I spent a weekend covering huge environmental protests, and these are the 13 things I learnt about how to live-tweet.
Want more followers? Want to reach whole new audiences in a matter of hours? People look to Twitter when they are engaged and in need of real-time information, so covering an event with entertaining and useful tweets is a great way to keep them informed.
I covered the Extinction Rebellion protests in central London back in November. Because of the fast moving pace of the events, I knew I wouldn’t have enough time to write separate blog posts, so decided to live-tweet instead.
By the end of the day, my tweets had received engagement in the tens of thousands, and I had been followed by dozens of key accounts in the environmental community. Here’s what I learnt:
1. Use your Notes app
The evening before, I did a deep-dive into the key accounts and hashtags tweeting about the Extinction Rebellion protests. I made a note of them, and copied and pasted the phrase at the end of every tweet. This meant I was always getting the attention of the big accounts, and didn’t have to bother writing out the hashtag every tweet. My biggest tweets only got seen because of retweets from the larger accounts, so if you want traction this is a life-saver.
2. Tell your audience what you’re up to
It may be obvious to you, but not everyone will know what the event is that you’re covering. Let them know before to avoid confusion. I also changed my bio to let people know what I was up to, so new followers didn’t have to spend time working it out.
3. Set up alerts
The main Extinction Rebellion account had about 20k followers when I was tweeting. I set up alerts on their Twitter account so I knew the latest information they were publishing.
4. Be useful
Why should people follow your tweets? People want useful information, especially in the chaos of a protest. After getting talking to a protester, she showed me something on her phone — a map of London bridges shut due to the protests. I shared it and it was my most successful tweet of the day.
5. But it doesn’t have to be all serious
6. Threads
Threads are a great way for grouping together ideas. I think of them sort of like paragraphs — good for linking separate thoughts, like sentences, into a larger theme. However, they can make it hard for a single idea to have a pithy impact, so I used them sparingly.
7. Keep it people focused
It was an old saying in print media — “every picture of a person sells a paper”. The same is true on Twitter. Users will reacts more to people and their stories, so pick out people saying, doing or wearing interesting things. Don’t forget to ask permission and get people’s names.
8. Live video
Video is an excellent way to immediately capture the sights and sounds of a place. So you would think live video would be the ultimate live-tweeting medium. Well, maybe. I found it useful to capture speeches, but not so good for picking out key moments for my audience. I filmed for nearly half an hour (very battery intensive) and then moved on.
9. Bring a portable charger
I didn’t, and regret it. I had to use my laptop tucked into my rucksack to charge my phone when it got low. You will run out if you’re uploading media to Twitter, so make sure you bring one so you aren’t stopped by technical difficulties.
10. Be a member of the community
Retweet others so they take notice of you — they might return the favour!
11. Behind-the-scenes
I really like Laura Kuenssberg’s use of Twitter, where she covers the big events but also gives her audience a sneak peak into the life of a Westminster reporter. I tried to do something similar by letting my audience know the pitfalls of live reporting:
12. If it doesn’t work out, tell your audience
Your output doesn’t have to be perfect — it’s a live event. I had to move bridges because nothing was happening, and tweeted about it.
13. Stay in touch
After the event, people will expect you to remain interested and engaged. Make sure you don’t neglect your new following by promoting relevant content and accounts to keep them informed.