We’ve already talked about how to use Twitter chats to build more relationships and increase your visibility on Twitter. Now, let’s discuss more strategies on how to optimize your Twitter chat experiences.
- Use a Tool: My favorite program to use for Twitter chats is TweetChat.com, a web-based program designed to make it easier for people to follow any Twitter chat. You can easily read, reply to and send tweets all in one spot. Using a tool like TweetChat will make it easier for you to facilitate your Twitter chats, since the main Twitter site can be slow and frustrating to work with at times.
- Have a Giveaway: A simple way to get people to join and participate in your chat is to give something away. People love free stuff, so offering to give some type of prize away during your Tweet chat is a sure way of enticing people to participate. The item doesn’t have to be big—many people give away $5 Starbucks gift cards or a book of some sort.
- Invite Guest Hosts: You don’t always have to be the one answering all the questions! Invite other experts in different fields related to your industry, and have them share their knowledge with your chat participants. Not only does this add more credibility to your Twitter chats, but it also makes it easier on you as a host because you can sit back and just moderate. Inviting guest hosts also gives you the chance to network with other experts in your industry.
- Keep in Touch: Once your Twitter chat is over, remember to follow up with your participants. Always thank them personally for joining your chat, and ask them for their feedback. Also, I like to add all of my chat participants into a Twitter list so that I can easily keep track of them. It makes it easier to invite them to future chats, too!
- Archive Your Chat: Save your chats in a word document for future reference; You never know what you can repurpose to use as content for later! Also, it’s a good idea to refer back to past chats to see what you have and haven’t talked about, so that you can plan for future chats.
Have you hosted a Twitter chat yet? Let us know how it went!
