I recently attended a blogger conference and Twittered, or tweeted, my way through the sessions. Some people may still be wondering about the value of Twitter in a business marketing environment, but here is a real world example of five benefits from Twittering through a conference.
1. Online Electronic Notes
As each speaker gave their presentations I Twittered relevant statements. This created an easily accessible, online summary of their talk. I could go back after the conference, and review what each speaker said. So long as the Twitter database remains intact. I have a permanent record of these notes.
2. Shared Electronic Notes
In addition to my electronic notes, other conference attendees were also Twittering the presentations. Many technology conferences have an official tag for all content related to the conference. If everyone uses the correct tag on all their tweets, it is easy to search for tweets, photos and video of the conference for later reference.
3. Live Streaming of Content
There is always a group of interested people who are unable to make every conference. If you tweet the contents of a conference, others can follow along. Several people replied back to me about my conference coverage. It is also possible that people can remotely ask questions of speakers through twitter replies. A text stream is sometimes easier to follow than a video stream, which is sometimes available.
4. Connect with Other Conference Attendees
The easiest way to connect with other attendees is to search for the conference tag. While you may not always meet in person, you can connect on Twitter. Most twitter profiles include a link to a blog or business web site, so this is a great way to learn more about someone you met at a conference. No exchange of business cards required. Follow them on Twitter and learn what there interests are.
5. Building Your Personal Brand
In today’s always connected and share everything you do online, whether you realize it or not, you are building a personal brand. Part that personal brand reflects back to the company you work for and your business connections. In some cases, a personal brand is large enough that it can be leveraged for business benefit. By Twittering at a conference, you tweet authoritative statements about your specialty area. This increases awareness among your network, conference attendees, and others interested in the subject matter. This expands your influence, and can benefit your business.
And finally, it is much easier to fully engage in Twittering a conference if you have a laptop, rather than a mobile device. And a good tool to use is Tweetdeck, which is a desktop application that manages multiple Twitter streams in one view. This makes it easy to follow the conference, while keeping an eye on your regular Twitter feeds.
Originally posted on Koroberi.com.
