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Mike DamphousseFeb 17, 2009 10:22:00 AM3 min read

10 Tips For Tweeting A Live Conference - Sales 2.0 March 4,5

b2b sales leads

Back in the fall I attended Selling Power's Sales 2.0 conference. It was so informative and interactive for sales execs and marketing execs that Green Leads decided we wanted to sponsor the conference (March 4,5 in San Francisco). This time with a twist. Selling Power's publisher and Sales 2.0 co-host, Gerhard Gschwandtner has agreed to have Green Leads provide live twitter coverage from the event.

B2B appointment settingFirst, for those that aren't yet aware of Twitter (all 5 of you) - Twitter 101 : Twitter is a is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Here's an example of a recent tweet I posted:

@damphoux: landing page tip to @siriusdecisions, put excerpt or something valuable landing/reg page. Entice visitors http://bit.ly/8UYgk

On to events...

What is a live twitter broadcast from a conference or event?

The glory of twitter is that you can tweet about anything, from anywhere, and everyone can find it and read it. Tweeting a live conference provides benefits to both the attendees and to those that couldn't make it by allowing communications to and from the event. The key is finding a way to sort out the event-relevant tweets from the live twitter feed. You could just search on the words Sales 2.0 or all tweets by me on that day, but the efficient way to follow a topic is to use a #hashtag. This is the simple technique of putting a hash character in front of a keyword that everyone tweeting about puts in their tweets. This allows twitter search, RSS feeds, twitter clients such as tweetdeck, etc, to follow the discussion. In the case of the Sales 2.0 conference, we'll be using the hashtag #sales20. An example of using a #hashtag:

damphoux:@dcardiel22, @genius_parker, see you at #sales20.

Looking forward to Marketing Panel w/ Salesforce CMO http://tinyurl.com/sales20

What are the some of the things you can do to make tweeting a live event successful?

(since the event hasn't occurred yet, the examples below are just that...examples)

  • Link Link Link. Always provide relevant twitter addresses and URL links so followers can link and learn more. Such as:

damphoux: http://bit.ly/ancUk @mvolpe from @hubspot responds - Inbound vs Outbound Marketing #sales20

  • Share a speaker's quote. If a speaker at the conference says something brilliant, controversial, or even ridiculous, tweet it.

  • Tweet some key ideas or stats. If someone makes a statement with a great soundbite of stats, such as something on my favorite topic, appointment setting programs, tweet it

damphoux: 40% of introductory sales meetings set with appointment setting programs result in follow-on sales pipeline activity #sales20

  • Attendees can comment to each other while at the event. Side chats on presentations. Requests for information. Calls to others to meet after hours for a drink. Gerhard is actually going to field questions from tweeterland:

"We just got a question from twitter. Laura Ramos from Forrester wants to know what the panel thinks about social media marketing as it pertains to sales 2.0?"

  • Rant and Rave, which stimulates conversation:

damphoux: was just talking with @garthm from @jigsawtweets and he and I both loved the presentation from @milesaustin #sales20

  • Post drivel:

damphoux: my wife Linda just convinced me that I need to skip the cheesecake in the lobby #sales20

  • Be prepared - Personally, since I'm tasked with being the official broadcaster for the #sales20 event, I'm going to have a side text file with prepared links and twitter names of the speakers. I can quickly copy and paste bios, etc.

  • Show it off - If you can accommodate the AV, have the conference organizer display the live twitter feed on a screen at the front of the conference room. This gives the whole audience the ability to participate in the twitter experience.

  • Have a backup - We'll have 3 Green Leads folks at the event, so if I need a bio-break or to go talk with a prospect about our new meetings 2.0 offer, One Click Meetings for Salesforce.com, one of them can back me up and tweet in my place.

  • Inspire exchange - Don't just post, ask questions. Stir up a conversation amongst both attendees and remote tweeps viewing the event.

I definitely recommend the conference for both Sales execs and Marketing execs that support sales. If you find the topic interesting, follow the conference on twitter using hashtag #sales20, or come attend live. You can get a 50% off pass on our site. Come register.

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Mike Damphousse

Mike brings a hard-nosed, pragmatic aspect to category design, baked in from two decades as a company founder, CEO, CMO and sales executive. He understands how companies work and how to take a category plan from concept to implementation.

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