Nowadays many brands are searching for new and interesting ways to get a lot of engagement, boost their brand awareness, connect with their audience and receive more feedback. In this case, Twitter chats come to help.
What is a Twitter chat?
Twitter chat is a public conversation which is organized around a particular topic on Twitter. This kind of discussion runs at set time with a special hashtag.
For brands, hosting the Twitter chat is considered as a great way to get a better understanding of your audience, while also allowing to increase brand’s Twitter reach. However, hosting a Twitter chat requires accurate planning in order to make it successful.
In today’s article 9 main steps that you need to keep in mind while creating your Twitter chat will be reviewed.
Let’s start!
1. Participate in a Twitter chat before hosting your own
Before you will start hosting your own Twitter chat, it is advised to take a part in a few chats organized by other people and make a note of how they are conducting their Twitter chats.
Pay attention to the following details:
- How others interact with their followers?
- What themes they are choosing for their discussions?
- What type of questions they are asking?
Monitoring other Twitter chats provides you with an opportunity to understand what topics are popular in your business field and can seem engaging for your target audience. In this case, you will be able to easily decide on the appealing topic for your own Twitter chat which you are planning to host.
Once you have attended a few Twitter chats and found out what was good and what didn’t work, then you can move to another step where you need to determine the topic of your Twitter chat.
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2. Select the specific topic
To choose the topic which is relevant and generates interest of your target audience is a crucial factor to make your Twitter chat successful.
Actually, it doesn’t matter whether the topic of your Twitter chat is very wide or on the contrary, super niche. However, it is more important to ensure that your chosen topic is informative, gives value to your audience and can instantly grab users’ attention.
While coming up with the most appropriate topic for your Twitter chat, think about what kind of information would be the most useful to your audience, look at what subjects your audience tweets about.
What is more, try to insert something new to the topic of your discussion in order to make your Twitter chat unique and stand out from a crowd.
3. Use the particular hashtag
Now when you have figured out your Twitter chat’s topic, the next task is to select a specific hashtag in order to allow the audience to follow your chat.
It is considered that a great Twitter chat starts with a great hashtag. Why? Just because it creates a “digital space” for users to connect.
Here are some tips that you need to consider while choosing the right hashtag:
- Do a research to find the unique and relevant hashtag. It is advised to think of up to 5 hashtags that seem suitable to your Twitter chat’s topic and check them using a search feature to see whether these hashtags are currently in use or not.
- Keep your hashtag short and memorable. Keep in mind that your hashtag will be used in all communications related to promotion and execution of your Twitter chat. So, by keeping your hashtag short, you will provide your audience with more space to express their thoughts on a particular subject and also increase the likelihood that users will associate it with your brand.
- Register your hashtag. It is most likely that this tip can seem unnecessary, however, while no one is able to legally own hashtags, why not to register the selected hashtags for Twitter chat on Twubs. In this way, you allow other users to know that this hashtag is a part of your brand.
Although you probably think about using your brand’s name as a hashtag in your Twitter chat, instead of it, it is better to use a hashtag that exactly reflects the topic of your chat.
Overall, to have one particular hashtag of your Twitter chat will not only help you to engage immediately with your audience, but also let you track down all users’ responses.
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4. Pick the right date and time
The key to a successful Twitter chat is having an audience to show up to participate. In this case, selecting the right timing and being consistent is crucial.
It is advised to think of your Twitter chat as a radio show that people can “tune in” to. So, by creating the schedule and sticking to it, you will let your audience know when they can expect to receive a content from you.
However, before scheduling, it is better to take a look at your Twitter Analytics, understand when your audience is most active to engage and only then set the date and time of your Twitter chat.
What is more, you may include the schedule of your Twitter chats to your bio, but it is useful to do only if the Twitter chats are a constant part of your social media strategy. Otherwise, don’t put any timing to your Twitter bio, just inform your audience about the upcoming Twitter chat by a simple tweet in advance.
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5. Think about engaging questions
Once the topic, hashtag and timing of your Twitter chat are selected, it is time to think about the interests of your audience and what questions related to your topic they might want answers for.
It is recommended to create a list of questions and some discussion points in advance, in order to make it easier for you to lead a conversation without any confusions. While coming up with the questions for your Twitter chat, ensure that they will allow you to get a lot of engagement and encourage interaction between participants of your chat.
6. Invite relevant influencers to participate
Thinking about how to induce your audience to take a part in your Twitter chat? I have a great suggestion for you!
Ask industry experts or relevant influencers to join your chat from their personal Twitter profiles. What is more important, don’t forget to announce about these influencers’ or experts’ participation in your Twitter chat ahead of time by using the promotional tweets.
Participation of influencers or experts in your Twitter chat will not only give it more hype, however, also provide with instant credibility to your organized discussion. Furthermore, inviting influencers with a strong experience in a particular topic to your Twitter chat, you ensure that there will be a person who can share great thoughts and will keep the discussion flowing freely.
Overall, in this way, you will attract a bigger audience to your Twitter chat, encourage them to express their opinions and boost engagement level.
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7. Promote your Twitter chat in advance
When you have your Twitter chat fully organized and ready to show to your audience, the only thing that is left is to promote it.
Promotion is considered as one of important parts of your Twitter chat, in order to attract audience’s attention and induce them to participate.
So, let your audience know about your upcoming Twitter chat by telling all the details about it in a simple tweet and other social media channels used by your brand. Also ask participating influencers or experts to share an informative post about your Twitter chat with their followers. In this way, you ensure that as a big audience as possible is aware of your upcoming Twitter chat.
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8. Be ready to start your Twitter chat
When the time comes, you need to be ready to launch your Twitter chat. One more time you need to make sure that you have a list of solid questions and your invited influencers or experts are ready to start the discussion.
What is more, once your Twitter chat goes live, you should put all your attention in monitoring the discussion and be ready to provide various comments on participants’ responses. Also you need to be ready to put some new questions to encourage your audience to continue the conversation and don’t let your Twitter chat to become dull.
9. Say thanks
Once your Twitter chat has come to the end, wrap things up with a warm thank you. In this way you will show your audience that you appreciate their participation and it is important for you to receive their thoughts on the particular topics.
Furthermore, it will let users know that they can come back when the next Twitter chat is organized and have fun participating in an engaging discussion.
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In conclusion, Twitter chats are considered as a great way to increase engagement level of your content and receive traffic to your website, while generating conversations which create a buzz around your brand.
In order to organize a successful Twitter chat, it is advised to follow the 9 main steps discussed above. Also you will notice the difference in your overall Twitter performance as well.
Have you ever hosted a Twitter chat? What other best practices can you recommend to run a successful Twitter chat? Share your comments in a section below!
