5 Twitter Tips for Conference Vendors and Sponsors

When I’m reporting live from conferences, I see the same thing over and over again from vendors and sponsors on social media:

• We can’t wait for our CEO to speak in Flamingo Room at 2 p.m. today. Join us!

• Come to Booth 472 when the Exhibit Hall opens for your chance to win a $25 gift card!

• See you at 5 p.m. tonight for our sponsored happy hour. Bottoms up, party people!

There’s nothing inherently wrong with these posts. But these are ads; adding nothing to the conference conversation. Attendees can see right through it.  

The only way to participate in the conference conversation is to have someone from your staff sit in the sessions and live-tweet on behalf of your company.

Or better yet, you can hire me to do this on your company’s behalf. (Shameless plug, but what did you expect? This is my website.)

My motto for live-tweeting conferences is this: I’m only going to tweet if I have a hunch it’s going to get liked or re-tweeted.

But how do I know what’s going to work? Here are a few tips I’ve learned over the years.

Summarize fast

During one presentation a few years ago, Chris Bevolo spent a chunk of time talking about CRMs and marketing automation. This can be a complicated, thorny topic, but yet, something had to be said about it.

One of my most popular tweets at a conference was:

@ChrisBevolo: The good news about #marketing automation? Cheaper than a CRM. The bad? It takes a lot of work.

Skip the numbers

Speakers love filling their presentations with numbers and facts. That’s great. But most likely, everybody who is tweeting is going to share these statistics. Why? Because it’s an easy tweet. If you want your tweets to be noticed, you can’t say the same thing the person next to you does.

Share the love

Let’s face it: Tweeting can be tiring. If you need a break, spend a few minutes re-tweeting and liking what other people are saying. Remember, you’re all in this together.

Be spunky

People will be more receptive to “liking” your tweets if they feel like they “like” you. Don’t be afraid to add some color to your tweets. If a speaker says something thought-provoking, add an “Amen!” “Geez!” or “Yikes!” before you quote him or her.

Tag speaker or company handles

After sessions, you’ll see most speakers on their phones, scrolling through the hashtag. They want to know if people were talking about them. That’s why you should give them proper attribution credit during their presentation.

There’s a lot of work that goes into being a sponsor or vendor at a conference. Greeting attendees and making new connections are important. But don’t forget that the conference is an excellent opportunity to showcase your company as a thought leader in the industry — not just another booth number, hawking away keychains and stress balls.

Hire a professional

Got a conference coming up? I can help get your company noticed on social media during the conference. Find out how.