In the last two weeks, I’ve live tweeted at two different events. One was a public relations seminar, where I was one of several people in the audience live tweeting. The other was a charity event where I was the only one tweeting, and I was doing it under the auspices of the organization that was holding the event. I realized afterward that there were several things I could have done to make the live tweeting a little easier on myself and a little better for anyone following me.
So with that in mind, and also keeping in mind what went right, here are a three tips for better live tweeting.
1. Be prepared with hardware and software back-ups in case something goes wrong. In my case I had a laptop with a wireless broadband card, plus multiple browsers and a desktop Twitter client (Tweetdeck) all ready to go. In addition, I had my Blackberry, which has two Twitter clients (TwitterBerry and UberTwitter) on it. As it turns out, there were no problems with hardware, software or Internet access, but if there had been I was prepared.
2. Research speakers ahead of time. Have their names close at hand (so you can spell them correctly), and find out if they have Twitter handles, blogs or websites you may want to reference.
3. If you’re taking the lead on live tweeting, figure out what you’re going to use as the hashtag. If others are, figure out what the common hashtag will be or suggest one.
I’m sure I’ve only scratched the surface here. What other things can you do to make live tweeting better, both for you and your followers? Leave a comment with your tip.
