There’s a party going on in your industry on Twitter where specialists and newbies alike gather to discuss the latest trends, news, tips, and tricks in the biz. But don’t worry, this party’s not invite-only. Anyone can join in on the conversation! So what’s the big mystery? Join your first Twitter Chat and find out!
What is it?
Twitter Chats are online meet-ups held by one organization to bring together industry leaders and people wanting to learn more about a particular business or subject on Twitter. These chats are held at the same time each week and usually focus on a particular topic related to the organization’s industry. Each Twitter Chat has anywhere from 5-10 questions that users can answer. The magic is in seeing the diverse opinions, collaborations, and dialogue that occurs. Everyone in the Twitter Chat uses a specific hashtag to group the conversation together. The chat’s moderator will ask the first question starting with Q1, and participants of the chat will tweet back starting with A1. After the conversation from the first question begins to slow down, the moderator will ask Q2 and so on.
Why Chat?
You’re already using Twitter to market your company, so why participate in these weekly chats? Twitter Chats can be a great resource to gain more knowledge and information about your industry. If you choose a Twitter Chat that focuses on the area your business is in, you can learn from other business professionals and hear about their past experiences. This could potentially solve a problem you have been running into or even prevent a problem from occurring. Twitter Chats are also a great place to make connections in the industry. Establishing strategic partners can help to grow your business, and much like networking in person, Twitter Chats can help you establish relationships that could benefit you later on. Are you trying to grow your Twitter following? Once you’ve actively participated in weekly Twitter Chats, you’ll have gotten your account in front of a large group of people who will want to know more about what you have to offer. By joining Twitter Chats, you can pick up Twitter followers who are already engaged in what you have to say and will be looking forward to your tweets following the chat.
Does it Really Work?
If you’re participating in Twitter Chats weekly, this can require a bit of time and dedication on your part. We wanted to test the effectiveness of Twitter Chats, so the KWSM team participated in 5 Twitter Chats during the month of March. The results? An overwhelming increase in engagement and followers. During the month, we grew our impressions, engagement, link clicks, and website traffic. When looking at our analytics, we noticed that over half of our most popular tweets during the month of March were from Twitter Chats that we participated in. We more than tripled our amount of new followers from the previous month, most of which followed our account after participating in the same Twitter chat. Because of Twitter Chats, we were able to expand our reach and create lasting relationships with other Twitter users, simply by joining the conversation and providing thoughtful responses to the Twitter Chat questions.
Twitter Chats happen around-the-clock daily on Twitter; it’s all about finding the ones that apply most to you and your business. Once you’ve found a chat that you would like to participate in, stop by each week to keep consistency and establish a presence in the chat. For an ever-growing list of Twitter chats in your industry, check out Twitter Report’s Twitter Chat Schedule, and for those of you just getting started on Twitter, read more about how to get a sizzling start on Twitter!
