So you’re convinced that Twitter chats will be beneficial for your or your brand and found a chat with interesting people and conversation. If you’ve never participated in a Twitter chat before, the thought of joining in may be overwhelming, especially if it’s a large chat that moves quickly.

Even though a lot of people treat social media as a free-for-all to do or say whatever they please, there are obviously best practices to pay attention to, especially if you are joining the chat in a professional capacity.

As mentioned in our introduction to Twitter chats, different Twitter chats have different sets of rules. Some may be explicit, and some you may just learn with familiarity. Regardless, there are a few tips to keep in mind. Some people may disagree with a few of these, but I’ve personally found success following these tips:

1. Don’t be afraid to lurk. – Especially if you are new to the world of Twitter chats as a whole, lurking is a great way to test the waters. You can just watch the stream in real-time or after it’s over and still learn like you were participating. You may not be introducing yourselves to the moderator and other participants, but it’s an excellent start. From here, you may move on to semi-lurk, meaning you retweet participants now and then but don’t jump in with your own thoughts. This is also the best way to find out if there are specific rules for the chat without accidentally breaking one first.

2. Remember your environment. – If you are planning to participate in the Twitter chat and tweet about other topics at the same time, remember your platform. For example, when you’re signed in to TweetChat.com, it pulls in your Twitter background and you may end up tweeting unrelated content with the chat’s hashtag at the end. This goes for participating in more than one chat, too. Try not to accidentally add even more content to an already busy stream.

3. Retweet the questions. – If you are in a chat that has structured questions rather than an open conversation, the moderator will tweet out the questions, most likely one at a time. Retweeting the question before answering it is helpful to both participants and your followers. Followers may be interested in your tweets but won’t know what questions you are answering. For fast-moving chats, having the question reappearing in the stream makes it easier for participants to find the questions without excessive scrolling.

4. Number your answers. – Most moderators number the questions that are asked in the Twitter chat by starting the tweet with “Q1:” or “Q2:” and so on. When answering the question, either include that or use “A1:” or “A4:”. People move through the chat at different paces and some conversations are longer than others, so not everyone is answering the same question at the same time. This makes it clear which question you are answering in your tweet.

5. Don’t be afraid to reply and start conversations. – There is more to the chats than just answering questions in a single tweet. You’re on SOCIAL media, so be social. Discuss your answers with other participants and if you have any questions of your own related to the topic or someone’s answer, don’t be afraid to seek answers. Likewise, there may be other people asking questions that you would like to weigh in on.

6. Don’t veer too off topic. – Side conversations often pop up in Twitter chats, especially when the participants know each other well (either offline or just online). This is completely okay and often encouraged, but try to keep tweets using the hashtag at least somewhat on topic. If it veers too far off course, continue the conversation without the chat’s hashtag.

7. Twitter chat time is not promo time. – Do not use the Twitter chat as a promotional platform or try to advertise during it. Some chats may have a few minutes at the beginning or end where you can share links to your personal profiles or company websites. Please respect the moderator’s wishes and keep the rest of the chat focused on the conversation.

8. Remember the rest of your followers. – When you’re looking only at the hashtag’s stream and not your whole timeline, you may forget that the rest of your followers (and Twitter users, for that matter) can see your tweets. Don’t say anything you wouldn’t want anyone else to see. Also keep your followers in mind with frequency of tweets. If you are replying to people, it will only show in your followers’ timeline if they follow the other person as well. But they will see all of the other tweets. Some people get annoyed by Twitter chatters, so you may want to shoot off a warning that you’ll be tweeting a lot right before the chat starts.

9. Follow up. – After the chat, it’s a nice gesture to thank the moderator, any special guests or co-hosts, and the individuals you personally interacted with. While not necessary, it definitely deepens the connections made during the chat and is a nice way to show your appreciation to the chat. You can also reach out to these people to start other conversations in between Twitter chats.

10. Use the hashtag throughout the week. – This may be more encouraged in some chats than others, but hashtags are meant to be active. Participants frequently add the hashtag to their saved searches or as a stream in their Twitter client. If you share content in between chats, they’ll likely see it. If you find anything else related to the previous or upcoming chat’s topic, share a link with them.

What behaviors do you encourage or discourage when participating or hosting Twitter chats? Leave your advice in the comments!

By Brittany Berger

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It’s 2012, and whether or not your brand or company should be on social media is no longer up for debate. Instead, the question has become how your brand should be on social media. It’s where your competition as well as your customers will be, so even a minimal presence will be beneficial. If you use Twitter, you haven’t really experienced the power social media has to bring people together until you’ve participated in a Twitter chat.

What is a Twitter chat? (Tweet this)

A Twitter chat is a public conversation on Twitter taking place at a specific day and time to discuss a specific topic. A Twitter chat will use a specific hashtag to curate the conversation, such as #SmallBizChat or #LikeableChat. While the hashtag may be used throughout the week to share links and comments, there will be a set day and time when all participants are on Twitter at the same time talking about a certain issue or topic. There will be a moderator that will tweet questions or prompts relating to the topic, which the participants will discuss using the hashtag.

For example, #LikeableChat takes place on Sundays from 10-11 PM EST. It’s hosted by Likeable Media and moderated by their Marketing Director. The chat focuses on topics related to social media, word of mouth marketing and being “likeable.” Specific topics range from using social media for crisis management to discussing how social media impacted the Olympics.

Why should I participate in a Twitter chat? (Tweet this)

• To learn - If there’s a certain area of your business, such as marketing or accounting, that’s especially difficult for you, finding a Twitter chat around that topic can help you. You may find a chat that exactly matches the task you need help with, or you may meet people through the chat that can give you advice or lend their expertise.
• To network - Twitter chats are excellent networking opportunities. By joining a chat relating to your industry, you can meet people who you can relate to. You can discuss industry news, challenges, share your opinions and advice, and develop friendships and possibly partnerships.
• To meet potential customers - In addition to meeting other businesses like your own, you can also meet people interested in your business. For example, if you sell rock climbing equipment, participants of #ClimbChat would probably be interested in your products. However, do not try to sell to people through the Twitter chat. Instead, just talk to them and only mention your products if it’s actually relevant to the conversation. Twitter chats are a good way to build brand awareness and take it from there.

How do I get started? (Tweet this)

First, you need to find Twitter chats to join in on. There are many resources for finding chats. You can go through this Google Doc of over 700 Twitter chats that gives details such as chat description, moderator, and day and time. You can also use websites like twebevent to look at Twitter chat listings. Most importantly, pay attention to what chats your network is already participating in. When you notice someone you follow participating in a Twitter chat, check out the stream to see if it would be helpful for you.

When you pick a chat and want to join in, there are a few ways to follow the chat. I personally use TweetChat.com. You sign in through your Twitter account, enter the hashtag of the chat, and are presented with a stream that automatically updates when new tweets are posted and automatically adds the hashtag to the end of your tweets. This is important because if you forget to add your hashtag to your tweets, no one in the chat will see them. Similar tools include TweetGrid and twebevent. Alternatively, you could participate in the chat from Twitter itself, or add the hashtag’s stream to your Twitter client such as HootSuite or TweetDeck.

While chatting, remember your manners. Don’t be too self-promotional and respect the community. Many Twitter chats have specific rules. For example, a lot of chats want you to retweet the questions so that your followers can more easily follow along and be tempted to join in. Pam Moore has a great post about Twitter chat tips, so I’d suggest reading that for more tips.

Have you ever participated in Twitter chat before? Which ones are your favorites?

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