I’ve been an active member of the Twitter community for about three years now and I would say the aspect that has changed the most in that time is Twitter Chats. Twitter Chats have become an important networking and sales tool for businesses as well as entrepreneurs. In fact, you can even easily make money off of Twitter chats.
A Twitter chat is a pre-arranged chat that occurs on Twitter social media platform through the use of tweets. These chats often include a predefined hashtag to link those tweets together in a virtual conversation. The chats can be limited to a specific time and can be repeated as often times as the organizer(s) wants. The point is for the participants to be aware of the times of the chat and to log in to Twitter at the time the chat(s) are being held.
The purpose of this social media resource post is to give you a quick overview of how twitter chats work and how to join them.
Sign up for a free Twitter account
In order for you to become a participant of a Twitter chat, you will have to set up an account. Click here to do so. Fill out your profile, upload a picture and follow at least 25 leaders in your industry or participants in the Twitter chat you know you would like to participate in. As well, browse the posts of previous chats to see who else may interest you and click the follow button beside their names.
Finding Twitter chats
The best place to find Twitter chats is this Google Spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is a user-generated database of Twitter chats started by Robert Swanwick. Hashtag.org is also a good place to discover and track popular hashtags that are trending on Twitter. Simply go to Hashtag.org/chat and type a keyword in the search bar to find related chats that interest you.
How to listen
You can simply click on the hashtag on a tweet to see all of the recent tweets written on the subject and using the Hashtag. If you try to follow the chat from Twitter itself, you can quickly lose the thread of the conversation. The good news is there are multiple sites that allow you to follow the chat only and participate more easily.
How to participate
For more information on how to participate in a Twitter chat, we recommend you watch this YouTube video tutorial:
Keeping The Conversations Going After The Chat
As a Twitter Chat moderator, you are producing some very valuable, shareable content. There are several free platforms that will help you capture the content that you and other Twitter chat participants created, such as Storify. You can also post the content on your Facebook page or blog and then promote it to attract new participants.
Another best practice is to email a transcript through direct message to all the Twitter chat followers as well as the people/organizations that are following you on Twitter. This will serve as a reminder of the next chat and also keep people in the loop even if they miss the event.
All in all, Twitter chats can be a fun way to talk about a topic, meet some people interested in the same thing as you are, and grow your own network. Give them a try!
About iRISEmedia.com
iRISEmedia.com is a digital media agency and SEO company, specializing in Social Media and internet marketing. Our team helps clients increase their reach and profitability by developing and implementing customized and targeted online and social media marketing strategies. We service clients in Toronto, Ontario, the GTA and throughout Canada as well as globally.
If you have any questions about setting up and moderating a Twitter chat or finding chats relevant to your industry, give our Toronto digital marketing agency a call at 1.888.750.4344 Ext. 236.
