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To the Presenter:

So you’ve decided to use moderator* to help you monitor the Twitter backchannel. Smart move! Unless your moderator has done this before, chances are he or she will have a few questions for you. Below are some tips to help you and your moderator get the most out of your Twitter backchannel experience.

To the Moderator

A presenter has asked you to help moderate the Twitter backchannel. This will allow the presenter to have more audience interaction — which is always a good thing! By serving as the moderator, more people inside and outside of the room will become involved in the conversation. I’m sure your presenter and those watching the conversation through Twitter will appreciate what you’re doing!

Hashtags

The hashtag for the event is #___________.

The hashtag for the session is #___________.

Getting started. The Moderator should:
o Log into the Twitter stream monitoring tool recommended by the speaker. (I recommend TweetChat.com.)
o Search on the session hashtag #___________.
o Decrease the refresh speed to the fastest refresh speed (5 seconds last time I looked).
o Watch the twitter feed throughout the session.

What the Presenter will be doing
o The presenter will introduce the session hashtag toward the beginning of the session. He or she should also have it prominently posted in the room if at all possible.

o The presenter will let the audience know that you as the moderator will be monitoring tweets with the session hashtag. The presenter will encourage the audience to tweet questions or comments about what they’re hearing during the session.

o The presenter will also encourage anyone who wants to monitor the session hashtag to retweet anything they agree with. If the audience hears something they like, then they’re sharing valuable information with their followers. If the audience member has the same question or the same disagreement as another’s tweet, the presenter will encourage them to retweet that too. Those retweets let the presenter know that there is more than one person who has the same question or issue so he or she will want to be sure to address that topic.

What the Moderator needs to do

o As the moderator, tweet directly from TweetChat. TweetChat will automatically put in the session hashtag and post the tweet from your Twitter account. Also include the conference hashtag too so that the conference organizers and those who couldn’t make the conference get the benefit of the Twitter conversation.

o If someone has a simple questions that you can answer (What time does this session end? What did the speaker say her name was? What was the website that she said the moderator was using to monitor the Twitter stream?) please tweet a reply to help that person out.

o The presenter will take a Twitter break approximately 15 minutes into the program. The presenter will turn to you at that time and ask for any feedback from the tweets so far.

o As you monitor the tweets, look for trends. If anything is retweeted, particularly questions or disagreements with content, be sure and bring up that topic during the Twitter breaks.

o Subsequent Twitter breaks will be in approximately 15 minutes intervals. The presenter will again turn to you to see what questions or feedback there may be.

o For smaller audiences, expect that discussion and questions will come through traditional verbal exchanges between attendees and the presenter, even with the Twitter discussion.

o For audiences new to the concept, expect some experimentation and joking around (“Hey, world, look at me”, ribbing a buddy across in the room, etc.). That kind of experimentation is fine. Once the presenter get into the meat of the content, the audience should focus on the material and get involved in the conversation.

o Talk to your presenter to see how he or she wants to handle the situation if things start going off track and the Twitter backchannel is talking about it – for example – the audience can’t hear the speaker, the speaker is talking too quickly, people are going on too long with the “Hey, world, look at me” chatter. Generally speaking, getting the presenter’s attention and addressing the situation as soon as possible, with as much transparency as possible, works best. Better to discuss such a situation with the presenter before it happens so everyone – audience member, speaker and you as the moderator – is able to adjust to the interruption with their dignity intact.

o For larger audiences, Twitter will be a godsend to look for trends and to hear great questions from the introvert who would never speak up in a big crowd.

The Twitter backchannel is a great way to engage an audience. These guidelines can help everyone tweet each other well!

I’d love to hear your feedback after using these guidelines! Were they helpful? What was the hardest thing about moderating the backchannel? What was the most surprising? What was the coolest part? I’d love to hear what you think! Send me an email!

*If you moderator is relatively new to twitter, point him or her to this blog post for basic terminology:
http://kellyvandever.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/twitter-the-presenters-new-best-bud-part-2-the-terminology/

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