How to present with Twitter and other backchannels
November 20, 2009
Presenting with Twitter can be challenging. Just about every week a new story of a speaker getting roasted on Twitter makes waves in the blogosphere.
I’ve written a free eBook “How to present with Twitter (and other backchannels)” to help you avoid that fate. There’s no sign up required. Just click and read.
I asked my trusted and expert community to review the book and say what they thought of it:
“Fantastic eBook! Outstanding information and well worth the read.” Jeff Hurt, @JeffHurt and MidCourse Corrections
The two best alternatives to Twitter as a presentation backchannel
October 28, 2009
Note: This post was updated on 30 October to reflect TodaysMeet introducing Twitter integration.
The advent of the backchannel is a tremendous opportunity for presenters. The backchannel is an online conversation that takes place at the same time as people are talking live. Audience participation didn’t use to scale easily beyond a small group. Now, the backchannel allows every audience member, whatever the size of the group, to be an active participant. However, if you plan to use a backchannel proactively in your presentation, it may be better to use a backchannel tool other than Twitter. This is because:
- Twitter users won’t have to be concerned about overwhelming their followers with a series of presentation-specific tweets.
- Anybody can access and contribute to the backchannel without having to register.
That makes the backchannel more inclusive – no Twitter-divide – and allows the backchannel to become a lot more intimate amongst conference attendees.
10 tools for presenting with Twitter
October 14, 2009
Presenting while people are tweeting is challenging – but also adds a new dimension to the presentation experience for your audience. Gradually tools are being developed to make it easier for you as the presenter to manage the backchannel.
Posting Tweets during the presentation
Crafting a set of tweets for the main points of your presentation and then tweeting them as you make those points in your live presentation is a great way to be part of the Twitter conversation.
How to tweet during a presentation
June 30, 2009
The latest academic research on Twitter and conferences addresses the issue of “snarky tweets” during presentations. What should be the guidelines of what is acceptable and what is not? My own experience of tweeting during presentations at Presentation Camp LA highlighted for me the new challenges we face around Twitter etiquette at conferences.
The research
Tony McNeil reports on a survey of 103 people from a conference on learning technology in April 2009: More than just passing notes in class? Reflections on the twitter backchannel.
