September 2011| See all articles in this issue

The Art of Social Networking: The Twitter Chat

No one wants to leave a good conversation with newfound friends, and that's exactly what happens in a good Twitter chat.

Twitter chats are regularly scheduled group chats on Twitter. Participants chat together by adding a hashtag, like #assnchat, to their tweets. #assnchat is the weekly Twitter chat on Tuesdays at 2pm Eastern for association professionals. Chat participants use an application, such as Tweetchat, Hootsuite or Tweetdeck, to see and respond to tweets that include the chat hashtag.

Twitter chat ROI

What are the benefits of hosting a Twitter chat?

• Build a Twitter community around your chat and association.
• Gain visibility as a thought leader by hosting an industry chat and using the hashtag on tweets of value to your chat community.
• Gather market intelligence by listening to the ideas, concerns and challenges of your members and community.
• Engage prospective members, attendees and revenue partners.
• Find ideas for blog, social media, newsletter and magazine content.
  

Your members will appreciate the opportunity to learn collaboratively while building relationships with fellow members and professionals on Twitter.

Meet a Twitter chat host.

The National Science Teachers Association recently held their second #nstachat. Teshia Birts, senior manager of chapter and associated group relations, says, “Some of us participate in #scichat and #assnchat. As we became more comfortable we thought the time was right to host our own chat.” Their chat is monthly, but once the school year starts, they may increase its frequency.

“At this point we want to engage as many people as we can through our chats – members, non-members and other organizations.” NSTA promotes their chat on Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, listservs and newsletters. Their promos include a link to a cheat sheet that shows Twitter newbies how to participate.

Teshia has three tips for Twitter chat hosts:

• “Prepare, prepare, prepare! Study other chats to see how they moderate. We get feedback on topics and questions from our social media participants. Identify a topic ahead of time and prepare 5-10 questions to generate conversation. Make sure your questions are well under 140 characters so people can retweet and add other hashtags.
• Promote your chat on Twitter to related hashtags to amp up exposure for your association. We promoted our June chat about integrating science into other subject areas to our usual hashtags plus others like #mathchat.
• Start and end your chat on time. Keep the conversation moving. As moderator, you may feel rude cutting off awesome dialogue, but the good conversation will continue, that’s the beauty of tweet chats.”
  

Back to top | See all articles in this issue