Intro to Twitter Chats

Though Twitter chats are far from a new development in the social world, I have been coordinating my own for the better part of the last 4 months and I have become quite a fan. The variety of purposes for a Twitter chat and the community that develops from the conversation is invaluable.

What is a Twitter chat?

To put it simply, a Twitter chat is a discussion that occurs typically every week at the same time regarding the same broad topic. There is usually a moderating host who asks a series of questions involving a new theme each week and any Twitter user can pipe in. Each Twitter chat has a predetermined hashtag that is used to catalog these conversations. As an example, Ad Week has a chat (#adweekchat) that occurs at 1PM CST each Wednesday. Its general purpose is to discuss advertising. Each week, however, the themes take a deeper dive into elements of advertising or connecting with a certain audience ("What are the Right Ways to Market to Millenials?"), etc.

Why should my brand/company/client start a Twitter chat?

As with any facet of marketing or, more in particular, social media marketing, you must have a purpose when making a decision to allocate time and resources to an initiative. A Twitter chat is no different. For Campstake, it was a no-brainer. Considering we have yet to ship a product, our social community is one of our strongest assets. We communicate openly and consistently with our advocates and enthusiasts on Twitter, and as such, we noticed that our audience loved to participate in Twitter chats: #ParkChat, #TrailTime, #HikerChat, etc. Our demo loves to share hints, tips and stories regarding their time spent outdoors. However, we discovered an opening that aligns with our purpose: there had not been a Twitter chat created focusing on camping. While building community may not be first and foremost on your list of objectives, there are plenty of other reasons for securing and conducting a Twitter chat:

• Establishing thought leadership - for a brand or an individual to establish themselves as a thought leader (very important for top-of-mind awareness and other advertising/marketing goals) there are several possibilities. Create and maintain a blog, start discussions on LinkedIn, hold conferences... but due to the real-time temperament of Twitter, the lack of funds required to hold a Twitter chat and the extremely high rate of engagement that comes from a Twitter chat, why not add a weekly discussion on the platform to your arsenal?
• Recruiting - what does your organization look for in an employee? Someone who is knowledgeable? Ambitious? Touts the ability to communicate fully and effectively? How about someone who can mesh well in a team setting, or in a forum scenario? Anyone who commits to an hour each week and actively participates in YOUR Twitter chat contains all of these traits. You can evaluate potential candidates purely from their 140-character blurbs.
• Content strategy and customer acquisition - there is a lot to learn from the individuals that participate in Twitter chats. What are they passionate about? What are they concerned by? What are areas of weakness that your organization can work to patch? Can your group work to revise messaging or develop campaigns to exclusively target the folks that are most interested in your mission? Who are the influencers in your industry? Are they participating in your chat? How many of these folks can be converted to purchase your products or products from individuals who partner with you? Develop themes and questions around your market. What pieces of technology are they using? Are they fans of your competitor's products?

So how do I get started?

Getting started is pretty simple. There is some work required on the front end, but to maintain is where the TLC is involved. Here is a basic how-to for getting started with your own Twitter chat:

1. Observe. Do some research on Twitter to see if your industry has a "leading" chat. How can you differentiate? Will it make more sense for you to just actively participate in another brand's chat? Sometimes you can still accomplish the items above by being an active participant instead of a host.
2. Pick an angle/purpose. After doing your homework and finding out that there is a whole where you can slide in -- what is your reason? What do you hope to gain from this Twitter chat?
3. Pick a hashtag. While this sounds simple, Twitter is a couple of million strong who are sending out tweets ever second. Ideally, come up with a hashtag that hasn't been used before -- this will make tracking a whole lot easier. If you must, make sure that the hashtag is dead before resurrecting it. Picking something that's used all the time would be the death of your Twitter chat.
4. Pick a time. As I mentioned above, a Twitter chat is typically the same day and time every week. How can you expect to generate a regular group of committed folks when you change days and times on them every week? When is your audience most active? Pay attention to time zones. If you are trying to corral people on both the East and West Coasts while you are in the middle of the country, does a 10PM CST chat make sense? Might work for the folks in the West who will be settling down after dinner but it could be entirely too late for most people on the East coast.
5. Plan ahead. Twitter is a social media platform and as such, should be treated appropriately. As a social media professional, I could preach to the use of an editorial calendar and a schedule. Possibly even a response matrix. What I would suggest doing? Create a document with themes prior to your first chat. Come up with, say, 20 different themes. Pick 4 to flesh out. Create a new document for each chat and come up with 10-15 questions. The amount of questions determines to pace of the Twitter chat. This is primarily appropriated by your audience. Once you actually get into hosting the Twitter chats, you'll be able to tell if 10 is enough or if you need to inject more to keep the conversation flowing. Once you've secured your 4, you'll be prepared for your first month. Slowly build out the other themes as the month transpires so that you can promote future chats accordingly and select guest hosts, if you feel comfortable enough to introduce a third-party.

That should be enough to get you started! Have questions? I'd love to discuss things in the comments below, or you can find me on Twitter @bpaint or shoot me an email to [email protected]. You can find and participate or observe my Twitter chat on Tuesday nights at 9 EST/ 6 PST: #CampChat.