You’re off to the big conference, your booth is ready and the iPhone is charged but do you know how to utilize Twitter to squeeze every possible opportunity out of this conference?

1. Identify Yourself!

Any technology conference that is not held out of someone’s garage will have a hashtag associated with it. Hashtags make your tweets more easily searchable and let readers know what content your tweet will include. Confused? Search #hrtech on Twitter or twitterfall.com and you will get a clearer picture. All your posts relating to the conference should include the hashtag of your conference. If you don’t know it, ask your booth neighbor as chances are he or she will.

2. Status Check

Keep an eye on the steady stream of tweets based around your conference’s given hashtag. Trying to process all this information is like trying to drink from a firehouse, as soon as you’ve read one tweet three others have popped up. Instead of attempting to read everything look for trends or themes. This will allow you to overlook the internal conflict some guy is having over which skinny tie to wear to the conference and see what @voicescreener said that got retweeted four times in the last minute.

3. Make New Friends

Like your first day of school you will meet all sorts of new people. There will be the prom queen (@jobfoxemployer just won Human Resources Product of the Year at HRTech) and there will be the kid who eats Play-Doh. Be nice to everyone, if they follow you, follow them and if you are interested in their business, following them on Twitter is a great first step in building that relationship. If there is a Tweetup, a physical meet between fellow Twitter users, go and network for a few minutes. A face to face meeting will strengthen those relationships you made through Twitter.

Making the time investment and following these three tips will pay off in the future with prosperous relationships. Have you ever met someone through Twitter that has helped your business, if so, please share. There are so many great ways to use Twitter at a technology conference, tell us what techniques you have employed.