Speak Up and Succeed with Twitter
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Giving presentations is an important skill for professional organizers, whether you’re sharing ideas with your local chapter, offering tips to a group or the general public as a way of marketing your organizing business, or getting paid to speak about your area of expertise.
It’s no secret that more and more people have mobile devices that allow them to be connected to their online networks nearly all the time. What does this have to do with giving presentations? Maybe a lot!
One of these days, you may be speaking at a conference or other event and discover that the audience is tweeting about your presentation. Participants enjoy tweeting about what they’re listening to for a number of reasons.
For one thing, it allows them to share the highlights of what they’re learning with followers who aren’t at the event. It also lets them share comments with other people attending who may not be sitting close by. They can even converse with people who are close by without worrying about distracting others by speaking out loud.
It might be a bit unnerving to see people typing on their laptops, iPads, or smart phones while you speak, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t paying attention! Consider that some people actually use Twitter to record information they might have written on paper in the past. This gives them notes to refer back to afterwards, and share those notes with others at the same time.
To my knowledge, there hasn’t been live tweeting during any of my presentations so far, but I realize that it will likely happen someday so I need to be prepared – and so do you. Fortunately, I discovered a free e-book by Olivia Mitchell that’s full of great advice on surviving the experience, responding to the audience’s needs, and getting involved in the conversation. If you give presentations, or plan to in the future, please feel free to download your own copy of How to Present with Twitter.
I’ve been at both live and online events where it was taking place, and it’s quite an interesting phenomena!
Please tell us about your experiences with live tweeting, either as a speaker or a member of the audience. Do you think it enhances or detracts from the experience?
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I am finding twitter, is helping me generate more viwes to my site I started two weeks ago and I have 27 followers. I found very confusing at first and I am still learning. I think it will be an asset to my Organizing buisness. Thanks Janet for all the great information you put on there
Michelle
Congratulations, Michelle! I’m glad you’re able to use the tips on my blog. I suggest that you put a link to your social media profiles on your website to encourage visitors to follow you there.
Janet,
As you know, I’m a Twitter nerd … I spend a lot of my day on Twitter. But I guess I’m just too old to multitask because I just can’t easily listen to a speech and Tweet at the same time. I think it’s because my phone keyboard isn’t the same as my computer keyboard. I have to think too much about what I’m doing to be able to pay attention to both.
That said, when I miss an event, I love to be able to see the Tweet chat going on. I’m glad some people can multitask because I benefit.
Andrea
I tweeted during the Social Media Success Summit last year, which was an online event, and found it a fun way to share some of what I was learning with my followers who weren’t able to attend. I’ve never tweeted during a live conference, because my laptop is too big to actually use in my lap, and I’ve only recently acquired a smart phone. I’m hoping to attend WordCamp Toronto next month, but I’m not sure whether I can master taking notes on paper and tweeting on my phone at the same time. I envy people with nice compact laptops!