Twitter – The Presenter’s New Best Bud – Part 3 – Engage Before Your Presentation

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Start the Conversation before You Present

I’m scheduled to speak at a breakout session on February 5th for the social media conference SoCon in Atlanta (more info at http://SoCon11.com).  I started tweeting about #SoCon11 on January 6^th, the same day I first saw my mug on the SoCon speakers’ web page and figured they couldn’t change their minds!

Other than being elated and honored to be asked to speak, why would I tweet about #SoCon11?  Consider this…

I myself have just over 400 followers on Twitter.  From January 6 to today, January 28th, I’ve been retweeted or had my tweet posted on a Twitter summary blog by 7 people – 5 of whom I know and 2 I don’t (thanks y’all!).  But get this… between those 7 people, they have 18,722 followers!  So let’s break down what I’m doing and why.

What to Tweet

What do you guess is the number one criticism of Twitter?  From my experience it’s been along the lines of, “Why would I want to know what you’re doing?  I could care less if you’re brushing your teeth!” So as I was preparing my tweets for SoCon, I didn’t want to be all – Look at me, I’m speaking at SoCon! A little of that may be OK.  I know some of my followers are super encouraging of my career and, dare I say, even fans of my speaking.  But there are plenty of other good (maybe better) things to tweet!

Show the Event Organizer Some Love

Because of my tweets, potentially 18,722 more people could have learned about SoCon.  Now, did all 18,722 people see the tweets?  Not a chance.  Did any of the tweets result in more people signing up for SoCon?  I have no way of knowing.  But do you think the event organizers appreciate getting more attention for their event?  You betcha!

All my tweets had the #SoCon11 hashtag and a link back to the conference website.  If anyone of those 18,722 were curious, they certainly had the information they needed to explore.

Provide Value

Most of my tweets were chunks of advice that I’ll discuss during my session at SoCon.  Why would I do that? Why would I give away what I have to say?

I know there are a lot of great breakout sessions going on during SoCon.  If the readers are interested in the subject matter and these chunks of information resonate with them, then perhaps they’ll be more likely to choose my session feeling confident that they will get great content by attending my session.  (And I won’t disappointment!)

Start a Conversation

Collectively, any audience is going to know more than any one speaker.  Tweeting questions ahead of time can be an excellent way to learn from others.  In one of my tweets, I mentioned that my favorite way to follow a conference was using http://TweetChat.com.  Then I asked, “What’s yours?”  That tweet got some attention, taught some people about a tool that they weren’t aware of and opened up the question to see if anyone had a better way.  As it turned out, I didn’t get a reply to the question part – so TweetChat remains my favorite!

Make New Friends and Keep the Old

In addition to planned tweets related to my appearance at the conference, I’ve been checking out other tweets with the #SoCon11 hashtag.  I’ve chatted via Twitter with friends who are going to SoCon and those who can’t make it this year, but plan to follow the Twitter stream.  I’ve provided a question to the person conducting the panel interview during the opening session.  I’ve retweeted messages from the event organizers.

As you follow people, as you engage in these conversations on line, you really do get to know them better, which makes seeing them in person all the more exciting.  It gives those considering the conference even more incentive to attend.  It’s great to feel connected.

But Wait There’s More!

So these are ways to start engaging with your audience even before you speak.  And we haven’t even gotten to the good stuff yet… using Twitter for audience interaction!  We’ll start talking about that in the next post!

Twitter – The Presenter’s New Best Bud – Part 2 – The Terminology

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Twitter Terminology

Did you ever feel like you’re the last person to know…something?  I do.  So when I know something before someone else, it always surprises me.

I was talking to my friend Marty, who, as far as I knew, had been active on Twitter longer than I had.  I asked Marty to help me with using Twitter for a presentation.  I mentioned what hashtag I’d be using, he said, “What’s a hashtag?”  I figured since I knew what a hashtag was, everyone must know!  So Marty learned a few things about Twitter and hashtags from me that day.

Since I’m not sure of your level of knowledge on Twitter, I thought I’d cover some of the basic Twitter terminology in this post so that the posts that follow will make more sense.  Because after all, there may be some of you out there who also feel like you’re always the last to know!

The Backchannel

The backchannel has been around long before Twitter.  The backchannel simply refers to the conversations that happen outside of a formal speaker talking to an audience.  So the conversation you have in the hallway between sessions, whispers to the person sitting next to you, blog posting after an event all fall into the category of a backchannel.  Twitter has become a new way to participate in a backchannel conversation.

Twitter & Tweet

Twitter is a free, on-line website where people can send messages to the world (or who ever happens to be “listening”) 140 characters at a time.  Why 140 characters at a time?  Because the creators of Twitter wanted to also be able to have these messages sent to mobile phones as text messages – and standard text messages are 140 characters long.  So using the Twitter website or your phone, you can send and receive these short messages, called tweets, whenever and however you’d like.

Following, Followers, Retweets

One of the ideas in Twitter is to listen to and participate in conversations about topics that interest you.  Say for instance, there is an individual in your industry who reads and writes great articles about your field.  If he’s on Twitter, he might tweet links to those articles.  Because you respect him and  you want to read what he reads, you would follow him and read the same material.  If you really like a particular article, you could repeat or retweet the article so that others could learn about the material as well.  Now say you tweet or retweet information about great articles – well, someone else might want to follow you and so they become your follower.  (If you’re new to Twitter, start by just listening and retweet the messages you think are cool or beneficial.)

Hashtag

Sometimes people are interested more in a subject area than in a particular person.  Hashtags allow us to find information about a particular topic or event within the world of Twitter.

A hashtag is simply the pound symbol # followed by a series of letters and/or numbers.  Twitter recognizes the # sign as being a special character and uses this specialness to link multiple tweets with the same hashtag.  It’s a shorthand to link people talking about the same topic. There is no such thing as reserving a hashtag.  Anyone who can type the # key can create a hashtag. (More on selecting a hashtag in the next blog post.)

At a conference or event, having a specially designated and publicized hashtag allows people to connect with others who are also attending or wish they could.  As a speaker, it allows you to keep track of what people are saying related to your session (more on that in a future blog post).

Twitter Stream

The Twitter stream is just the conversation that is happening around a particular hashtag.  As people are talking about a conference and they insert a hashtag, they become part of the Twitter stream.  Keeping track of the Twitter stream is very advantageous to event planners and to speakers.  Future posts on this blog will discuss how to make the most out of the Twitter stream.

Beyond the Terminology

Now that we have a common vocabulary, in future posts, I’ll discuss how to take advantage of the technology both for the benefit of the audience and for you as a speaker.

Twitter – The Presenter’s New Best Bud – Part 1 – The Journey Begins

The Speaking Practically Blog Has Moved!

Find the old posts and new posts at

http://SpeakingPractically.com !

When Twitter Was Scary

June 2008 – My First Discovery of the Twitter Challenge

June of 2008 was the first time I heard about the Mark Zuckerberg/Sarah Lacy keynote interview at SXSW of 2008.  What disturbed me most wasn’t that the interview went poorly.  I wasn’t there.  I didn’t have to sit through it.   What disturbed me most was the idea that people were tweeting about the keynote while the keynoters themselves were still on the stage… and those tweets impacted the proceedings.  One twitterer dared another to yell, “Zuck, you suck,” and he did!  This idea terrified me!  People are tweeting while speakers are presenting?  No good can possibly come from this!

So I did what I often do when something scares me.  I ignored it.

May 2009 – Reality Check in a Training Class

Fast forward to May 2009. I’m in a training class and Paul Terlemazian asked, “Would you hire a sales guy who didn’t know how to use email?  Well that’s what it’s going to be like with Twitter some day.”   This question hit me hard because of my early days in technology.

Flashback to 1996 – Using Email

In 1996, I left the Navy and went into the technology field.  Shortly before leaving the Navy, the command I was stationed at got its first ever email addresses – but only for the big bosses – the commanding officer and the executive officer.  Not that they bother to learn how to use email.  They delegated that task to the administrative staff.  But being in the technology field, I very quickly learned the joys of having my very own email address.

About a year after leaving the Navy, I got a call from one of those old bosses.  “Hey, Kelly – you went into the technology sector right?  What can you tell me about this email thing?”  That former boss was retiring from the Navy and pursuing a job as a sales person.  And in 1997, companies expected their sales guys to know how to use email.

So in 2009, when Paul asked, “Would you hire a sales guy who didn’t know how to use email,” I realized, that I was turning into my old boss.  I was resisting an unfamiliar technology.  So that night, I begrudgingly opened my Twitter account… then pretty much did nothing with it for the next 6 months.

November 2009 – Overcoming the Fear

As Thanksgiving 2009 approached, I decided I didn’t want that icky feeling in my stomach any more thinking about people tweeting while presenters are presenting.  So I decided I would study the topic and overcome my fears. I stumbled upon a free e-book about Twitter for presenters by Olivia Mitchell – How to present with Twitter (and other backchannels) and decided sometime over the Thanksgiving holiday, I’d read the e-book.  Finally, on the last day of Thanksgiving break, I read the e-book and it’s associated links.  Finally I saw that Twitter could actually be a speaker’s friend.  Based on Mitchell’s recommendation, I also read Cliff Atkinson’s book The Backchannel. In 2010, I started applying the techniques in the two books as well as learning from other related blog posts.

2010 – The Year Twitter Becomes this Speaker’s Best Bud

Now that I’ve had a year of twittering, both as an audience member and as a speaker, I thought I’d share what I’ve learned.  Over the next few posts, I’ll discuss my experiences in the hopes that you too can learn to make Twitter your new best friend.

More to Come to Make Twitter Your New Best Bud as a Presenter