In what is fast becoming a new and exciting occupational pursuit, Karalee Evans is representative of the new breed of conference attendees, the official Tweeter!
After seeing @karalee_’ s fine work at other events, we asked her if she would mind tweeting from the Social Media and Online Marketing Masterclass with David Meerman Scott. We find out a little bit more about the semi professional tweeter…
Q: What are the attributes of a good conference tweeter?
I think the key attribute of a good conference tweeter is the ability to listen to the content and translate that to 140 characters or less. And that is hard! For me, it is understanding that people following a tweet stream of a conference are more than likely not there physically at the conference. So grabbing key insights from the presenters which are further than just a slide presentation which people can usually access, and truncating this into valuable tweets is important. What people can’t access are the little comments and advice which presenters add to their presentations and this, as well as capturing audience participation from questions and answers, makes for a value-add conference tweet stream.
Q: And what makes for a great conference to tweet at?
A great conference to tweet at is an engaging conference where you feel compelled to share the pieces of pure insight-gold generously given to you by the presenters. Oh, and as simple as it seems, a conference which has easy and sustainable access to wireless internet. This might sound obvious, but I have been to conferences where the internet access has been limited and this doesn’t boad well for tweeting. So if you want people to share their experiences at your conference, ensure they can hook up to the internet (and have access to power points).
Q: What do you see is the benefits of conference tweeting?
Sharing content from a conference via tweeting has quite a few benefits for all parties.
The conference organisers: by having participants share their views and learnings from a conference and engaging via Twitter, you are essentially opening up your conference to a whole new audience who may be so engaged by what they are seeing from the tweets, that they attend the conference the next year or a future conference you are organising.
The presenters: again, why not encourage an extra layer of participant engagement with your presentations? You are most likely there presenting to share your insights and hope that people take something away and incorporate your thinking in the future, so the more people who are sharing what you are presenting to their networks via Twitter or other social media platforms, the more people are being exposed to your pieces of insight-gold. Or, if the feedback is not entirely positive, then take it on board and use it to tailor your presentations for the future. This mechanism can also be used as a real-time participation tool – why not incorporate the conference tweet stream in your presentation where you can answer audience questions as they’re posed?
The tweeter: by sharing content from conferences, you are essentially giving your followers a free pass to the conference. But this is not a bad thing for anyone. Twitter is re-positioning itself to ‘Share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world’ so utilising Twitter to contribute to the knowledge bank of your followers is good thing. But I would recommend you pre-warn your followers that you are tweeting from a conference or seminar and share the hashtag (e.g.. #SMOMMC) prior so that your followers can opt in or out before you start tweeting!
Q: What’s your best example of social media marketing in Australia?
You know what? I agree with Markus Hafner (@eskimo_sparky) who has said
“Without fail my favourite social media case study is always the next one; without it we simply aren’t learning.”
This is particularly pertinent with the continuously evolving nature of social media and as public relations practitioners become more savvy with all things social media, there will be more interesting and successful usages of social media for organisations.
Although, worth noting at the moment is @Optus and their use (albeit late to the game) of Twitter to engage with and assist customers. Their channel is clearly not a marketing account, which is important, but there to assist people with issues or to provide additional information. This, I think, is leveraging the best aspects of social media. Don’t push a product out, but build an engaged supporter base and provide information or support to compliment your existing marketing and customer services tactics. Social media is not going to save or replace current marketing or public relations strategies, it is simply an extension of your strategy tailored to the needs of the medium.
Q: And what’s your day gig when not tweeting?
My day job is currently the Communications and Partnerships Manager for headspace (National Youth Mental Health Foundation) and this keeps me very busy! But I love what I do and I love the fact that social media is one of my core functions, so I get to tweet for work and personal purposes as well as save the world with strategic communications for a NFP.
Thanks Karalee, we can’t wait to see your fine work. For those itching to give it ago, Champions at Federation Square will be wired up and ready to go, all tweeting welcome, just use the hashtag #SMOMMC. And if 140 charters of @karalee_ is not enough for you, you can find her here on her blog “Just another PR Blog”.
