Mastering the Art of Live-Tweeting During Events

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.

  1.  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.
  2. 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!
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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!