Hosting a Twitter chat lets you better engage with your followers and customers on Twitter and build community among them by using some of Twitter’s conversation-friendly features.
Twitter chats are a great way to grow your social following, generate valuable discussions and feedback, and demonstrate thought leadership. Done right, they generate lively conversations and build deep connections between participants and brands.
Like any social media tactic, before diving in it’s worth taking some time to understand the ins and outs of Twitter chats. The last thing you want is to host a Twitter chat with no chat—#tumbleweed #awkwardsilence anyone?
Here’s a step-by-step guide to hosting a successful Twitter chat for business, including some best practices and examples of brand-led discussions to check out.
The key to success? Like any dinner party, seminar, or other event that brings people together, you need to be the host with the most.
Bonus: Download the free strategy guide that reveals how Hootsuite grew our Twitter following to over 7 million users and learn how you can put the tactics to work for your business.
What is a Twitter chat?
A Twitter chat is a public discussion on Twitter around a specific hashtag (see: topic). Twitter chats are led by a designated moderator—brand or individual—who ask questions and facilitate the discussion at a predetermined time.
On the web, Twitter chats are similar to forum Q&As (e.g. a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) session), which involve people visiting a forum thread at a particular time to chat to the host. In offline terms, hosting a Twitter chat is like hosting an open house for neighbors to discuss a local issue or a Meetup group for people who share a common interest.
In both cases, you set a date and time, choose a topic or theme, promote it to your audience, and then host a live, public discussion anyone can contribute to.
On Twitter, hashtags rule supreme as the easiest way to find content. Twitter chats make good use of hashtags to drive people to them and build an audience. For example, search for #HootChat on Twitter to see how our regular Twitter chats work.
We’ve rounded up a few more social marketing ones you can check out: 7 Twitter Chats Social Media Marketers Need to Follow. There are Twitter chats for almost any industry and topic you can think of. Search for more chats on Twitter or browse the Twitter chat lists at Tweet Reports and Twubs.
When looking at Twitter chats, note that they include certain recurring elements (more on that later). First, what’s in it for you, and your participants?
Benefits of hosting (and joining) a Twitter chat
Before delving into the benefits of Twitter chats, it’s worth reminding yourself what makes Twitter such an important social network for businesses by reading some of our posts covering who uses Twitter and how businesses can succeed with it:
Why host a Twitter chat?
A Twitter chat is more than just a fun event for you and your followers. From a business perspective, a Twitter chat is a golden opportunity to connect with and engage your customers in a meaningful way.
Hosting a chat shows followers that your business is open, accessible, and willing to engage with them—rather than just broadcasting content to them.
By initiating and participating in open conversations with people interested in the topics you present for discussion, you create opportunities to connect with new people, including influencers, existing and potential customers, and others in your field.
A Twitter chat can help you:
- Build authority and establish your brand’s leadership in your area
- Enable members of your business to be identified as influencers
- Make new connections with relevant Twitter users
- Share valuable and informational content with your audience
- Boost your brand awareness through increased mentions and discussions surrounding your brand
What’s in it for participants?
People often have questions they want to ask a brand or business, but they might feel frustrated by traditional methods, such as a contact form on your website. A Twitter chat has that element of immediacy and two-way discussion that is a draw for many people.
For others, it’s a chance to display some thought leadership of their own, raise their profile, and grow their audience by participating in a public debate. And other people might see Twitter chats as another source of interesting content they can add to their feed, as well as a way to find interesting people to follow and grow their network.
That’s how Twitter can benefit your business. How can you run your own successful Twitter chat? First, let’s break out the most important things you need to know about.
The 6 key elements of every Twitter chat
Each Twitter chat incorporates these key elements:
1. A hashtag: As mentioned, your Twitter chat hashtag gives your discussion an identity and helps people find and follow it on Twitter.
2. A host: That would be you. Every Twitter chat needs a host to start things off, encourage participation, and moderate the discussion and keep it on track.
3. A topic and content: Twitter chats can either be a general discussion or about something very specific. Either way, you need to have an idea in advance of what you want to talk about, and some prepared content and talking points.
4. Questions and answers: Twitter chats usually follow a Q&A format. The host asks questions or posts discussion topics (indicated by Q1, Q2, etc.) and participants post answers (A1, A2, etc.) to make it easy to follow along.
5. A set date and time: Instead of starting Twitter chats as and when you feel like it, successful Twitter chats happen at predetermined times—often on a weekly basis in the same time-slot. Think of it like that radio show or live podcast you tune into every week at the same time.
6. Participants: The last thing you want is to end up talking to yourself, so getting the above things right is crucial, as is promoting your Twitter chat effectively. You can also invite selected participants and special guests.
With these common elements in mind, here’s your step-by-step guide to hosting a Twitter chat for business.
How to host a Twitter chat in 7 easy steps
Resist the temptation to jump straight in. You’ll need to build a plan before starting your first Twitter chat. Follow these steps to give your chats the best chance of standing out and attracting engaged participants.
1. Define your purpose
Twitter chats take effort, so you need to make sure it’s the right tactic for you.
- How does a Twitter chat support your larger social media goals?
- Why choose the Twitter chat format over other publishing options?
- Does a chat support your community building goals?
The Twitter chat format can be very powerful in creating a sense of “place” on an otherwise fragmented social media platform. On the flipside, it encourages opinion-based messaging, which can be a headache if topics turn controversial.
Hosting a chat also requires commitment, and a fair bit of advance planning and work on the day. That means you need a clear vision of what you want to accomplish to have any hope of success. Here are some possible aims:
- Grow your following
- Understand your audience better
- Display thought leadership
- Boost engagement
- Solicit feedback
2. Do your research
Take some time to get a feel for how Twitter chats work and understand the experience from a participant’s perspective. Take some notes to inform your own chats, asking yourself:
- How many people participated?
- What time and day did the chat take place?
- What response did questions generate?
- How engaging was the host?
- How relevant was the topic?
- How well was the chat promoted?
- What did you get out of the chat?
Find existing chats relevant to your industry. This will have the added benefit of introducing you to participants you may want to invite to your own event. And, if you participate in other chat communities, people will be more likely to take part in yours.
3. Choose the best time to hold a Twitter…
