Twitter chats are conversations organized for public participation using a brand-related hashtag at a specific time. It is an excellent way to get more feedback from your customers, drive more engagement and build a community to increase brand awareness. 

Here are some of the things you need to know about a Twitter chat:

Features of a twitter chat

To successfully hold a Twitter chat, you need to include these features:

One hashtag 

You need to start with a hashtag that will relate to the brand. It must be unique and memorable for users to remember and also short to allow space for people to use when commenting. 

An interesting topic 

No one will comment on a dull or irrelevant issue. Users wouldn’t also comment on something they don’t understand. So when choosing a topic, ensure it is interesting, something your users will find valuable.

Set date and time

Set a time for the Twitter chat. Being spontaneous would not do the trick here, as it will result in low engagement. So set a date and time do your followers can look forward to it. 

A moderator

It would be best if you had someone skilled in the art of managing meetings to run this for you. A good moderator should know questions to ask to increase engagement.

Organized questions

Avoid confusion during the chat session by using a question and answer format and asking participants to adopt the same form. 

Participants

Of course, you need people to participate in the conversation.

How to host a Tweet chat

Now you know the requirements for hosting a chat, here’s how to go about it. 

Define your goals. Know what you hope to achieve with a Twitter chat before embarking on it. What is your aim? Do you need more followers, do you need inspiration from followers? Find out what you want and create a relevant topic that addresses it. 

Explore existing chats

If it’s your first time trying out a chat, you’ll probably won’t know what to do. Before you host one, try experiencing it. Search for currently running twitter chats and join to get experience and make some observations.

You should also check out existing chats to see what they did right or wrong. While participating in conversations and checking out past ones, you’ll be able to get inspiration on what to use for your brand’s chat. 

Make plans

Make plans on how the chat will go and ensure you stick to it. Prepare everything you feel is necessary to ensure it’s a success.

Prepare your questions, ensure your moderator is ready, pick the best time, and fulfill every obligation before the conversation begins. You don’t want any distractions. 

Prepare your questions

Ensure that the issues are what everyone can answer with ease unless you’ve targeted your chat for a specific audience. Don’t ask too many questions; eight should be enough.

There should also be time allocated to each item, not more than 10 minutes. If you are confused about what questions to ask, you can always use a question template to give you ideas. 

Choose a schedule and inform your followers 

To create a program, you need to take into consideration the location of your target audience to determine when they’ll be free to join the conversation. After selecting a time and date, start promoting your chat.

To promote your chat,  try tweeting about it a week before the appointment. Send out exclusive invites to your followers and relevant influencers. Share the topic and every information they need to know about the chat.

Also, inform your followers on other platforms about the chat, giving them juicy details of what they stand to benefit. You can promote it on other social platforms, websites, blogs or newsletters. 

Make it a real discussion

You don’t want your audience to feel like they’ve signed up for a quiz contest by continuously throwing questions at them.

Keep the conversation mood by reading replies, retweeting insightful comments, and asking follow-up questions. Ensure your participants are engaging with the chat at every point. The moderator is responsible for making this happen. Reply directly to users who have asked to avoid confusion. 

Use some graphics

Visual perception improves engagement, which is why images, give, and question cards tend to work better when asking questions on a chat than using texts. 

Do some shout outs 

You could do this before the chat or after if you have guests such as influencers or influential people in the industry. You can also tag them while making the shout outs so they could retweet it. 

Show appreciation

Do not forget to thank everyone that participated. Let users know that the chat was successful because of their contribution. 

Include a call to action

While letting the participants know the chat has ended, you can also inform them of the next chat ‘s date. If it’s not yet confirmed, you can ask them to check out your products, services, blog, or website. 

Do some follow up

After the chat session, what next? Are you going to lay low until the next chat? Make connections with influencers that joined your chat and put out titbits of what was discussed when posting content. Or you create a recap and turn it to a blog post. 

Do some tracking 

It’s your first tweet chat; you’ll want to find out how you performed by tracking essential metrics like hashtag mentions.

Check the total number of impressions and engagement the conversation was able to pull. You can use your twitter analytics or any other analytics tool you can find. Through the insights, you’ll be able to tell what you did right and how you can improve. 

Reason to host a Twitter chat 

There are many reasons why you want to host a Twitter chat. Here are some of them:

Get feedback from customer 

Twitter chat is an excellent avenue for your customers to pour out their grievances or sing the brand’s praises. Either way, you get to know what your customers want and work on it. 

Know your audience thoughts 

Twitter chat allows your audience to ask questions. From these questions and the way it’s asked, you get to know more about your audience. 

Increase brand credibility 

You can build your brand as a thought leader in your industry by organizing chats and discussing industry-specific topics. Starting conversations on a topic shows you have an indoor knowledge of it. 

Build brand awareness

Get people to know more about your brand through Twitter chats since they are public discussions in which nonusers can also participate.