Live tweeting; bird–brained or brilliant?
My name is Doug, and I’m a tweetaholic.
At conferences and events I’ll pull out my BlackBerry, sneak out a hashtag, and start live tweeting the event. When my table mates look askance on this breach of protocol, I smile sweetly; “Just taking notes” I say – not checking e-mail.
I wasn’t always this way.
Back when I was young and innocent (last year – okay, innocent), I wondered aloud on Twitter whether social media guru Joe Thornley, CEO of agency Thornley-Fallis, was flooding the airwaves with his conference tweets. Joe (@thornley on Twitter) graciously replied that he enjoyed sharing what he learned at conferences, and people enjoyed the pseudo-random discovery that came with his tweets.
Like television you don’t like, you can always tune out. Overwhelmed by the volume of tweets (and lacking the tools and knowledge to filter and sort them), I un-followed Joe; ditto for a few other pioneers in the live-tweeting department.
Then a funny thing happened. I realized I missed Joe and his tweets. Turns out I had been absorbing much of Joe’s Twitterstream, even while glazing over at the odd barrage.
I resolved to become wise in the ways of hashtags and Tweetdeck filters, adding control to my reading experience. Why deny myself the wisdom of others, I reasoned, I just need it packaged appropriately for my taste.
Eventually I took the plunge and started live tweeting events. The feedback was immediate and positive – flushed with success I was hooked!
Many months and many events later, I have a little more depth to my perspective on what my audience wants and will tolerate.
A recent brouhaha, however, shone the spotlight on what speakers should tolerate. The so-called incident is well documented, so I won’t re-hash it here, but basically, CBC’s Ira Basen objected to Joe Thornley’s live tweeting Basen’s presentation at a PR conference. Thornley responded on his blog, where many, many others chimed in (testimony to the possibilities of social media). Kate Trgovac, President of Lintbucket Media (@mynameiskate), summarized the whole thing nicely:
“In reality, Twitter is like Soylent Green. It’s made up of people. And that means there is a little awesome, a little jerkiness and a lot of filler. Apparently, of late, one of the things that has created filler and jerkiness is the issue of live-tweeting.”
Perhaps it’s a reflection of my newspaper roots, but I concern myself almost exclusively with the well-being and interests of my audience (aka followers). Not that speakers don’t deserve respect, but having met many, many microphones in my time, I have a pretty thick skin when it comes to comments from the peanut gallery. The very act of taking the stage is one of opening yourself up to public scrutiny. And those live tweets? They used to be the whispers at the back of the hall, now they just have wider and more immediate reach.
So what does a Twitter audience want?
Anecdotally I’ve heard from a few people who said my live tweets flooded or spammed their Twitter-stream, so they un-followed. That’s my loss because it puts a barrier between me and them insofar as social media conversation goes.
To get a better feel for the issue, I generated a Twtpoll (a Twitter poll) asking simply “Do you enjoy receiving live tweets from conferences?”. Many re-tweeted the poll so it drew from a wider group than just my followers, ultimately garnering 86 responses. Not scientific by any means, but solid qualitative data in line with any focus group. More than a quarter of respondents, 28%, answered no, they do not enjoy live tweets.
And there’s the rub – in Trgovac’s words, Twitter is people. Some like live tweets, some don’t.
My typically Canadian resolution to this dilemma? A compromise. I’ve set up a new Twitter account called @DougLive from which I will live tweet events. My usual account @dblacombe will be reserved for conversation, announcements about my articles and blog posts, notices that I will be live tweeting “on the other channel” and the assorted punny nonsense that comes with my dysfunctional persona.
Is this the right solution? It’s too early to say, but I’m mindful of Joe Thornley’s words at a recent “Third Tuesday” session in Calgary – “we need to create Canadian content if we want to have a voice”. My voice will continue on both my Twitter channels, what about yours?
***
The hashtag for tweeting about the CPRS “On The Edge” conference, including live tweeting, is #cprs2009.
Doug Lacombe, MBA is a Calgary-based blogger and communicator with over 20 years experience in media, marketing, and communications. Doug has been a member of CPRS Calgary and a volunteer for five years, for the past two holding the board position of Director, Member Communications. More info can be found on DougLacombe.com.
Doug LacombeDirector, Member Communications, CPRS Calgary
Years in the PR industry: 5+ years
Calgary, AB
Tags: CPRS Conference, hashtag, tweet, tweetdeck, twitter, twtpoll
May 20th, 2009 at 10:18 am
[...] Yikes, it’s been over a month since my last post! While Blinking12.ca has gone hungry I have written tasty tidbits for the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) (here and here), The Canadian Marketing Association, Techvibes.com, and the Canadian Public Relations Society. [...]
May 20th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Interesting post, Doug. It does seem to be a contentious issue but live Tweeting is how I gained most of the followers I have now.
I started off, oddly enough, by live Tweeting a conference at which @thornley was speaking. I’ve done a few since then and frequently participate in #journchat on Monday nights - oh, I’ve also been known to Tweet vigorously during a Flames game or two.
I’ve never been yelled at for excessive Tweeting, so I guess I’m one of the lucky ones.
Considering the greater percentage of my followers are folks in the same industry, I would be disappointed to learn they chose to un-follow instead of absorb the information I was learning.
But … chacun son gout, n’est-ce pas?
May 20th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Doug, thanks for the shout out. And I’m looking forward to attending - and livetweeting #CPRS2009 right alongside you. I find that when I search for a conference hashtag after the conference is over, I can pretty much reconstruct the better presentations using the twitter stream. No more coming home and saying, “I wish I could remember that statistic or that quote.” They’re almost always all in twitter.
May 20th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
I have very mixed emotions about several issues relating live tweeting etiquette. While actively tweeting at various events and conferences, I have a strict personal rule to not tweet excessively or try to capture everything said by any particular presenter.
I suppose I’m just arguing for the need of a strong editorial function when selecting what to share with twitter. In this sense, this live tweeting issue is merely an extension of my personal approach of how I choose to use twitter. Given my hatred of those who proselytize on “how you should use twitter,” (or anything else, for that matter) I will not extend my criticisms to level of what you should or should not do on twitter. However, I think it is clear that there are merits to my approach in keeping some of your conference notes private while sharing the best insights with the outside world.
May 20th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
[...] On the subject of topic of sharing cool stuff using social media, my friend Doug Lacombe has written up an engaging examination of the etiquette of using twitter during events and presentations in “Live tweeting; bird–brained or brilliant?” [...]
May 21st, 2009 at 6:12 am
What an interesting post. I personally am one who loves live-tweeting and have received some great info from people including @thornley. I like to control my Twitter experience, so for me it’s not a big deal if someone is live-tweeting about an event I’m not interested in.
Ironically my organization is getting an award at #cprs2009 for live tweeting with a celebrity chef. We did it because we thought it would be an interesting way to provide people with direct access to an event/person that they would not have access to. We would definitely call the event a success as people engaged with us throughout (including two classrooms of students). http://www.nait.ca/naitchef
Since then SMS has been reintroduced in Canada and because we encourage people to follow our organizational Twitter account (@nait) for other reasons (ex. part of crisis communications), we can’t live-tweet from that account anymore.
All that to say, Twitter is an ever evolving place and you really have to know your audience but even then you’ll never make everyone happy. We’re learning every day and I do believe part of the value of Twitter is live-tweeting. How I go about doing that though will certainly be different today compared to six months from now. (that is if Twitter is around then
May 21st, 2009 at 7:57 am
It is all about balance.
Live tweeting is a good way to record highlights and share with followers. But two many people beating their thumbs can be obnoxious. And we don’t care whether David Suzuki’s hair is exceptionally fluffy today.
I’m looking forward to my first live tweets at a conference at On The Edge and am ready to track ‘em with #cprs2009.
May 21st, 2009 at 9:22 am
Thanks for the perspective, Doug. I think live tweets can be interesting if you are offering a private, behind the scenes perspective. I think there is an element of Twitter that is voyeuristic, so the general followers you have would need that feeling to keep interested. But from a business perspective, I think the viewpoint is different. Live tweeting offers a perspective from someone you trust when you can’t be there.
I do agree with John that balance is important, too many people tweet inconsequential things and that actually creates or chips away at their personal brand.
I have heard the rule of thumb is for people to have multiple twitter accounts, so setting up different ones makes sense so you can keep it authentic and relevant.
Cheers,
asifa