Presentation given at @NICVA's tweetup in April 2013 and repeated May 2014

1. Why & what?
The Pros & Cons
Preparation of Live Tweeting
Before the event
Tweeting live
After the event
Alan Meban @alaninbelfast

2. Why & what?
or The How & Why
Preparation of Live Tweeting
Before the event
Tweeting live
After the event
Alan Meban @alaninbelfast

3. Shuhari
Why & what?
Preparation
Before the event
Tweeting live
• Shu - following tradition
• Ha - detaching from tradition
After the event
• Ri - transcending tradition
Adapted from Mike Pearce
http://www.slideshare.net/MikePearce/the-shu-ha-ri-of-agile-presenation-11765346

4. Why bother? what?
Why &
profile
Preparation
audience
Before the event
conversations
findable content
Tweeting live
permanent archive
After the event
fun

5. Why bother? what?
Why & • words
Preparation
• pictures & video
• audio & interviews
Before the event
Tweeting live
• what are you going to do?
After the event • what are you not going to do?

6. • Where? When? How long?
Why & what? • What’s the #hashtag? Short, free?
• Who’s speaking? What’s their @name?
Preparation
Preparation • Spell names correctly!
• Make or follow a list of @names?
Before the event • Advance electronic copy of material?
Tweeting live • Going solo? Working as a team?
After the event • Phone? Laptop? Tablet?
• Will there power & connectivity?

7. • Search for potential #hashtags
Why & what?
Preparation
Preparation • Suggest a #hashtag ...
but crowd may do its own thing
Before the event
#election83 (used by @bbcdemlive)
Tweeting live + #83election
+ #election1983
After the event
+ #1983election
+ #ge83

8. Why & what?
• Establish the event’s #hashtag by
Preparation using it in the build up
• Organisers can build awareness of
Before the event event
Before the an event & its brand beforehand
amongst attendees & voyeurs
Tweeting live • Interview an organiser or speaker
before the event?
After the event

9. • Get Tweetdeck up and running
Why & what? • Start conversation early & interact
with people about the event
Preparation • Early #hashtagged tweets mean
your followers won’t be surprised at
Before the event event
Before the the flurry on the day
Tweeting live
After the event

10. Why & what?
Preparation
Before the
Before the event event • Charge your devices
before you go
Tweeting live
• Pack an extension lead
& gaffer tape
After the event
• Spare SD card? Spare camera
battery? 3G dongle?

11. Why & what?
Preparation
Before the
Before the event event
Tweeting live
After the event

12. Why & what?
Preparation
• On the day arrive early
Before the event –The early bird gets the
power socket, the good
Tweeting
Tweeting live live seat & the wifi
After the event

13. Why & what?
Preparation
• Before we look at the
Before the event
rules, let’s see what
Tweeting
Tweeting live live
you’ve been saying
After the event

14. • 140 characters is unforgiving
Why & what? • During event tweet a photo of the
set, audience & each speaker
Preparation – cope with the low light; panorama
• You can provide atmosphere: how full?
how excited? how noisy? (laughs)
Before the event
(applause)
Tweeting
Tweeting live live
• Who is the audience for your tweets?
• If you’ve 20/30 characters in a
After the event tweet, include @names of people
you’d think would be interested

15. • You’re not providing subtitles so
Why & what? you can’t be comprehensive, but
you should be balanced
Preparation • Keep up: it’s easy to lag behind
• Mistakes are inevitable – delete
Before the event tweets sooner rather than later
Tweeting
Tweeting live live • Avoid splitting something over
2 tweets as no one RTs both parts
After the event
• Some things can’t be repeated in
140 characters

16. Why & what? • Avoid tweets being taken out of context
or misconstrued
• Always include the #hashtag & the
Preparation
speaker’s name/@name
• Use .@name if tweet starts with a name
Before the event • If it’s an accurate quote, type it “inside
quotation marks”, otherwise paraphrase
Tweeting
Tweeting live live what was said
• If you cut’n’paste from a script you still
need to check against delivery
After the event
• Link to mentioned books & films

17. Why & what?
Preparation
• You can abbreviate a lot of long
sentences down and still keep the
meaning
Before the event
Tweeting
Tweeting live live • U can shorten long sentences+still
keep meaning
After the event

18. • Retweet a little of what other
Why & what? people are saying
– if necessary, add the proper #hashtag
to get it into the stream (journalists)
Preparation
• It’s not a conversation if you don’t
reply to people – but not every
Before the event tweet you get needs a reply
• Avoid strong criticism of what’s
being said: ignore it, or question it
Tweeting
Tweeting live live
• Starve trolls of oxygen & largely
ignore them
After the event
• Be shocked about what is retweeted
most often!

19. Why & what? • Interview speakers & attendees
– Some speakers will refuse to condense a
15 minute talk down to 90 seconds
Preparation
• Put actual talks online
– Plug an audio recorder into the sound
Before the event desk (or place on a stand in front of a PA
speaker)
– Swap SD cards between talks
Tweeting
Tweeting live live
– Crop the audio in Audacity, compress &
upload to Audioboo in the background
After the event – Tweet at the same time …

20. Why & what?
• Twitterwalls can be very distracting if
they’re visible during a session & if
Preparation they’re behind the speaker
• Display them in-between sessions?
Before the event • Position them in foyer, beside coffee?
• http://visibletweets.com/#query=tweetnicva&animati
Tweeting
Tweeting live live on=2
• http://moritz.stefaner.eu/projects/revisit/
After the event • or just use TweetDeck

21. Why & what?
• Content ages & interest wanes
Preparation • Share it quickly
• Make it searchable
Before the event
• File it away for the future
Tweeting live
• Video is often slow to edit
& upload
After the
After the event event

22. Why & what?
• Tweets are ephemeral
Preparation • Use Storify collate, organise &
publish tweets & photos online
Before the event for posterity
– avoid just using your own tweets –
use a tweet from someone else
Tweeting live
RTing you if you can
– easy to embed in blogs & websites
After the
After the event event

23. Why & what?
• Find ways to continue the
Preparation conversation after the event
– Send tweets to speakers pointing to
Before the event where their content is now available
online
– Blog post to pull together your
Tweeting live
reflections on the day & make the
legacy content accessible
After the
After the event event

24. Why & what?
profile
Preparation
audience
Before the event
conversations
findable content
Tweeting live
permanent archive
After the
After the event event
fun

25. Why & what?
• Reflect
Preparation
• Ask yourself what you’d do
differently next time?
Before the event
• What engaged those in the room?
those following online?
Tweeting live • How much of the event did you
miss because you had your head
down in a screen?
After the
After the event event

26. Why & what?
Questions
Preparation
Before the event
Tweeting live
After the event
Alan Meban @alaninbelfast