You know you should be on Twitter. And maybe you have a pretty good following. Your tweets are a good mix of personal, professional and all-around insightful. Not only do your friends think you’re cool, but so do your prospects.
Or maybe you’re more like this guy…
Let’s give Bob some credit; at least he knows Twitter is important. And I’m sure if you have tweeted more than Bob, you’ve done some live tweeting before, even if you never realized it.
It was probably something along these lines:
Or maybe it was live-tweeting the premier of The Walking Dead and possibly spoiling it for the rest of your followers. (If so, please mention your Twitter handle in the comments below so we will know to ignore you on Sundays nights.)
However you may be missing a prime opportunity to combine your refined reporting skills with your quick wit to grow your professional Twitter following and, most importantly, increase sales leads at events. Live-tweeting takes time, and it can result in huge spikes in followers (see Lance Ulanoff’s live tweet that gained 68,000 new followers), engaging conversations and makes you look less like the rest of the suited-up sales pros manning booths.
Your Typical Tradeshow Sales Guy vs. Live-Tweeting Event Master (aka The Most Interesting Man)
Becoming a lean, mean live tweeting master takes unique skills and steps and we are here to help you.
- Preparation
- Observation
- Timing
- Creativity
Pre-Conference Preparation Checklist:
✔ Create lists of event speakers, attendees, customers & prospects. Some lists should be kept private, but feel free to make some lists public. Being added to a ‘People to Listen to at Dreamforce’ list would boost your ego, right? And encourage others to follow your organized lists.
✔ Use social media tools like HootSuite.com to monitor the conference hashtag. Even prior to the event starting, you can tweet using this hashtag. It lets them know you’ll be in attendance and tweeting on behalf of your organization. It can also be helpful to find out where groups are heading to eat each evening.
✔ As Master Live Tweeter Ulanoff mentions: you will need multiple screens and multiple input devices. We suggest you bring your laptop, tablet AND smart phone. Batteries should be fully charged before you start your day and don’t forget to pack your chargers. Also, get your WiFi access in order, and have a backup on your smartphone if the signal goes down (which happens often).
“Most people think “selling” is the same as “talking”. But the most effective salespeople know that listening is the most important
part of their job.” ~Roy Bartell
Aggressive observation and listening will set you apart from those live tweets that simply blast out information. Quickness matters, but so does accuracy and validity.
In your preparation for the event, you set up hashtag monitoring for a reason. One of those is to make it a two-way conversation. You’ll learn a lot by following the hashtag feed and not just worrying about what you write. Be a part of the conversation and don’t just push it out in a one way direction. This is a good strategy to take when you may find yourself falling behind.
Keep an eye on Twitter’s own trending tools for popular event hashtag outliers. For example, Salesforce.com made the official hashtag for their Dreamforce conference #DF13, but some people still tweeted using the hashtags #Dreamforce and #Dreamforce13 instead.
So we know live tweeting requires just the right timing. Your WPM or quick thumbs may only take you so far. Don’t get discouraged if you have trouble keeping up – there’s a chance you might capture something valuable others may have missed.
See yourself as a live reporter (with opinions), you want to tell a good story in less than 140 characters, so those who do miss it, get it. And those who didn’t miss it can retweet it and have it make sense to their own followers. Reporters also don’t share unnecessary details, only ones that matter and are most important to their audience. So trim the fat: remember this is lean, mean live tweeting tips, where every tweet has a purpose.
What will set you apart from the rest: creativity. Reacting quickly and accurately is great, but no one will notice it if it’s what everyone else is tweeting. Capture pictures and videos to support your live tweets. This will get you more visibility in the conference Twitter feed. If you have a beginner understanding of Photoshop, you can quickly add quotes to speaker images or create funny memes that are timely.
Do others a favor and add your own insights (and humor). Do you agree, disagree, or can share your experience and validate why the tweet is important.
We will leave you, fellow SalesQuant, with this quote to motivate you to start your live tweeting journey and becoming the Most Interesting Sales Person (On Twitter):
“It is impossible to win the race until you venture to run, impossible to win the victory unless you dare to battle.”
-Richard DeVos
Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or would like to know how these apply to your business. Stop searching for the knowledge and have it delivered directly to you by Subscribing to Read the Review & Save a Few [News Letter], your weekly debriefing to all the Sales Acceleration Software News, Reviews, & How-to’s!
