentioned earlier,
plus its important to give credit to where credits due. Most of the time Ill
just copy the speaker handle and hash tag from my first tweet and then paste
them at the end of each tweet (be careful there arent any typos when you copy,
though I spent half of Marty Weintraubs MozCon session accidentally tweeting
him as @aimcear instead of @aimclear).


One tool Ill often use for live-tweeting conferences is TweetChat. It allows
you to track just the tweets coming from one hash tag, and will automatically
add the tag to the end of every tweet you post from the tool.

Other than that, I dont use many tools for live tweeting Im usually just using
the Twitter app for Mac. I use keyboard shortcuts for new tweet and post tweet
to save a bit of time.

The last thing youll really need to be able to live tweet a full conference is
the ability to type very fast, with few mistakes, and without looking at your
hands or, necessarily, the screen. I dont have any good recommendations for
tools/programs to use to learn to type faster; I learned to type really fast by
getting in a lot of arguments with people over instant messenger in high school
and college, so you could try that. If anybody has any suggestions for programs
to hone your typing skills, Id love to see them in the comments!

Happy live tweeting everybody!
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