Comments on: How to tweet during a presentation

By: 100 Top Twitter Tips for Academics | Home Business, Marketing and PLR Membership Website

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:20:42 +0000

[...] nice while tweeting during a presentation. This blog post recommends only tweeting something you would be comfortable saying [...]

By: 100+ Serious Twitter Tips for Academics | SociableBlog.com : Social Media Blog

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:04:15 +0000

[...] nice while tweeting during a presentation. This blog post recommends only tweeting something you would be comfortable saying [...]

By: When to tweet? Twitter at conferences and presentations - Educational Technology Blog

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:26:08 +0000

[...] Mitchell discuses these issues in thoughtful posts on How to tweet during a presentation, Should you display the live twitter stream on a large screen? and other Twitter related subjects [...]

By: Olivia Mitchell

Olivia Mitchell — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 05:56:08 +0000

Thank you Jeff for your valuable input (as always). Negative tweets simply make overt what the person was thinking. I agree that it’s better to deal with this, then to hide from it. Olivia

By: Jeff Hurt

Jeff Hurt — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:44:33 +0000

I’d like to spin this in a different direction. Why would someone send a snarky or negative tweet in the first place? Could it be that the presentation is not meeting their needs? Could it be that the speaker is not open to other points of view? Could it be that the information is outdated? It really is about the attendee in the first place, not the speaker.

As someone who plans education events, hires presenters and culls through presentation evaluation data, I’m finding that my attendees are becoming less tolerant of speakers that do not provide relevant, current and timely content. Attendees’ written comments have become more critical of speakers than I’ve ever seen in the past 15+ years. I speculate it’s because attendees view their time and attention as their resources, equivalent to money. They don’t want to waste their time, their attention or their money.

Bottom line, if the presentation isn’t meeting the attendee’s needs, it is more likely that negative tweets will be shared. A good presenter will start out their presentation inviting people to take care of their needs and if the presentation is not connecting with the attendee, inviting them to try another session, if one is available. Also, limiting the amount of lecture time and increasing audience engagement will give attendees a chance to voice concerns or other points of views.

That being said, I’ve seen some outstanding speakers lately who take breaks during their presentation to review the back channel and adjust their presentations. I am amazed at their transparency and authenticity during their presentations. They view negative tweets as an opportunity to engage disgruntled attendees.

By: Olivia Mitchell

Olivia Mitchell — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:03:05 +0000

Hi Arne
Thanks for adding your experience to the mix. Olivia

By: Olivia Mitchell

Olivia Mitchell — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:59:50 +0000

Hi Cliff
“Twecklers”. I love it. I’ll definitely put that idea down for a future post.

For those that are wondering about where to find the normal hecklers material – I haven’t yet written a post on this (Cliff is referring to a live workshop) but will do so soon. Olivia

By: Cliff Atkinson

Cliff Atkinson — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:51:20 +0000

Great post, Olivia! A negative Tweet is pretty much the same as a negative rating on an evaluation form – and can be helpful if it highlights a real issue you can address. But there’s always the danger during a live presentation that a negative Tweet will beget more negative Tweets until an “unruly Twitter mob” forms and derails the presentation. In that case you’ve got to engage the issue directly and apply techniques to bring the audience back to your side, and back on topic. The material you teach on handling hecklers is a great fit here – maybe in a future post you can help us learn How to Handle Twecklers?

By: Arne Hulstein

Arne Hulstein — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:28:59 +0000

Nice post Olivia. It is also interesting if the survey were to include different events to see how that all works out. Mobile Monday in the Netherlands have opted at times to not show a backchannel apparently due to the negative comments from the audience. On the other hand, during Somesso in London we had a very positive backchannel which really added to the whole atmosphere and the discussion. Only tweeting what you would say in someone’s face is a nice guideline, but not the best result for anyone, because as we know, some people will say anything in anyone’s face. Mutual respect ought to be the guidline to work with.

As an aside, I would love speakers to interact with the audience based on the tweets. I try to…

By: Wolfgang Reinhardt

Wolfgang Reinhardt — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:00:07 +0000

Olivia,
thanks for your post. Yes you’re right, only tweet what you would say live and face-to-face. But what should these rules contain? Basically the only rule I think about is “be critical but not personal” as Mike already mentioned. I as a presenter am interested in all kind of feedback I can get and Twitter definetely is the first tool that gives me this broad feedback…

I think we have to deal with all tweets if we employ Twitter in our presentations…