Do any of you allow people to tweet during a performance (gasp!) If so, what are your guidelines? We're thinking of telling people to tweet before the show, during intermission and after the show. Just wondering if anyone allows this during a performance.
Haven't had to deal with this yet (our hall opens next fall) but I've been following some interesting articles on the subject. You can find several examples by googling "tweet during a performance".
The best suggestion I've seen for folks who want to tweet *during* the show is some organizations who set aside specific sections of the hall as "tweet sections" where it is acceptable for patrons to have their phones out during the show.
There was also a good thread on this running through Twitter awhile back under the hashtag #tweetseats.
We have a little note in our concert guides (programs) that encourages people to tweet before or after performances but not during.
However, my own take on it is that, as long as they're not being disruptive to patrons nearby, you should let people tweet whenever and wherever they like. To my mind, tweets during a show are a form of word-of-mouth advertising that you couldn't get anywhere else. A tweet goes out to the entire world, so if someone (or a group of someones) are sitting in your show, telling all the world how great you are - why would you want to put onerous restrictions on them?
Of course, some people don't appreciate seeing phones being lit up during a performance, so thus I think the "tweet seats" option that Levi talked about is the best way to go.
But put on a good show and let a tweeter loose in the house - it could be very good for PR.
We actually have a “Tweet Suite” where patrons can sit and watch the show and tweet during a performance.
Teresa
From: Tessitura Technical Forum [mailto:forums-technical@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Gloria OrmsbySent: Tuesday, December 07, 2010 3:12 PMTo: Teresa DeanSubject: [Tessitura Technical Forum] Tweeting During Performances
This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Technical Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Technical forum or visit the site to search, read and post to the forums. In the interest of keeping the forum posts from becoming cluttered, we encourage you to delete previous message text from your reply before sending. Thank you!
We actually encouraged patrons to Tweet at one of our shows last Summer. It was an outdoor venue with picnics and kids, so we felt that tweeters weren't going to be any more distracting than what was already going on.
Our encouragement came in the form of an official program to have "Live Reviewers" at the show. Anyone who wanted to do it contacted us in advance to set things up. We got their contact info and twitter handle, and gave them a hashtag to use. And then after the performance we gave out prizes for the best tweets and Facebook updates.
It was a lot of fun and worked well for an outdoor summer concert. I don't know if we would want to do it for a regular show, but I like the idea of the "Tweet Suite", and it's fun to say.