Tweet chat 101

A tweet chat is when a group of people all tweet about the same topic at the same time on Twitter. A hashtag is used to identify tweets in the conversation. Often tweet chats will be a regular event, for example, occurring weekly or monthly.

I'm loving tweet chats. They're such a great way to connect with like-minded and enthusiastic people from around the world. They are also a great way for participants in the #lead1201 - leadership development pilot to discuss the topic for the week.

A tweet chat can be quite intimidating at first, so here are my tips for participating in and facilitating/moderating a tweet chat.

Participating in a tweet chat:

·      Identify the moderator and follow them. The moderator is the person who will be asking questions and prompting the chat along. Pay attention to what they are asking.

·      Reply directly to moderator questions. Most tweet chats will have some structure to the questions and have 3-5 questions. You might see Q1, Q2, Q3 etc. (as in question 1, question 2 etc.) in the moderator tweets. Reply to them with A1, A2, A3 etc. (as in answer 1, answer 2, etc.). This makes it easier for other tweet chat participants to follow your conversation.

·      Include the hashtag (e.g. #Lead1201) in every tweet. This makes it much easier for tweet chat participants to follow the conversation.

·      If you are chatting with a large group, select a small number of participants to interact with. There can be several different topics going on at the same time so this will help you get the most value out of your conversation.

·      Make new tweet chat members feel welcome. If someone joins the chat who you have not seen before, say hello and tell them what we are talking about today/tonight.

·      If you are replying to a tweet, include a brief summary of what was included in the original tweet. This is so everyone knows what you are talking about. For example, “I agree that leadership self-awareness cannot be learnt”. Rather than just, “I agree”. 

·      If you like or support a tweet then re-tweet it. Similar to the previous point, a RT shows that you like the tweet but also means that other participants can still follow the conversation. Rather than “I like this”. 

·      If you want to reply to a tweet or RT, and include a comment, but there is not enough space in 140 characters. You can shorten the original tweet. Copy and paste the original tweet and delete any parts you don’t believe key. 

·      Follow up afterwards. Tweet chats are great for networking. If you had a great tweet chat with someone, follow them and send a tweet to say Thank you. You could even keep the conversation going.

Facilitating a tweet chat:

·      Advertise your tweet chat to your followers. Include the time (and time zone) and topic.

·      Make new tweet chat members feel welcome. Ask them to introduce themselves to the group.

·      Put together 3-5 questions around the topic and ask a different question every 15mins. Use Q1, Q2, Q3 etc. (as in question 1, question 2 etc.) to identify which question it is.

·      Use probing questions to ask for more details around tweets - this can also help keep discussion going.

·      If appropriate, Introduce people who are talking about similar topics by mentioning them both in the same tweet.

·      Provide a summary of the tweet chat afterwards. I use storify.com for a straight transcript.  In #tchat bloggers write up a summary of the key points - this is a cool idea.

I didn't come up with all of these tips, and I learnt ALOT from participating in other tweet chats. So I'd like to give credit to Carolyn Hyams (@chyams), Firebrand - for tips on using twitter here. Also, Meghan M. Biro (@meghanmbiro), Talent culture - for modeling an awesome tweet chat conversation on #tchat (Thursdays at 12noon, NZ time).

If you are interested in participating in a tweet chat you can join #lead1201 on Tuesdays at 7pm (NZT), or #tchat is another great one. I'd also like to set up a tweet chat for NZers talking about social media for learning at #nzlearn. Let me know if you are interested in participating in this.

I might do a Twitter for learning 101 blog next week so stay tuned.