What is a Twitter Chat?

A lot of small businesses don’t bother with Twitter and rightly so, it is not a social media platform for everyone.  If you are a local bakery, Twitter is probably not the tool to find customers for your custom cake service.  Or could it be?

If you are into DIY social media then you need to be constantly learning about how to do it effectively so you are not wasting your time. Where better to learn than from the experts?  But where to find them?  Well you might be surprised to know, they are on Twitter!  So while Twitter might not be a tool to find your customers, it can actually be a tool to find information about how to find them.

Twitter is about more than just following accounts, you can also participate in educational events conducted as Twitter Chats.  A Twitter Chat is a designated hashtag, e.g. #SocialROI, where  where people “meet” and tweet.  The use of a specific hashtag allows the Twitter Chat to be viewed as a single conversation.

To participate you simply end your tweet with the designated hashtag. (Tip: You can use TweetChat.com to make it easier to follow and contribute to the chat.)

The chat has a publicized time. Often it is a weekly event so it happens same time each week. Most Twitter Chats are moderated by the person running the event and there is often a guest speaker.

We’re not going to tell you about how to find a Twitter Chat to join. You can read all about that in this excellent article about Twitter Marketing.

So create a Twitter account and follow experts in Social Media, SEO and other disciplines associated with running an online business to keep in touch the social media “zeitgeist” .