HOW TO: Listen
The beauty of Twitter tracking tools is that they are really detailed and fast. In 140 characters, people get to the point.
Most of the people that go to your event page will find that Twitter is the easiest way that they can voice their views, good or bad.
It is much quicker to post a comment on Twitter than to email the event host. Also, since RT’s and mentions are part of the twitter game, people want to talk with you, not at you and vice-versa.
The results are real time, which means that you can respond to questions or problems in minutes rather that hours or days. Twitter is where most of the conversation takes place, and if you aren’t there watching, then you are missing out on valuable information about your event. The community that you can build inside Twitter can be powerful.
If you get tooled up, you can get a detailed analysis of what you are doing well, what you need to improve and what people want.
There are 2 tools that I recommend, but you don’t have to stick with these. Just take what we do here and find a way to make it work with your favourite Twitter application.
TweetDeck
At the Future of web apps conference (FOWA), a lot people were using Tweetdeck. Its solid and super easy to use. To listen to what people are saying about your event, add a few search columns for the keywords and hash-tags that represent your event. For example, For the Launch conference, I would search for
Tweetizen
Tweetizen allows you to create a “group,” which you can use to track keywords or hash-tags, but the difference here is that you can embed the results in any web page. This is great for product pages or launch pages so that you can build hype for your brand without having to force it on your own. Get the conversation going and watch it take off.
You simply cannot afford not to ignore what others are saying about your event. Create a daily practice of listening with both ears open and respond where necessary. Nurture your fans, and earn the trust of the negative ones. Do this for yourself and you’ll be ahead of the game.
