"Twitters"

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By Lori Turec, Five Star Speakers

So, maybe you are already on Linked-In or have a Facebook page, and you're wondering - "What's the deal with Twitter?" Is it something you should be on? And if so, how can meeting planners use Twitter to promote events? Here's some simple steps to get started.

Twitter lets people send very short messages, a.k.a. "tweets." It's a lot like IM to anyone who is listening ... almost a 21st Century party line. Once you have a Twitter account, you can "follow" people and see their tweets and people can "follow" you.

There are a lot of ways to view tweets ("Twitter feed"):

• Visit their Twitter page (ours is http://twitter.com/fivestarspeaker)
• Install a free program such as TweetDeck or Twhirl
• Use an RSS reader to subscribe to their feed
• Deliver tweets to your mobile phone as a text message

Why Use Twitter?

• PR: Use Twitter to "get the word out" about your event and build positive buzz around it.
• Attendee Satisfaction: Use Twitter to get to know your attendees better and hear and respond to what they're saying, positive and negative, about your event.

Getting Started

Get a free Twitter account by signing up at http://twitter.com/ and clicking the "Join the Conversation" button. Your username will have to be unique and will be how people reference you when they talk to you on Twitter.

Some people use their real full names (e.g., Paul_Schmidt), some people use their company name (e.g., FIVESTARSpeaker) and some choose something more whimsical (e.g., SpeakerFinder). My twitter name is SpeakerFinder ... which works because I want you to know that I can book the keynote inspirational and motivational speaker for your event.

There are different ways to listen on Twitter. There's the "normal" way, in which you visit people's Twitter pages and click the "Follow" button. Thereafter, when you visit Twitter.com, you'll see the tweets of the people you're following in a list, starting with the most recent.

How do you know who to follow? Many people post their Twitter username on their Web site or in their email signature, you can search for people by name through Twitter.com's "Find People" function or by topic through a service like Twello.

But what if you want to hear everything anybody is saying about your event, including people you don't know and aren't following? You can search the recent tweets of everybody in the world by visiting http://search.twitter.com/ and entering a term (e.g., the name of your event). Then, if you use an RSS reader such as Google Reader or a recent version of Microsoft Outlook, you can subscribe to the RSS feed of results and view them in the same place you go to read your blogs.

But what if you don't use an RSS reader? Easy, just visit Twilert, enter your search term and you'll receive an e-mail every time anyone in the Twitterverse mentions you. Be sure to get notifications when someone mentions @your_twitter_username. You'll see why when you read the Start Talking section below.

One problem with searching is that sometimes different people use different terms to refer to the same event. To solve that problem, I recommend using hash tags. Hash tags are words preceded with a # (hash mark) that can be used to make terms easier to search for. For example, the organizers of the ACME Sales Meeting might announce on their Web site that the hash tag for their event is "#ACME Sales". By doing so, they're encouraging everyone to use that string when referring to the show (e.g., "Jim Welch was the motivational keynote speaker at #ACME Sales!"). Now they know exactly what term to watch for in Twitter: #ACME Sales. You don't have to do anything special to establish a hash tag for your event. You can just let people know what it is in email, on your Web site, via Twitter, or however you communicate with your attendees.

Tweet and Tweet Back

You can respond to specific messages from prospective and actual attendees, communicate news and send updates about your event or just build buzz.

Tweeting is easy: just go to Twitter.com (or your TweetDeck / Twhirl client) and type your message. It has to be 140 characters or less, but you can include links and video. Don't forget to use Tiny URL, too.

How do you get people to follow you? First, follow people. Twitter will e-mail them to let them know you've followed them, and they will often follow you back. Second, publicize your Twitter user name with a link to your Twitter page prominently on your Web site and let people know that you'll be tweeting news and updates about your event. By convention, if you're speaking to someone in Twitter, you address them by putting an "@" in front of their Twitter name. What if you want to send a message to an individual in Twitter, but don't want everyone to hear? Easy, just send "d twitter_user_name Your message (e.g., "d johnsmith Thanks for mentioning us in your blog"). The big limitation with this strategy is that you can only direct message to someone who is following you. You can direct message non-followers by using @twitter to them as described above, or use their profile information to try to find an e-mail address you can use to reach them.

Let the Tweets Begin!

You now have plenty of info to start to Twitter. There are a number of great sites out there that teach you how to do even more with Twitter and there are some things you have to learn by doing! Of course, you also can hire a great business speaker to teach everyone about Social Media, including Twitter. SpeakerFinder would be glad to help. Happy Tweeting.