Image by Yandle
Imagine you’re speaking at the Chamber of Commerce in a room of…oh, let’s say 100…business leaders and potential clients. Deliver an attention-grabbing presentation and you win some new accounts. Deliver a snoozer and you’ve wasted an hour of your valuable time. And probably hurt your reputation, too.
Now imagine you could get feedback on your presentation…as you’re giving it.
That’s the emerging trend at many tech conferences — a trend that will soon spread to your industry — thanks to the microblogging tool Twitter. Jeremiah Owyang at Forrester Research (@jowyang on Twitter) tipped me off (I follow him on Twitter…I’m @ScottHepburn) to this article on CNN.com.
The concept is simple. Twitter lets one person send out a short message…140 characters or less…to all of his followers at once via a Web platform or a mobile phone. I have about 100 people following me; some Twitterati have thousands of followers.
Using their cell phones, Twitterers in attendance at your event can essentially conduct a real-time group discussion about your presentation. Some savvy Twitterers are even plugging into the conversation and adapting presentations on the fly in response to the Twitter buzz.
Back to the Chamber. You’re in the middle of a speech about your widgets. Or your awesome service. Whatever. You look at your laptop and read the Twitter buzz. "Not enough case studies." "I’m confused…what does he mean?" "How could I use this for my company?" You shift on the fly, switching to Q&A. The crowd perks up, and by this afternoon, you’re inking new deals.
Twitter (and similar tools Pownce and Jaiku) are still emerging technologies, but they’re getting big-time buzz. Get in the game now, learn to use the tools, and you’ll be a step ahead of competitors as these things grow.