First, just in case you don’t know what the hashtag is, I’ll include a brief explanation here.

What is the hashtag? Well, a hashtag is a word used to summarise the conference after this symbol # and if tweeters click on it, they can see all the tweets related to that hashtag. The conference organisers should test the hashtag beforehand (to ensure it isn’t been used for other purposes) and should announce it. The hashtag at the women in agriculture conference was #agwomen which was a good one – short and succinct and anyone could guess what it was about.  At the Towns of Excellence conference the hashtag was #servebesttoprofitmost which was way too long.  We use #klck for all our KLCK meetings and for generating interest in the run up to our monthly meetings.

Benefits of Tweeting at Conferences (for the organisers)

• It is free publicity.  Those who follow the tweeters will notice the hashtag and might engage. They might be so impressed by the reports that they will sign up to your next conference.
• It provides you with feedback on the conference. Most conferences use evaluation forms but the tweets will also give you good feedback.
• Announce the hashtag at least a month before the conference and get all the speakers to use it – this is an easy way to generate interest in the conference and increase ticket sales.
• It keeps attendees happy – they feel they are engaging with the speakers, they can network with fellow-tweeters and especially important for anyone who is there on their own and doesn’t know anyone else, it serves as a useful icebreaker at coffee and lunch breaks.
• You can monitor the effectiveness of the conference – are people getting bored if they have stopped tweeting or are they so engaged they’ve forgotten to tweet. Are they getting hungry? Do they need a coffee break before the next speaker – this is important if your schedule is running late. Do you need to cut some speakers short or eliminate some Q and A.

Benefits of Tweeting at Conferences (for the attendees)

• It is great for networking and you can meet up with fellow-tweeters during the break, having already ‘introduced’ yourselves
• If you don’t know anyone else at the conference, it is a good icebreaker and conversation starter.
• Some people may feel that they would prefer to solely listen rather than listen and tweet but I find I concentrate more when tweeting,  I use the tweets as succinct notes to look back on later.
• Limiting points to 140 characters is excellent for effective note taking.
• Be sensitive though – don’t tweet anything that may be sensitive or confidential to the attendees in the room. Don’t be contentious or personal, be respectful to the speaker as they can’t respond in real time.
• You can share the main points with colleagues or friends who weren’t able to make it to the conference.
• It is a lovely way to engage with the organisers and thank them at the end of the day.
• I wanted to speak to two specific people at yesterday’s conference and I wasn’t able to do so but I was able to tweet with 2 people in similar roles which may lead to business in the near future.
• Using the hashtag does get you noticed.  You will also gain more followers from the conference or from others following the hashtag.

Do read my other post on how to tweet at conferences (for organisers and attendees) too.

Lorna

Image: Free Digital Photos

What do you think of tweeting at conferences?

The post Why Tweet at Conferences appeared first on Write On Track.

Twitter

Today we are looking at twitter. With daily increasing numbers of people signing up to tweet, more and more people are gaining a ‘voice’ that can be transmitted online at a extremely fast speed.

Many business people seem to be afraid of twitter, afraid of the power of a compaint about their business going viral, afraid of not being in control over what is said.  However, even if a complaint is made about your business, you are much better off knowing about it. Not only will you find out where the ‘cracks’ in your business are and you can then do something about them but you can respond. An angry customer who receives an apology or an assurance that their complaint will be resolved or investigated will calm down quite quickly.

It can be hard to get a customer, even harder to keep them so if you can address any concerns as soon as they are voiced, all the better. There are lots of examples on various blogs and websites where consumers have been genuinely surprised when their annoyed tweet has been addressed with a phone call by a manager and an offer of a discount for their next purchase. The result: – they are calmed, pleased to be noticed and they all sound as though they will shop at that store again.

When watching ‘Frontline’ one Monday evening when the focus was on merchant banking, I tweeted my dissatisfaction with Realex and Elavon.  The following morning, I had received a tweet and an email from Realex saying that I would receive a phone call later in the day. Within two hours, my problem had been resolved.  Did Elavon respond? No!  Indeed, it took many emails and telephone calls before I received answers. I still think of Elavon with dread and equate them with incompetence.

Practicalities: How to do it?

• You can set up a google alert on twitter, track tweets for particular keywords and an application like hootsuite is probably one of the easiest ways to do it.
• Use the @reply to respond.  If it is a positive tweet, thank them. If it is negative and can’t be solved in 140 characters, tell him/her you will be in contact by email within x hours and ensure it is followed up
• Use the retweet / RT to add ‘thank you’ to a positive tweet and it will then be seen by your followers.
• You can favourite positive tweets too.
• Don’t just use twitter to discover things about your brand or about your competitors.  Use it as a normal person, follow others, tweet about ordinary things as well as happenings within your industry.

Another advantage of monitoring your brand and levels of customer service on twitter is that you can listen to your customers, find out where the ‘cracks’ on, learn from them, improve your business and utimately keep your existing customers and gain new ones.

Don’t be afraid of negative tweets. You can still demonstrate your high levels of customer service by responding to them. Embrace twitter

Our next post will examine how you can improve and monitor your levels of customers service via your blog.

Lorna

The post How to improve your Customer Service using social media – Part 2 (Twitter) appeared first on Write On Track.