This blog was originally titled: “How to Not Annoy Your Twitter Followers While At a Conference” but I changed the title  to focus on what’s positive and what I do have (which is engaged followers) rather than what I’m lacking (which would be unfollowers).

The idea for this post came to mind during DMA09. I appreciate that content and conversations at conferences inspires me with creative blog ideas. Several conversations around social media were sparked by my usage during the event.

• At one point during the DMEF Awards dinner almost every single person at my table was simultaneously on their BlackBerrys. One lady who was smartphone free asked me, who are you texting? I explained how I was posting a Twitter update congratulating the award winner.

• While exiting the exhibit hall to go to a session I pulled out my BlackBerry to check the #DMA09 Hashtag. I saw a tweet posted 7 minutes earlier by @infogroup “ who wants a FREE iTouch? First person to show me this tweet wins! Ask for Bryan, bright blue shirt, booth 2023” being not too far from the exhibit hall I bolted back and sure enough Bryan was standing there smiling with a brand new 8gb ipod touch waiting for me. He said “You seem like a Social Media person”

• Roaming the giant exhibit hall, a gentleman recognized me from a Social Media panel I spoke on back in July at the Digital Media Summit and introduced me to his colleague as a “Social Media Expert” (YIKES! We all know how Social Media professionals feel about this term)

All these conversations around Social Media emphasized to me what a heavy user I really am. In an effort not annoy my followers I even refrained from tweeting many times believe it or not!

According to this humorous article on what you need to stop tweeting about, many of you don’t care about my conference. But I’m still going to tweet about it! Most will agree when I say there’s just no way to get me keep my mouth shut (in this case my BlackBerry shut)  during an event where so much great content is produced.  Because this is the case I’ve come up with a few tips on how to engage your followers while tweeting at a conference, at the same time, not annoy the heck out of them! These tips are also designed to enhance your communication and add more value to your tweet stream during conferences.

1. Valuable Content- Tweet content that’s valuable and relevant to your audience, it’s that simple. This starts with knowing your audience and identifying the reasons you’re tweeting. Eliminate conference tweets that don’t have an educational value, comedic spin or any interesting content. Examples include:

“About to watch the Social Media Panel” – No one cares! Instead tweet something you learned on the panel

“Great first session, looking forward to the next speaker” – Ok but what was the first session about? Again post something of value.

“Had a great time at the conference, met some good folks” – Why did you have a good time? Who did you meet?

2. Event Photos– If you insist on tweeting  things such as “About to watch the Social Media Panel” (I’m quite guilty of this) then include a Tweetphoto of it! The photo enhances your tweet and creates a  live visual of your experience. In General, photos always enhance a boring tweet. Notice how no one cares what you ate for dinner but if you post a photo of your dinner, no one complains, infact the photo may even create cravings.

3. Action Items– Tweet action items so followers have another interactive way to follow your session that extends beyond Twitter. If the speaker is giving case studies about a particular campaign or website, direct your followers to check out the specific web page or profile that’s being referred to.  If the speakers gives you a URL to access the presentation, tweet the URL so followers have access to it too.

4. Retweetable Tweets– For tweets providing valuable content about something you just learned whether it’s a statistic or great tip, attempt to condense the tweet to 120 characters or less so you’re easily retweetable without followers being required to edit the tweet. Remember there’s no room to write RT @MyMelodie infront of a Tweet that’s already 140 characters long. It’s ok to abbreviate and misspell on Twitter as long as your tweet makes sense.

5. Questions– There are several ways to utilize questions in your tweets. If the speaker is giving the audience questions to ponder, ask your followers their opinion. The second way is to ask  followers to tweet questions they’d like answered by your speaker. Ask the question on your followers behalf and tweet back the answer with a tweet containing valuable content.  Questions provoke your followers to engage in a thought process that makes them feel involved.

What other tips do you have for enhancing your twitter activity during conferences? I would love to hear them!