I was reading Rohit Bhargava’s post, How to Speak at a Conference Without Getting Skewered on Twitter, and it got me thinking about some of the reasons why some speakers get killed by the Twitterati. Having seen it on several occasions (it can get ugly), I thought I would jot down a few early warning signs. Anyways, without further ado, here are 5 signs that the Twitterati may be coming after you (currently, these only apply if you are speaking to a room full of tech types):

  1. You are talking far more than the person that everybody came here to see (see Lacy, Sarah).
  2. You are speaking about social media to a room full of social media experts - It is easy to poke holes at somebody in a discipline where there is little consensus or best practice and everybody has their own terminology.
  3. You are taking an overwhelmingly unpopular position - Unfortunately, Twitterers feed off of and accelerate the mob mentality.
  4. You are reacting poorly to audience challenges or criticism - Getting defensive will only escalate the situation.
  5. You are talking way above or way below the general level of understanding of the audience - You need to be incredibly charismatic or well respected by the audience to pull this off.