Hi my name is Jayne Corso and I am the Community Manager for AEA. Evaluation 2015 planning is well underway and, as always, social media will play a big part before, during, and after the conference. Social media is a great way to interact with other evaluators and gain the most up-to-date information on Evaluation 2015. Try these tips to get the most out of social media and increase engagement with fellow evaluators.
Pre-conference
Follow the Hashtag: Use #Eval15 to stay connected on Facebook and Twitter. If you search #Eval15 on either site, you will find the latest posts about the event from AEA directly and other evaluators who are talking about Evaluation 2015. You can even join the conversation—add #Eval15 to your Evaluation 2015 posts.
Follow Evaluation 2015 Presenters: You can find a few of your favorite presenters on social media. Follow them before, during, and after the conference to see their Evaluation 2015 highlights and take advantage of this access to ask questions about their session or evaluation work. Below are a few examples:
Stephanie Evergreen: @evergreendata
Ann K. Emery: @AnnKEmery
Sheila Robinson: @SheilaBRobinson
Kirk Knestis: @Knestis
During Conference
Be Active Onsite: Being active on social media during a conference can help with your personal branding, expand your network to more like-minded people, and help you get more out of the entire conference experience in general. Through Twitter and Facebook and help from our AEA community we can put our in-person conference in real time.
While at Evaluation 2015 live tweet your sessions. This allows you to post bite sized takeaways from your session, share pictures from the event, and make connections while you are in Chicago. Add #Eval15 to your posts so all attendees and non-attendees who are following Evaluation 2015 can see your post and gain a wider prospective on all events at the conference.
Don’t be afraid to reach out to other people on Twitter or Facebook who are also covering Evaluation 2015! This is where the conference hashtag comes in; just click the hashtag and comment, favorite, and retweet away.
Post-conference
Connect After Evaluation 2015: After Evaluation 2015, AEA will be posting photos and highlights from the event—so stay connected with AEA! You can also stay in touch with fellow conference attendees and follow your favorite presenters. Our goal is to help you extend your social network by the end of Evaluation 2015!
We can’t wait to see you in Chicago!
Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org . aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.