The Twitter Impact…
Posted on February 24th, 2009 by Cynthia D'Amour
At ASAE’s Great Ideas conference.
Twittering was encouaraged at Great Ideas.
- A core group tweeted (shared) what was going on.
- Key ideas from sessions.
- As well as where to meet later on.
Twitter for those who don’t know…
- Allows people to send out short bursts of information.
- It goes to the entire world via the web.
- You can add special characters to the tweet so anyone can follow what is being said about the event - such as #ideas09.
Tweeting live at events is both new and old.
- People have always had comments about what happened in sessions.
- You heard it in the hallways and bathrooms.
- Tweeting can happen during sessions - and reach more people too.
Tweeting during presentations can create stress on speakers.
- Are they capturing brilliant remarks?
- Are they tweeting something less positive?
- Or are they simply bored and checking e-mail?
I’m not totally sure how I feel about twittering at events.
- I know it’s not going to go away.
- The numbers of folks doing it is growing exponentially.
- As more jump in, the effectiveness may dilute with information overload.
I’m curious to see how the twitter effect impacts future meetings.
Makes me think of chapter leaders…how are you using Twitter with your chapter?
Filed under: Board challenges, Savvy Leadership
You bring up a really good point. I wasn’t there for Great Ideas and had a busy weekend, so I wasn’t able to keep up while the event was going on as much. I had to go back and look.
While you’re at the event, monitoring the backchannel (like at the Tech Conference) is gold. You know what’s going on with sessions that you’re missing, but I found out at Great Ideas, that by not being there you get a general glimpse, but there is so much going on that it’s hard to keep up and do all the other stuff you have to get done. I have to keep reminding myself that I don’t need to absorb EVERYTHING.
You can also tell who are the the more experienced Tweeters, who understand that someone is listening to what they are saying, those who are really getting something out of the event. But I agree that there is a little bit of dilution the more people that tweet, though that is the price for wanting others to participate.
Being on the outside this time will really help me understand how to Tweet better for sure, I just want to encourage those that are just starting out or have been tweeting for awhile to take a step back and look at whether or not you are really providing your community with value with your Tweets.
Hi Lynn,
Thanks for the feedback on being in the receiving end. I think there may have been what? Maybe 15-20 folks twittering at Great Ideas?
As more people start to twitter, the numbers reporting will also grow. What happens when the number grows to 50? 100? or more?
We are already seeing online community burnout. People can only manage a handful. What happens when Twitter goes from a neat stream of key ideas to a firehose of information good and bad - all using the same hashtag?
There are opportunities ahead as ROI diminishes. Just not sure what they are - yet.
Thoughtful post, Cynthia–thank you!
It was interesting to me to experience what it was like to twitter from Great Ideas. I definitely felt myself missing out on some comments in sessions because I was busy twittering the last thing I heard–but at the same time, that happens to me when I’m just taking notes. On the plus side, I did love the feeling that what I was posting to Twitter was engaging and interesting people outside of the room, and outside of the conference.
But you’re right to wonder about whether hashtags like #ideas09 could turn into firehoses once more people are on Twitter. I wonder if there will be a role for Acronym, or Associapedia/conference wikis, in capturing that twitter activity and putting it all together into slightly less immediate but more coherent notes, during or shortly after a conference ends.
Hi Lisa!
Thanks for stopping by - and tweeting at my program the other day!
I’ve done live tweeting as well. Definitely takes away from personal learning - at least about what’s being discussed in the room.
I saw a blogger who pulled the twitter stream for each day as a post. Still a ton to read and did not make for the easiest following with different feeds interwoven.
As Mark Dorsey likes to say, information is free. He’s willing to pay for analysis.
Will be curious to see how you and your team decide to address it for annual meeting. Let me know if I can help. Cynthia
Great post–even as one of the avid twitterers at the conference, I found myself thinking the same thing. Not so much questioning the value of it–because I did find it very valuable–but definitely thinking about it from a presenter’s perspective. Does it distract them to see people thumbing away on their phones? Does it offend them that people aren’t paying attention to what they’re saying? Probably both.
Then again, when I presented I didn’t even notice the person (people?) who were tweeting–I was impressed and, when I saw the comments afterwards, grateful that someone found my presentation “tweet-worthy!”
Maybe in the future there will be some kind of meeting twitterquette–sit in the back, keep your phone in your lap so it doesn’t distract other people?
As for worry that tweets will be negative, to me it’s no different than having someone come up to you as soon as your session ends and telling you you move your hands around too much and it’s distracting and diminishes the effectiveness of your presentation. In other words, thanks for the feedback; I’m sure I will still be moving my hands around just as much next time.
I predict that in future ASAE meetings there will be more “designated tweeters.” Just as presenters are aware that they are being taped or videotaped, they’ll be aware that their session is being live-tweeted and will hopefully be able to tune it out more.
Thanks for sharing your perspective Maggie. I think it’s going to take some time for folks to get used to.
As a speaker, you can tell ASAE you don’t be recorded. With Twitter, you don’t have that options. Anyone can tweet - official or not. The public party is part of the neat factor of Twitter.
I’m also not sure if it is more nerve-wracking for someone who gets Twitter and understands the impact - or someone who isn’t quite sure what it’s about.
I’m curous to see how it plays out - especially for the folks who don’t speak often.