How to make the most of a Twitter chat
Posted on December 02, 2011 by @mqtodd
By far the most fun thing for me about Twitter is participating in chats.
I have found good ones on every day except Fridays and Saturdays and genuinely look forward to them.
One of the big reasons is that you find such cool people on Twitter chats! People who have knowledge in specialist areas and are prepared to share it all in an engaging manner. Inevitably very supportive people right across the internet too.
So how do you get involved?
A great directory of around 400 regular chats can be found at http://twebevent.com. This website also offers a great free page for you to set up your own Twitter chat on. These pages incorporate an application called tweetchat whic has some great functions that allow automatic tweeting of the relevant hashtag, quick retweeting, pausing the chat and removing retweets so you can read the stream better.
A master Twitter chat schedule can also be found here: http://bit.ly/chatsched with 549 chats & growing.
Watch your twitter stream for when people who you are following are participating in a chat. They are usually between 7 and 11 in the evening New York time but at other times too.Search for these hashtags as well for some great chats #blogchat #cmchat #jobchat #hrchat #mediachat #eavchat #mybookclub #dadchat #okchat #toolschat #linkedinchat #likeablechat #nptalk #getrealchat #tweetdiner #mmchat #smmanners Or simply follow the tweets of @stevecassady or @jkcallas they are on many of them! That will get you started.
So what do you do when you join?
Most twitter chats last an hour and are based around the host asking regular questions every 5-10 minutes, often to a guest and the participants discussing the question and asking the guest and each other questions. This a desciption of a basic chat. Being Twitter however there is plenty of room for creativity.
A big tip that I have is that you just get into it! Many people worry about their followers getting upset if they tweet too much but really it is just for an hour or so and you should just enjoy it. If the chat is in your niche it will be great branding for your account plus great networking. Do not try to be everything to all of your followers! Structure your tweets in a way that is interesting for your followers and will encourage them to join in. Every 20 minutes put a tweet out saying something like “I am on #smmanners twitter chat for the next 40 minutes. Join us to talk latest Social Media strategies”. Instead of just tweeting “@brucesallan I agree #dadchat” use the question number and say something that will grab your follwer’s attention. For example ” Q3 @brucesallan Yes the best time in your kid’s life is 2-6 and those years are gone too soon. Take the odd week off! #dadchat”. Send links to blog posts about topics in the chat. Recommend experts on the topics by using their twitter handle. These people may even join in! Keep your tweets short and sharp to make it as easy as possible for other participants to retweet you. Retweet or comment on new people in the chat or those who you do not know. I personally have made great friendships with people I have met on Twitter chats. I join say 8 chats a week and may tweet 10-20 times in each one (often more if I am the host or guest). I really do not believe I have lost any followers because of this.
Promote the chat you are planning to join to your followers. Thank people who joined it after the chat and follow and list those people. Usually there will be a transcipt of the chat so read and promote that. Have a look at the hashtracking.com report of the chat. This will show who tweeted the most and who has the most followers. These will be key people on Twitter for you to interact and learn from on an ongoing basis.
All these things will help you get started but I am sure you have some questions so please feel very free to ask them.
Lets enjoy chatting together.
Michael
Facebook Comments:
Proudly managed by