Are You Live or Memorex?
Maybe I’m a bit naive but I can’t for the life of me wrap my head around pre-written responses on social media. Particularly those on conversation that happen live such a tweetchats. If you are not familiar, a tweetchat is a live conversation that happens on Twitter where parties come together to have a conversation 
on topic. I happen to moderation such a beast called #bealeader™. Typically with Tweetchats, there is a framing post that is created to give an idea of the topic and I’ll go the extra step of posting the questions ahead of time as well. What I didn’t consider is that participants would write their answers before the chat as it if were a test. No one is grading you at tweetchats. You are not being judged. It’s a conversation. When you come to a tweetchat it’s similar to a network event, you are being invited to come join in the conversation, not show up and one up each other with your “wisdom”. You are there to participate, give your expertise and share your knowledge. Apparently somewhere I missed a memo. The conversation in tweetchats can take turns you may not be able to see ahead of time. Guests may have questions you might not be able to see ahead of time – and as the facilitator you need to allow that happen. Some facilitators frown on going off the script. They just want to ask the predetermined questions and get the responses. I don’t work that way. I want my guests to be inspired to think. If my questions inspire more conversation – GREAT! Let’s riff off that. Let the guest talk to each other, let there be more conversation – screw the original questions – let’s go with your questions. After all, is the chat about you or your guests? Are doing this for your ego or growing the base of your community? Your guests are going to tell you whether or not you have a good chat. If all you are getting is answers to your questions and at the end of the chat no one took away a good chunk of information or a new contact, what was the point of spending the hour in your chat? Put yourself in the audience of your chat for the moment – would you want to spend an hour in your chat?
If you are pre-writing answers to tweetchats – stop. Why bother going to the chat if you have answered all the question ahead of time. Just submit the answers to their Facebook page (if they have one) and spend that hour doing something else. Tweetchats are a chance for you to be real. They are a chance for you to show that you are not bot on Twitter and to network with others who may want to get to know the real you. Why not participate in a tweetchat and let your words showcase who you are to the world.
I agree totally Jen. As a matter of fact, I don’t read the questions beforehand because I want to be surprised. I think deeper thoughts come to the surface at the spur of the moment, taking me, not just the conversation, in new directions.
Thanks, AJ. I was surprised to learn how many answer the questions ahead of time and then cut/paste their answers prior to many tweetchats. To me, that’s cheating. How do you know where the conversation will go before the chat? Something might change in the conversation. I post the questions so that those who can’t attend the chat might add their 2 cents to the conversation and have a conversation prior to the chat – so they don’t feel left out. Sometimes, the questions are just starting points. We go off the questions entirely. I’ve seen chats where the guest just respond to the questions and there is no conversation at all – boring. Thanks for your response and honesty, AJ
i suppose that prewritten tweets that contain quotes or some other message are good if your intention is to be 24/7 but even then, its a pointless exercise, to me. Pre writing the response to a question on a tweetchat is so lame. I am always amazed at how some airlines ask what I want to eat one or even three months prior to the flight! How do I know what I will fancy eating then? Likewise, how will I know what i want to say prior to the event on twitter. I very. rarely, EVER answer right away. i always wait to see what others write as their answer as it sometimes fires up some other neural pathway in my brain and I write something spontaneous…To hell with prewritten responses…as sales trainers and leaders we are always wanting our people to think for themselves and get away from scripts and pitches…and here we are doing almost the same thing.. Spontaneity rules..
Thanks, Dave. Scripts never work in sales. Everyone knows when you are reading off a prompt – it just comes off as phony. I just don’t understand how you can telegraph your responses on a chat. The conversation can turn, and if have your responses prewritten, you could sound out of the loop. What if someone challenged your response – do you have prewritten response? You have be on your toes for tweetchats, the vibe of the guests has to be gauged. You need to know the room, work the room. Too many hosts try to control the conversation as well. You can’t control people.
Hey, hey hey! I have to think about these things! LOL… Also, My thoughts tend to be WAAAY over 140 characters!
But, I do see your point. Another of my own reason-ings is that it moves FAST! I can’t even believe how fast it moves… and I have only yet attended #bealeader’s chats so far, but I can never believe it when you say thank you and it’s done… By thinking and planning out my own responses to the Q’s that I HAVE a response for ahead of time, it does give me the time to be able to read what everyone else is saying and adding to that…
I would much rather listen (read), and let what I am learning (because I ALWAYS hear something I hadn’t thought of before…or put something together in a way that just clicks) perk around and respond then… and if I still don’t have an answer or anything to offer, I just hush and support who does have something to offer…
~ Am I out of line? Am I missing the point? Spontaneity may rule but my brain just doesn’t work that fast… I am the one that always says to myself later, “ooo, I should have said….”
I think it takes time. My point in this are for those who have canned responses to questions. Some folks, and I’ve learned this from other chats I’ve attended, just cut and paste responses. When you question their responses you hear crickets. They don’t know how to respond when they are questioned. They just come in, respond and leave. Apparently, they just want to make “profound” statements and get RT’d. I see few who come in – and just throw up a quote from some “guru” and think they have contributed to the conversation, get RT’d 70 times and feel they have made a real dent in the conversation….NOT. I can understand those who want to think about their responses ahead of time hence the framing post. However, once you get into the chat, you will sense where the conversation is going and you might find that the questions being asked are just jumping off points. The guest may have better questions – and that takes the chat in a different direction. I had one chat where the conversation went differently than I expected – and better than I thought. The participants really do drive the conversation at times – you as a the leader might find that you have a vision for the conversation but your guests will tell you if you are on the right track. When I attend other chats, I don’t answer every question sometimes. There are times when you don’t have too – you can sit back and listen to others – soak up their knowledge. I found that to be case more than not. Not everyone has to speak, you can agree with others and just listen to participate. I will read the framing post, decide what I can speak to and what I cannot. You can always comment directly to someone – give them atta boy on their comment or ask them a question to clarify their comment as well – that’s part of the conversation too – it’s not always about responding to the questions.
I totally get and understand that, Jen, thank you for answering. It fries my butt, naive or not, that people have to “game” everything they touch. The chats I have attended (only the last three) have taught me, made me laugh and brought tears to my eyes at something I realized I had been doing, blindly… I am here to learn and share what I have learned.
I tend to get and be fairly protective and possessive of what I consider “special” and #bealeader is definitely special to me. Please don’t ever walk on eggshells with me if I am messing up. I want to be and learn and share all I can. If I am doing it WRONG, I can guarantee and promise- it isn’t on purpose. I would rather have you throw something at me than sit back and wait for me to “get it” ok?
I have seen what happens at #bealeader chats ~ it’s wild! LOL…. another good reason for the “homework” and to be able to keep up!
Thanks, Amber-Lee. I’m very protective of #bealeader as well. I want everyone to come out of the chats with a new friend and a bit of knowledge to boot. We all have something to share and give to the world and if the chats and community of #bealeader can be that vehicle, I’m very proud to serve. I will always be here to help you in any way I can. As long as honest folks have their eyes on the road, the dishonest folks will always be on their heels. Cheers!
Huh? I don’t get the point here at all. Why would you do this? The thought never ever crossed my mind to do something so silly. Then again the thought never crossed my mind to buy followers either, but people do that too…weird….
People are strange – Jim Morrison. You know, Gerry, I would never in a million years think to write my tweets ahead of time either. It amazes me the lengths that people will go to game the system
the really scary thing here Jen is how many years have passed since I first heard the phrase ‘is it live or is it memorex’! thanks for that reality check, it bounced!!!
I think we have dated ourselves here with that…I remember the commercial….ha!
I remember buying packs of memorex to record all the great movies over christmas!!! HA! and pausing during the commercials…thanks for the memory/ex
Yes. I remember buying them to record songs…I had to explain to my son what a cassette tape was – that was a long story….
I’m a lot like AJ. I don’t usually look at the questions in advance since a big part of the fun and engagement is thinking on my feet and engaging with other’s content real time. I do see why some may have some thoughts in advance given that some tweet chats can feel like they move at the speed of light. Still, there has to be room to add more, say more and connect more than what’s planned or it’s just a one way feed, like you wrote, to get lots of RTs and show how smart we are. I’m less bothered by people that think through some initial thoughts in advance than I am people who seem to only offer “soundbites” of quotes, words of wisdom etc. Every time I see them in a chat (across multiple chats) they seem to have the same sound bites and words of wisdom that feel significantly less fresh and insightful every time I see them.
Memorex DVD’s were my thing but cassettes? Ha! I have vague memory 8 track cartridges….giving a kid today a cassette tape and a pencil and asking them to explain how the two go together is a great exercise…
I had my first 8 Track at age 6…wow…that would even further confuse kids today….it is a good exercise.
Thanks, Alli. I agree. The soundbite folks always seem to drop in the same tweets – even if they do not fit the topic. I feel that is always such a turnoff for connection. When you reply those tweets, you never get a response or you get a completely different response as they are shocked that someone spoke to them. My other pet peeve are those who autotweet announcing their own chat in the middle of other chats – I wish they would think about how that would sound in real conversation. Imagine two people talking and then they interrupt with a comment about their own chat – how does that sound? It sounds rude…