Twitter chats have become incredibly popular. A Twitter chat is a discussion within Twitter where the tweets share an identifying hashtag and meet regularly on a set day and time.
Any group can host or participate in a Twitter chat. Teachers, gamers, doctors, bloggers and moms are all forming their own Q&As on a weekly basis.
Businesses and brands use these chats to promote brand awareness, create community and humanize your brand, establish presence and expertise, and turn followers into advocates and passers-on, all while giving much needed one-on-one customer support.
Despite the popularity, not all of these conversations are going as smoothly as expected; many businesses just pick a hashtag and run with it, but there’s a certain way to handle chats. Here are a few do’s and don’ts before you step into the chatting twittersphere.
1. Make a Plan. Make sure your timing is on point. Plan a chat after you’ve established brand authenticity on the platform and right before an event so you can make announcements. Once you know the timing is good for your brand, make sure it works for everyone else.
Remind followers on other social media platforms, your website, your blog, and keep the reminders daily on Twitter up to a week before the chat.
2. Do Use A Unique Hashtag. Ensure your hashtag stands out and makes sense. Then use the same hashtag every time to solidify participant followers and encourage discovery.
3. Don’t Be Unorganized. Make sure to add your hashtag to every question and answer for easy following. Also, attach Q1 and A1 to signify Question 1, Answer 1, and so on. This is important for organization and optimum participation.
4. Don’t Rely Solely on Your Own People. Team up with a fellow expert in your industry (especially if you’re just starting out), collaborate on subtopics, and bring in outside connections. If your partner has a large following and is experienced in Twitter chats, the first few chats are more likely to be successful.
5. Do Use TweetChat. TweetChat isolates the chat Twitter stream, slows it down and automatically adds the chat hashtag to all of your posts.
Have you hosted a Twitter chat? What worked well for you?