7 Steps to Successfully Start Your Own Twitter Chat Event

After writing about HOW TO PARTICIPATE in a Tweet Chat Event, I got several people asking, “What if I want to start my own? How do I do that?”  It’s quite simple AND it’s a lot of work. )   The benefit of starting your own is it can be good for branding and helping you establish your expertise within your community.  While there are loads of Tweet Chat events already running daily, there is always room in Twitter Town for more.  Here are 7 steps to get you started:

Twitter Knitters

1. Step one is to determine what you want to call your event.  It may be the Alpaca Sweater Knitters tweet chat or the Social Media for ZooKeepers event.  Once you have the name you need a SHORT hashtag.  You are going to just make it up!  In our two examples you would have #ASKchat (oooh I like that one) or #SMZKchat.
2. Step two is to see if that tag is available.  Go to Search.Twitter.com and search to see if any other group is using it regularly.  If it has not been used for several months, it is open!
3. You can register your hashtag and fill out information so folks can learn more about your chat event.  Twubs is one such registration site that I like.  Some even secure a separate Twitter account for the hashtag and use it as an event account.  @ASKchat would have a description of your event as the bio.  Once you know the day and time are set, be sure to add it to the public Tweet Chat Events document to let the world find you.
4. Now that you have done the administrative work…it’s time for the REAL work to begin.  Like any live event, you must promote your virtual meet up to your community (both on Twitter and off).  Let folks know what day of the week and time you have chosen to hold your 1 hour event (most are 1 hour…you can choose any length you’d like).  Be sure to mention time zones!
5. Ask your community for questions or topics they would like to discuss during the event and put together a list of 4 or 5 questions (you may want more in the beginning as you build your following, but the more people you get in your chat, the fewer questions you will have time to get to).
6. The day is here!  When you are about to begin your tweet event, ask folks to introduce themselves and remind them to use the hashtag in all correspondence or their comment may get missed.  Using a site like TweetChat is ideal for these events as it pulls your group into a separate area and folks do not have to add the tag to each tweet.
7. Lastly, be consistent.  If you choose Monday nights at 8pm CT, don’t move it around to fit your schedule.  People are creatures of habit and you want them to be able to remember when your group meets up.  If you cannot attend on a certain date, just ask one of your community members to step in as facilitator.  If you can find a group of folks who would like to rotate as leader each week, that is ideal.

If you are nervous about kicking your event off without a hitch, you can always to a run through with a few friends and test everything out.  The beauty of a Twitter event, is they are more informal and keeping it FUN and FOCUSED will ensure people want to come back next week.  Remind them at the end to spread the word and return for more Twitter fun again!

I suggest you attend a few tweet chat events before you take on one of your own.  You can also find one that is already launched in your area of interest, but perhaps is looking for a co-facilitator–one who can share the burden of always being there and running the questions.

What other suggestions would you add here for starting and running your own Tweet Chat Event?

Gina Schreck

If you or your organization would like help engaging your community- give us a hollar! We offer coaching programs and fully-managed services and the team at Synapse LOVES alpacas! (We just can’t knit!)

For daily tips on social media and today’s technology, be sure to join in the fun on our Gettin’ Geeky Page or follow Gina’s rantings on Twitter!

• Tweet
• Pin It

Gina Schreck
President & Chief Hooligan at SynapseConnecting

@GinaSchreck

Related Posts:

• SocialKNX Question of the Week: Should You Outsource Your Social Marketing?
• How To Build Your Twitter Following Strategically
• Why Your Organization Should NOT Be Using Social Media

Categorised in: EVENTS, Hashtags, Social Media, SOCIAL SHARING, Twitter

This post was written by GinaSchreck