Social Media
by Kate Attilio

Live Tweeting: Is it worth it?

In my opinion? Heck yeah. As defined by Twitter itself:

Live-tweet (v.): to engage on Twitter for a continuous period of time—anywhere from 20 minutes to a few hours—with a sequence of focused Tweets. The focus can be a big live event that everybody’s paying attention to (e.g. a TV show or an award show) or it can be an event you create yourself (e.g. a Q&A session with your fans).

The key phrase in the definition is an “event that everybody’s paying attention to.” Sure, an architectural design roundtable is not going to have the Twitter audience of the Golden Globes. But the audience that will have is much more defined and targeted towards your marketing goals. Specifically in the AEC industry, live tweeting can have lasting effects and the potential to:

  • Increase brand and leadership awareness
  • Demonstrate thought leadership
  • Provoke discussion among followers and others
  • Increase followers and influence

For purposes of this article, I’m referring to live tweeting an event. Here are some words of advice:

  1. Let your followers know beforehand that you’ll be live-tweeting. You don’t want to catch them off-guard and cause an unfollow when you blow up their feed. By using the hashtag in advance, your tweet will come up in searches before the event even takes place. Think pre-event connection, you never know who is listening, and the connection you could be making!
  2. When actually live-tweeting, use your best judgement on frequency. Keep in mind your audience, and avoid tweeting everything single thing you hear. Limit your tweets to interesting tidbits, and feel free to add some personality to your comments.  Remember – you’re a person, not a machine. Let that human connection flow!
  3. Give credit where credit is due. Make sure to credit the speaker(s) during an event. It gives your tweets credibility, and compliments the speaker.
  4. Conversation is encouraged! Reach out to other people who are also tweeting on the subject. I like to keep a search window open so I can follow along with what others are saying, and spark up a discussion where appropriate.
  5. Use multi-media in your tweets. Oh, you fancy huh? Using photographs, and even video (with consent) is a nice touch on allowing readers to really step inside your shoes and fully understand the context of your tweets.
  6. It doesn’t stop after the event! While the tweets won’t be as frequent post-event, the live tweeting will have created a rich transcript that others may go back to reference by simply searching the hashtag. Also, take some time to connect with other people that are tweeting about the subject.

If you’re feeling nervous about it – that’s ok. Start out slow.  Take cues from what others are doing, and your confidence will grow. It’s one small step in your digital media journey, and it is ok to make mistakes.

Have some tips/advice/experiences to add? Please share in the comments section below!