 Meeting planners, if you haven't started using Twitter to market your events or stay in touch with your delegates, today's blog post and video is just for you. And if you have started using Twitter to market and promote, then maybe today's tips will ensure that you're on the right track when you're using Twitter and implementing it at your conferences. We're using Twitter today, folks. Here we go. Hey, friends. It's Leanne, and while I tend to use LinkedIn to distribute my content, I still feel Twitter is the best way to stay connected with your delegates, especially when you're on site at your conferences. It's short and it's sweet and it allows you to react in real time to things that are happening on site with your program. And I think that's one of the reasons Twitter was really the first social media platform that events and conferences started using to have that two-way dialogue with their delegates. A lot of other social media platforms are now used in marketing and in real time, but let's go back and look at why Twitter is so powerful when you're using it at your events. And while you can include photos and videos, I think Twitter is a great way to pass along information, especially as it happens in real time, be it changes in your program, changes in room assignments and speaker assignments. And then delegate feedback as well, because you've got 200, 500, 1,000 boots on the ground, maybe giving you intel that you can't see. So this is where Twitter, I think, transcends some of those other platforms. But some of these tips I'm going to give you today will also apply to LinkedIn or Instagram as well. But keep in mind, it's predominantly about the hashtag and about promoting and getting real time feedback through Twitter. Tip number one is hashtag creation. Now you want to create your event hashtag months in advance. If not years in advance, if you're planning far out into the future and want to reuse a hashtag. But here are some things to keep in mind when you're creating your hashtag. Number one, keep it short and sweet. Number two, make sure you test drive it. There's so many events out there, we want to make sure that your event is using that hashtag and that hashtag alone. And number three, hashtags transcend platforms. So make sure when you do that test drive of your hashtag, you're looking not only at Twitter, but you're also looking at LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram as well. Tip number two, hashtag marketing. We want to get this hashtag out there as far reaching as possible. It's got to be on your website, in your conference registration materials, in your confirmation materials as well, your mobile application, on your name badges. It needs to be distributed to your delegates, your speakers, your sponsors, your exhibitors. You need to ensure that people know exactly where to find information about your event, regardless of what device they are using. So make sure your hashtag is everywhere once you're done chest driving it. And if you're curious about how to cross post hashtags and find hashtags that you can start promoting your own. I did do a video about hashtags that we use in the meetings and events industry, and you can find that video in the description for this as well. But also look at the hashtags that your association uses. That's where you want to start promoting your own hashtag is through the hashtags that your delegates are already using. Tip number three, have a Twitter guru or a social media point person. This is the person that's going to be watching your hashtag. And of course, responding to any questions and inquiries in real time. So ensure that there's a member of your staff or a volunteer who's able to stay on top of all your social media platforms and your Twitter feed. Tip number four, have a social media or a Twitter team. These people are also known as influencers and they're people that can distribute the Twitter hashtag to their audiences as well. So identify people in your association that are really well versed in social media. They don't mind marketing your event using the hashtag and give them some ideas on how to get that hashtag out there to your audience. Tip number five, and often the most overlooked one, is internet bandwidth at your venue. Make sure your venue has enough bandwidth to support all the devices that people are now going to be using to communicate using your hashtag and all your social media. So talk to your venue, find out how much bandwidth you have, because you don't want to do all of this promotion of using social media if people arrive on site and they can't use social media because of the internet. Tip number six, your name badges. It's an easy one. Just make sure the hashtag for your event is on the name badge, but also include the handle of that delegate on the name badge as well. So when they're communicating with other delegates and they're meeting people, people can see right away how to get a hold of them on Twitter. And my final tip, this one's a little bit more work, but I think there's a lot of value here is to have a Twitter education session. And this is where you host a simple 20 to 30 minute webinar. Maybe you film a YouTube video on how to use the hashtag. People find value in that kind of teaching and are more apt to use the hashtag if you give them some prompts and some leading and teaching. So invest some time in creating a little bit of a tutorial for your hashtag and for your event, and you might see more engagement with that hashtag. So those are my seven tips for implementing Twitter at your conferences, but you guys are doing it all the time as well. And I want to hear from you. Will you let me know some of your best practices when you're incorporating Twitter into your events? Please comment below this video. Twitter is still one of the most useful and engaging tools for engaging your delegates, sponsors, exhibitors at your event. I encourage you to try using Twitter at your next event if you haven't already. To learn more about our complementary services for meeting planners, hop on over to our website at www.conferencesource.net and learn how Stephen and I can assist you with your next event. Thanks for watching this week's video and all the best at your conferences this season. Happy tweeting. Bye for now.