Message Management: Twitter CEO Evan Williams Tweets His Own Dog Food

(MoneyWatch)  For a time during his on-stage comments at the SXSW conference this week, Twitter CEO Evan Williams had to feel a little like Dr. Frankenstein being turned upon by the monster he created.

As attendees became impatient with a one-on-one interview with Williams conducted by Umair Haque of Havas Media Labs, even the Twitter faithful became restless. Attendees began trading critical, snide tweets about the uninspired exchange.

"Attendees leaving the keynote in droves after finding out there were no free hot dogs/t-shirts/button/key chains," tweeted jonsterp."There is a line to get OUT of the keynote," tweeted robkknoth.

Perhaps no rogue tweet or marquee blog was more scathing than Fast Company's indictment, calling the exchange "the most horrifically devastating keynote in SXSW history."

It was enough to prompt Williams to post his own ameliorating tweet: "I heard on the backchannel that people want me to answer tougher questions. What'ya want to know? Will answer 10. Go."

Mashable's Ben Parr parsed through the Twitter feed to extract what many consider more interesting fodder than the SXSW event.

Williams responded to random inquiries saying that Twitter would not be sold anytime soon, but will unveil a counter strategy to Facebook Connect,

That Williams resorted to spontaneously using his own platform to satisfy followers was masterful. It demonstrated that Williams was willing to answer tough questions - as long as they were asked. It also was a rare show of the CEO effectively problem solving and leading without a committee.

Lost in the shuffle was the announcement of Twitter's new @Anywhere platform, providing third-party functionality such as allowing users to plug into Twitter without navigating away from other website pages including YouTube videos.

Having moderated many panels and conducted one-on-one interviews with the media elite, I can only imagine the sinking feeling of watching a big conference room noticeably empty before your eyes. Williams and Haque were saved by the fact that the live Titter feeds were not displayed on the oversized screen behind them - as is so often the case at conclaves.

The moral of the story: Even at an eclectic gathering of entrepreneurs such as SXSW, showing up on stage isn't enough. You'd better have something to say worth tweeting about.