“Let’s host a Twitter chat!” A phrase uttered in hundreds of
PR and marketing meetings daily across the country. But then you actually get
the green light – now what?
There seems to be a Twitter chat for everything these days,
and in my personal experience, if you’ve tried to participate in one but found
it frustrating, it can be hard to go back. Yet when executed thoughtfully and
transparently around a topic that really matters to your audiences – not your
advertisers – a special thing can happen. A few dozen to a few hundred people
are suddenly connected from all parts of the country (and potentially, globe),
bonding with newfound comrades over shared tips, personal experiences,
challenges, fears, and hopes.
GroundFloor Media was recently lucky enough to partner with Anne Marie Nichols of This Mama Cooks and Andrea Rouge from Cooking Matters
Colorado to execute LiveWell
Colorado’s (a GFM client) first-ever
Twitter chat. LiveWell Colorado is a nonprofit dedicated to preventing
obesity through healthy eating and active living, so there were naturally a
wealth of chat topics we could pursue. But we finally narrowed it done to
“eating healthy on a budget.”
The chat was held late in the evening to accommodate our
primary audience of moms, who often hop online once the little ones are down in
order to catch up on work, personal reading and social media interactions. We
had a blast throughout the hour-long chat and are eager to share a few key tips
for hosting a successful Twitter chat of your own!
·
Plan! And
then plan some more. Twitter is a real-time platform, but it is very
obvious if a chat host is not well prepped and organized before things begin.
Know what questions you are going to ask, and in what cadence, and have plenty
of thought starters and interesting facts at the ready to move the conversation
if things slow down.
·
Pick your
#hashtag wisely. It probably goes without saying these days, but make sure your
hashtag isn’t so long that it compromises Twitter’s 140-character space limits.
And don’t hijack a hashtag or use one that is so obscure that people who may
have otherwise stumbled onto the chat by chance are confused by its meaning. (you
can link to article on hashtags… for choosing or searching)
·
Partner
with experts. For nearly every topic you can imagine, there are dozens of credible
experts who posses a notable Twitter following and are open to conversations
about partnering for a chat. Just like with traditional PR, having a
third-party expert in a formal chat role helps endorse your brand, expand your
outreach and can go a long way to building relevance with new customers and
followers.
·
Have fun!
The cost of most chats is very minimal and, in many cases, only equivalent to time
involved. Therefore, unlike a major ad spend or blogger campaign, you can have
fun and try some new things, test emerging messaging and let your true
brand/organizational culture shine through.
Twitter chats are not the place for a hard sell, but rather
a concentrated moment in time to interact person-to-person with your community.
Thank them. Celebrate them. Reward them. If you build a community that is
willing to sit down and take 30 – 60 minutes out of their hectic day to talk
with you and your community, you’ve already won.
We’d love to hear from you about Twitter chats as well! Have you hosted
or participated in one? What did you like or dislike, and do you see them as a
viable tool within a strategic communications plan for brands and
organizations?
~Alexis Anderson
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