Twitter #Hashtags & the ROI of #Tweetchats

What is a Tweetchat? A Tweetchat is a live discussion on Twitter, focusing on an agreed subject, at a set time & date.

I find most people who tell me they’re struggling to “get” Twitter, and they don’t understand why people like me get so excited about networking on Twitter, have never participated in a Tweetchat.

Good Tweetchats are a fast-moving, intense and exhausting hour of Twitter conversation, on a subject that you are very interested in personally or for your business, with many other people just like you.

How do you know which tweets are part of a Tweetchat? Each Tweetchat has it’s own designated hashtag, which is a combination of the # (a.k.a. hash symbol) and a keyword tag. Some of the more popular chats see continued use of their designated hashtag for days and weeks after the scheduled chat – people like to continue participating in the conversation.

A few popular chats include:

• #BlogChat, 9-10pm Sundays, improving your blogging for business activities
• #JournChat, 8-9pm Mondays, journalists, reporters, media and bloggers
• #LeadFromWithin, 8-9pm Tuesdays, leadership skills & strategies
• #CMGRChat, 2-3pm Wednesdays, social media community managers chat

Not all Tweetchats are on the subject of B2B or social media — there are Tweetchats that focus on parenting, education, politics, recipes, real estate, popular TV shows, video games, jewelry, Justin Beiber, weddings and even environmental/sustainability retail stores. If it doesn’t exist yet, maybe you should start it!

Immediate Benefits of Tweetchats:

• Increase Your Twitter Followers: By participating in a chat, you can increase new followers to your Twitter profile > chat participants who find you engaging and interesting during the chat will want to keep track of you to follow your future tweets. In the past, I’ve had as many as 50 new followers of my profile in an hour long Tweetchat – all of them relevant based on our shared interest in the Tweetchat subject.
• Find Interesting New People to Follow on Twitter: After tweetchats, you can also search all of Twitter.com for everyone using the chat hashtag and follow their Twitter profiles to begin a professional/social relationship with them or their organization.

When participating in a live, scheduled Tweetchat, I recommend using Tweetchat.com to filter out all the Twitter conversations and tweets that do not pertain to this conversation.  Tweetchat.com will AUTOMATICALLY put your hashtag in every tweet or ReTweet you send, to keep your tweets showing to everyone participating in the specific conversation. Many other tools require you to remember to mark specific tweets with the hashtag before sending, which can be difficult in an intense hour of chat and could result in some of your most interesting tweets not being included in the chat or chat history.

5 Reasons To Participate in Tweetchats:

1. Create Search Engine Optimized Content: Participation, and especially hosting a Tweetchat creates A LARGE AMOUNT of search engine optimized content you can re-purpose and share on your blog/website, Twitter account and other social media networks.
2. Crowd-sourcing: Allows you fast-response and low-cost ideas, answers or solutions from your Twitter community of customers & peers.
3. Contact List Development: Grows your contact list, connections and understanding of who are the current niche subject-matter-experts in your field, and how they operate in business.
4. Brand Development/Positioning: Positions you & your twitter brand to Tweetchat participants as an industry leader – you will come away with new followers & friends who are industry leaders, who will help grow your expert knowledge level and industry reputation and credibility.
5. Business Development: Forces you to take 1 hour each time to focus on networking, helping out and sharing information along with other industry professionals including peers, competitors & colleagues, leading experts, authors & teachers, policymakers, media journalists and content creators.

Finding great Tweetchats:

• Twitter Chat Schedule (NEW schedule link December 22, 2012)
• Healthcare Tweetchats Schedule
• WebbMediaGroup Tweetchat Schedule

Who talks about How to Participate?

• http://www.michaelqtodd.com/tweetchatting
• http://smallbiztrends.com/2010/08/how-to-participate-in-twitter-chat.html
• http://janetfouts.com/how-to-participate-in-a-tweet-chat/

Expert tips and blog posts on how to have a great experience with your Tweetchat:

• 12 Most Stimulating Tweetchats:
• Tweetchats 101: 41 Sucess Tips for Moderators, Participants & Guests!
• How to Conduct a Tweet Chat for Your Business or Brand from Entrepreneur.com
• HubSpot: 8 tips to Hosting A Successful Twitter Chat
• 15 Things I’ve Learned from 138 Social Media Tweetchats

How & When to Use Tweetchats in Your Business: Using Tweetchats can be valuable for communicating important business or organizational milestones and information.

• As a press conference or investor break-out session
• US Ambassador: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/life/US-tweet-chat-need-China-worry-30171698.html
• Educate potential clients on why & when they need your business product or service, and how to prepare their business for engaging/hiring your business: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/sybase/got-questions-about-enterprise-mobility-this-tweetchat-is-for-you/1369
• Introduce a new company leader in an open forum: http://blogs.cisco.com/channels/tweetchat-meet-ciscos-new-vp-of-global-partner-marketing-ask-your-questions-live/

For the Social Media Experts in my community who are reviewing this blog post, this might be the only piece of information you find valuable > Blog post from @TweetSmarter: How to hide your chat tweets, if you are concerned about overwhelming your following: @HideChat @HideTag

If you start to think you might like to plan your own Tweetchat, you can find helpful tips in our blog post: 7 Tips For Planning Your OWN Tweetchat.

There’s more information about How to Market Your Tweetchat in our blog post.

After your Tweetchat, blog your report of the goings-on of the chat, including Twitter handles of participants, key tweets/zingers, best Q&A outcomes and recurring conversation themes. i.e. Tweetchat on RNA Interference Upstages iPhone (Not Really, but It Was Still Fun)

If you have any advice on how to run, host or participate in Tweetchats better, we’d love to hear about it!

What are the best results you’ve experienced from Tweetchats? Which Tweetchats do you participate in most frequently?

BY: Debbie Horovitch