Internet Archives - Greenroom Agency

In this day and age, businesses want to be part of relevant conversations that help create awareness, drive traffic and build a community where engagement between a brand and its audience is celebrated and meaningful. So it’s no surprise that live-tweeting has become a focal point of many brands that try engaging relevant audiences by participating in conversations around live events as they happen.

But what exactly is live-tweeting and how does it differ from common/day-to-day tweeting? It’s actually pretty simple, and is the act of tweeting around a live event as it happens.

There isn’t a single correct way to live-tweet; at its core, live-tweeting is supposed to be organic, conversational and in real-time but there are tips that will help facilitate live-tweeting as a company.

Use the correct hashtag in the conversation. Many live events broadcasted by major channels create a hashtag specifically for the event. Make sure you are reaching the right groups of people by using these hashtags. If there is more than one hashtag you can use them, but don’t go hashtag crazy and use a different hashtag for every tweet you put out. If you’re hosting the live-tweet, make sure you let your followers know ahead of time the hashtag you will be using to facilitate the conversation so they know what hashtag they should be using.
Tag the people and companies that are relevant to the event in your tweets when you mention them. Who knows, you might get a retweet, mention or follow from that person. Remember, live-tweeting is all about engagement!
Don’t go to Twitter jail. There is such a thing as being locked out of Twitter for over-tweeting. The rules of not landing in Twitter jail are: don’t go over 100 tweets an hour (this includes retweets), 1,000 tweets a day or more than 250 Direct Messages a day. Over-tweeting can also overwhelm your followers. If you find yourself locked up with the blue bird, it can take an hour or more before you can tweet again. Time is everything during live events, so be mindful of how often you are tweeting so you don’t miss out on the conversation.
Engage, engage, engage. The real magic of live-tweeting is that it allows you to connect with people who might share a similar interest, so make sure you monitor the hashtag you are live-tweeting about and start relevant conversations with others around the topic being discussed.
Track your conversations. Using social measurement tools (like Co-Tweet or Bit.ly) help you keep track of any relevant hashtags and also keep track of click-throughs to any links you might have tweeted during the event.

Live-tweeting is a great way for brands to connect with consumers and if done right can be a great way to get new followers, and expose your brand to new customers. Remember to have fun, put some thought into your tweets and interact with people having the same discussion to get the most out of your live-tweets!

Net-neutrality has become the buzzword in the realm of Internet service, both in the public and private sectors. On January 14, 2014 the FCC ruled to decline the position for net-neutrality. Because of this ruling, and for clarification purposes, cable and Internet providers now have the legal right to block a series of websites, applications (or apps), blogs, videos or cloud technology services. What this means for the average Internet user is, your Internet or cable provider has the legal right to determine if they want you to read this article, even further, to give priority access to content of contract services that pay a higher toll for faster and/or uninterrupted access.

This is not the first hack at net-neutrality. During the George W. Bush administration in 2002, the FCC made a decision to classify broadband services (i.e. the Internet) as an “information service”. However, there is a long-standing legal term called “common carrier”. Common carriers are organizations or companies that provide access to a communication media, such as a telephone system or Internet service provider. These common carriers exercise no control over the content that they provide. When applied to the Internet structure, this means that all traffic must be treated equally. Why is this important? Because, when the FCC classified broadband as information services it, in turn, made them exempt from these common carrier requirements.

Internet freedom, or what we would like to call, one of our Internet Amendments, is one of the basic rights allowed to us as subscribers of Internet technology. The ruling negatively affects the everyday lives of businesses and Americans and will alter the free state of the Internet. Since its inception, the open nature of the Internet has been a founding element of the technology, in that the user has every right of access and accessibility that founded the communication medium. This FCC ruling will adversely affect these rights and accordingly the rights of free speech.

It is unclear what the exact short term and long term ramifications of the net-neutrality ruling will have on businesses, but what is clear is that most businesses will at some point feel the impact of this ruling in the immediate future.

We’d love to hear your thoughts. Should service providers be forced to pay a higher premium for better bandwidth and selection of content? Does the FCC ruling affect you or a service you provide consumers?