Comments on: The Power of the Hashtag http://www.writeontrack.ie/tools-for-conferences/the-power-of-the-hashtag/ Content Creation & Social Media Training For SMEs Fri, 13 Oct 2017 18:38:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6 By: The Value of Twitter at Conferences « Write On Track http://www.writeontrack.ie/tools-for-conferences/the-power-of-the-hashtag/#comment-389 The Value of Twitter at Conferences « Write On Track Fri, 13 Jul 2012 23:02:46 +0000 http://write-on-track.com/?p=1257#comment-389 [...] followers. Embrace technology, learn from it and benefit from it. Read our previous posts on The Power of the Hashtag; How to Tweet at Conferences and Why Tweet at  Conferences. If you would like to book a training [...]

]]> By: Lorna http://www.writeontrack.ie/tools-for-conferences/the-power-of-the-hashtag/#comment-388 Lorna Wed, 02 May 2012 10:22:41 +0000 http://write-on-track.com/?p=1257#comment-388 Great summary of the use of hashtags Marie and I love looking back at storify too after a conference. I’d love if you did a post on it sometime too.

]]> By: Lorna http://www.writeontrack.ie/tools-for-conferences/the-power-of-the-hashtag/#comment-387 Lorna Wed, 02 May 2012 10:20:56 +0000 http://write-on-track.com/?p=1257#comment-387 Wow, thank you for such an engaged comment, Elaine. I totally agree that you can miss some of those nuggets of wisdom yourself if you are multi-tasking and I find that I tweet more when the presentation isn’t quite as interesting as I would like. The organisers did make the point that they wanted people to be fully present and I did find (apart from giving up on tweeting as no one else was using the hashtag) that I didn’t have the concentration to tweet effectively as well as listen and absorb – as it does take more concentration to write an articulate tweet than simply note take in a notebook.
Hashtags definitely have a place to play at conferences, it is just important not to let them take over I think and take from your engagement with the content.

]]> By: Smart Solutions (@smartsols_ie) http://www.writeontrack.ie/tools-for-conferences/the-power-of-the-hashtag/#comment-386 Smart Solutions (@smartsols_ie) Wed, 02 May 2012 10:14:39 +0000 http://write-on-track.com/?p=1257#comment-386 Hi Lorna,
Very appropriate topic – the mixture of socially engaging and attending a conference.
Most socially connected conferences provide nuggets of important information and “take-aways” for all. And it’s easy and great to share these online (via twitter, hashtags, etc). Certain conferences are to provide personal and professional development, and certainly from personal experience of attending these events, one needs to be “present” to really benefit from the content.

Using 140 characters is a great way to take notes, however, when I attend these events as an organiser, I can only be wholly present to socially share the content, make notes, keep an eye on the presenters, look after heating, projectors, tweet, take photos, keep out unsavouries etc etc. Interestingly, I miss a lot of the content as I am not “present” Of course, I have a job to do, and can look back on the tweets and hashtags to review some of the content.

On the other hand, as an attendee, I have attempted to socially share content and snippets online, and to be honest, it’s hard to be really “present” then, especially when the content is intense and of personal or professional development content.

Imagine tweeting away at a time management course, or Managing your Business course, now that would be ironic.

Conferences, by nature are not meant to be wholly learning, but include networking, sharing etc. This seemed plausible for the one you attended. The irony for me was that the organisers were very pro-active about promoting the conference on the website, blog, twitter, and an abundance of youtube videos. It would have been so easy to assign a hashtag, and encourage it’s use during the event – missed opportunity I reckon.

Last point, at least it created awareness around your own system of networking, and you can now build on improving this :)

]]> By: Marie Ennis-O'Connor (@JBBC) http://www.writeontrack.ie/tools-for-conferences/the-power-of-the-hashtag/#comment-385 Marie Ennis-O'Connor (@JBBC) Wed, 02 May 2012 10:13:30 +0000 http://write-on-track.com/?p=1257#comment-385 Lorna, you have really hit the nail on the head with this post on the value hashtags bring to conference attendees. Setting up a twitter hashtag for your event and encouraging attendees to tweet live from the event works to great effect – people love to tweet highlights of talks, photos of those present, the room, the speakers, everything they can. It creates a dynamic feel to your event. It is also a great tool for bringing on and off line audiences together. Your off-line audience get to follow along with the talks and the conversation and they can join in too by tweeting their own questions and comments (using the same hashtag). . Another great use of conference hashtags is the ability to curate the twitter conversation using a tool such as storify.It provides a good summary of the event and another way of networking during and after the event.

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