Hi everyone!
During November 5-6 I was tweeting for Museum Metamorphosis conference (@msphdconf) organised by the School of Museum Studies (Leicester University). I am currently working on my PhD here.
It was a big challenge; first of all, it was the first time for me to be an official event voice (you might know that I’m working as a social media consultant at the State Historical Museum @1stHistorical, but it’s not the same), second, it was the true academic conference, which means that style of presentations differed from those I was familiar with (#mw, #museumnext #museumsmobile #mcn).
I would like to summarize my experience, and this is the list of some tips that could be useful:
1. Prepare in advance:
Familiarize yourself with the list of speakers in order to collect:
i. Their twitter account/blog name/et cetera
ii. Their institution twitter account/website/et cetera
Store this information in one place, so you can easily use it during the conference. Yes, after @msphdconf I will use a laptop, not iPad :-)
I suggest including the information mentioned above in each tweet during ones presentation. This can help other people to get overall understanding of what is/was happening even if they read your tweets later. You can even create a draft tweet and use it by just copying/pasting. For example, when you introduce the speaker for the first time you can use the following model:
"Please welcome Speaker Name @name working at @institution #conferencehashtag"
During the presentation you can just put the speakers’ name.
2. Pictures:
Some presentations could be really nice and pretty, so there will be no need for you to collect pictures in advance. However, sometimes a presentation can just contain text.
I would recommend to contact a speaker before the event in order to understand which kind of pictures you can share while he/she is presenting.
3. Broadcasting and/or dialogue?
Sometimes we do not need a dialogue: not all of the people use Twitter! So if you are interested in just quoting thoughts and ideas – do this! However, if you need a kind of dialogue and interaction with your audience, try to set up a list of questions which could be discussed during the presentation. Moreover, you might ask people to send their questions and then address them to the speaker.
4. Audience
Who is your conference audience? Make sure that you invite people in advance! Promote your conference #hashtag as well as speakers if they are on Twitter. Try to create friendly environment and start a discussion even before the actual conference.
5. Cats and cakes
Don’t forget that people need rest, even on Twitter, so try to be funny and open-minded. Share some behind the scenes secrets, post joyful pictures! Avoid being boring :-)
I hope you find this list helpful, and I will appreciate your advice and thoughts on the topic.
P.S. Maybe I sound too serious and rational about Twitter?
