Social media is your friend, so use it to get some buzz around whatever event you’re planning.
For the nonprofit world, this is a time of action. From Congressional meetings and hearings, to grassroots gatherings like the Women’s March, opportunities abound for any organization interested in hosting or commenting on a live event. If you run an advocacy organization, perhaps you’re glued to C-SPAN these days and want to give live commentary to your members. If you’re a professional association, maybe you’re hosting your annual conference in a few months. Social media is your friend, so use it to get some buzz around whatever event you’re planning.
Benefits of Live-Tweeting
- Increased brand awareness for your organization
- Increased engagement with members and groups you work with (this marketer saw a 70% increase in engagement with followers as a result of live-tweeting one event!)
- You’ll gain followers on social media
- Free publicity for any upcoming internal events for your organization
So, now that you know event live-tweeting is a good move for many organizations, familiarize yourself with a few best practices. The trouble with live events is you only have one shot to get it right, so you’ll want to be sure you’re informed and prepared.
How to Live-Tweet an Event
- Plan out as much in advance as possible. Prepare a list of Twitter handles used by key figures and groups involved in your event. Take a look at your organization’s messages: what do you know you’ll want to say about the live event? Schedule some posts ahead of time so you can spend the event reacting to moments in real time and engaging with your followers.
- Research commemorative holidays and events to take advantage of hashtag trends. Does your organization have something to say about World AIDS Day? About the Congressional budget deadline? About the Oscars?
- On the day of the event, follow these general guidelines:
- Post regularly (every few minutes)
- Use photos and videos whenever possible
- Pull powerful quotes from an event and attribute the speaker by @tagging them
- Include trending hashtags for the event
- If you aren’t sure what they are, utilize Twitter’s search tool (Ex: during the Tom Price hearing, I searched “Tom Price,” selected Top Posts, and saw that the tweets getting the most traction used the hashtag #PriceIsWrong
- If it’s an annual event such as a commemorative holiday, Google “Top hashtags for [event name]”
- Other good tools for finding the most popular hashtag are Hashtagify, Trendsmap, and RiteTag.
- Focus on engagement: start conversations with followers who “like” your tweets; create a dialogue between your organization’s staff members or external members for others to follow.
- Follow partner organizations or groups that share your mission. What are they saying about the event? How can you engage them in conversation around this topic? Aim to have genuine exchanges on social media so you’re not simply tweeting out into the void.
- If you’re hosting the event and you expect participants will be tweeting their thoughts throughout, consider using an aggregater tool like Storify to pull together all the posts that use your hashtag and engage attendees.
Happy tweeting! (By the way, these tips are transferable to Facebook as well!)