Live Tweeting Events: 8 Tips For Brands

Live TV events with large audi­ences present an oppor­tu­ni­ty for brands to cap­i­tal­ize upon hash­tags and con­nect with poten­tial cus­tomers.

Lisa Lacy By Lisa Lacy. Join the discussion » 0 comments

Brands that live tweet dur­ing big TV events enjoy high­er con­sumer engage­ment. And, in order to ful­ly cap­i­tal­ize upon the oppor­tu­ni­ty, experts say brands should, in part, plan ahead, enhance the con­tent and review their efforts after­ward.


With dis­tract­ed view­ing on the rise, live TV events with large audi­ences present an oppor­tu­ni­ty for brands to cap­i­tal­ize upon hash­tags, nab con­sumer eye­balls and con­nect with poten­tial cus­tomers as they check their Twit­ter feeds on var­i­ous devices dur­ing pro­gram­ming.

In fact, Ad Age com­piled a list of brands that par­tic­i­pat­ed in NBC’s live Peter Pan broad­cast and found brands as diverse as DiGiorno Piz­za, Charmin, Ritz, Sut­ter Home Wines and Wal­mart chimed in.

And there’s good rea­son.

Accord­ing to Twit­ter, live tweet­ing increas­es fol­low­er growth and retweets. To wit: among MLB teams, Twit­ter says its research has shown live-tweet­ing boosts fol­low­er growth 1.6 times and retweets 1.9 times.

So what do brands need to know about live tweet­ing before the next big TV event? Here’s what the experts say:

1. Pre-Promote

Twit­ter rec­om­mends spread­ing the word in the days lead­ing up to an event to ensure the biggest pos­si­ble audi­ence.

In addi­tion to ben­e­fit­ing from pro­mo­tion, Kristin Kovn­er, pres­i­dent of K‑Squared Strate­gies, said it will also oth­er­wise be strange for con­sumers to see a sud­den influx of tweets from a giv­en brand.

Give users the heads up so that they can choose to fol­low along with you — and your hash­tag — or come back lat­er. It will also help make sense of your feed, for users who scroll through at a lat­er time,” Kovn­er said.

2. Enrich The Conversation

Brands should con­cen­trate on enhanc­ing the event by adding some­thing use­ful to the online con­ver­sa­tion, be it humor or help­ful infor­ma­tion,” said Tes­sa Wegert, com­mu­ni­ca­tions direc­tor at dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing agency Enlight­en. “Mar­keters should always ask them­selves if what they’re tweet­ing is on-brand to avoid get­ting caught up in the excite­ment of the moment.”

Kovn­er agrees brands shouldn’t just tweet what hap­pened, but add their own gloss and brand voice.

Pull the most salient quotes, stats, or sound bytes from any event,” Koven­er said. “Add your opin­ion on what’s tran­spir­ing.”

3. Do A Little Heavy-Lifting Ahead Of Time

Depend­ing on the nature of the event, Wegert says craft­ing some brand-approved tweets in advance is one way to alle­vi­ate pres­sure and save time dur­ing a live TV event.

4. Include Pictures, Videos Where Possible

Twit­ter also notes that pic­tures and videos add col­or and tex­ture. In addi­tion, tweets with media typ­i­cal­ly get more retweets and favorites.

5. Reward Consumer Participation

This can include a brand ref­er­enc­ing users who are fol­low­ing along and chim­ing into the con­ver­sa­tion in tweets, as well as respond­ing to com­ments and ques­tions, Kovn­er said.

6. Tweet When The Spirit Moves You

There’s no set for­mu­la for how many tweets to send while live-tweet­ing, Twit­ter says. In oth­er words, when a brand feels moved to tweet, it should go for it.

7. Remember That Any Event Is Game

Any event that stirs up antic­i­pa­tion is a prime can­di­date for live-tweet­ing, espe­cial­ly events with mul­ti­ple moments of sus­pense — speech­es, awards cer­e­monies, sport­ing events, or hot TV shows, Kovn­er added.

8. Analyze Results After The Event

For live in-per­son events, Hub­spot rec­om­mends mak­ing sure to ana­lyze which tweets got the most favorites and retweets after the event so the brand can improve next time around.

Lisa Lacy

Written by Lisa Lacy

Lisa is a senior features writer for Inked. She also previously covered digital marketing for Incisive Media. Her background includes editorial positions at Dow Jones, the Financial Times, the Huffington Post, AOL, Amazon, Hearst, Martha Stewart Living and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.

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