How to Participate in a Twitter Chat
Twitter chats offer a valuable way to meet people with similar interests and share insights into specific areas of expertise. Effective Student Marketing hosts a live weekly Twitter chat to discuss and explore for-profit higher education marketing topics and issues. Here’s how to participate in #HigherEdChat, every Wednesday night at 4pm ET starting January 5, 2011:
Step 1: Find and use the hashtag, #HigherEdChat
Using the hashtag symbol (#), followed by a name or abbreviation, people broadcast their tweets to a specific group and follow others tweeting with the same hashtag. The hashtag is one of the keys needed to engage successfully in a Twitter chat. Use #HigherEdChat to engage in Effective Student Marketing’s weekly Higher education marketing Twitter chat.
Step 2: Use a Twitter chat tool to monitor the conversation
Twitter experts know that the second key to successful twitter chat participation is to fine-tune their Twitter station to remove all that other Twitter “noise”. Like dialing into your favorite radio station and removing all the unnecessary static and chatter, these tools help you follow the conversation without being bombarded by other unrelated tweets. Ten Twitter chat tools are listed below. Following a conversation with Twitter’s main page is difficult and by the time you hit refresh and find tweets with the hashtag, you’ve missed most of the conversation.
Step 3: Tweet using these Twitter chat basics
Once you’ve identified #HigherEdChat and the Twitter chat tool that works best for you, it’s time to get involved. Login to Twitter and your Twitter chat tool at the appropriate date and time, and watch for the moderator to announce the start of the chat. Now that you know the hashtag, remember to include it in all your tweets so others can see your comments and questions.
Most Twitter chats, like #journchat, have some type of established ground rules and culture as people discuss specific topics or questions. Many chats have a moderator to help guide and facilitate the discussion. For example, #eventprofs has a moderator for each chat and established moderator instructions and guidelines. Some Twitter chats allow participants to post random questions and some suggest that the group stay on topic.
#HigherEdChat is set up with a series of topic specific questions. As the conversation mainly consists of these questions and answers, the moderators sometimes ask follow-up questions to specific participants, and people comment on the answers others have given. Another way to connect with others beyond 140 characters, is through the #HigherEdChat Group on LinkedIn.
Step 4: Now Go, Tweet and Participate
Chat attendees will need a Twitter account to ask a question or make a comment. For those interested in simply watching the discussion, a Twitter account is not needed. All posts related to the chat will need to include the hashtag #HigherEdChat. With practice, even a novice “Twitter-er” can turn into an avid participant.
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Twitter Chat Tools
Login to TweetChat with your Twitter username and password. Once your login has been authenticated with Twitter, enter #HigherEdChat. This will take you to the TweetChat room with your custom Twitter background where you’ll be able to follow the conversation. TweetChat settings allow you to pause the chat, set the refresh rate, and feature or block specific users. Each tweet you enter into the box will automatically be tagged with the official hashtag (#HigherEdChat). TweetChat is my personal favorite, but sometimes very slow.*
TweetGrid, a web-based dashboard that allows you to search and view up to nine different hashtags at once. Unlike other Twitter chat tools, you do not need a Twitter account to follow a conversation but you will not be able to tweet without a Twitter account. Open TweetGrid, choose a grid layout, enter your username, password, hashtag, and enter your tweet in tweet box. TweetGrid offers settings, photos and DM. If you’re following more than one conversation, you’ll have to enter the hashtag in the appropriate box each time you tweet.*
You’ll have to download this free application to your desktop in order to use. Once downloaded, you’ll need to set one column to search the hashtag by clicking on the magnifying glass and entering #HigherEdChat. You can move that column to the right or left in your TweetDeck dashboard. You can also change the settings such as background color, font color, refresh rates, etc. Each time you tweet for the specific conversation, you’ll need to add the hashtag. A lot of people use TweetDeck as their normal Twitter interface and keep columns for following specific hashtags open. That way they can connect with people in those communities outside of the scheduled Tweet chats times.*
A newer web-based interface that integrates a variety of media including photos and videos. Unlike TweetChat, TweetGrid and Monitter, it also incorporates a URL shortening tool. Sign in to Twubs with your username and password, and enter the hashtag. Twubs automatically adds the hashtags to your tweets, allows you to filter users, and has real time refreshing. Twubs also has a widget that you can embed on your website or blog.*
A web-based interface that allows you to follow up to three hashtags at once. You can only tweet to @replies or send retweets, and you’ll have to enter your username, password and hashtag each time you send a tweet.*
WhatTheHashtag (wtHashtag)
A web-based user-editable encyclopedia for hashtags; a.k.a. a wiki of registered hashtags. This interface includes a variety of information about specific Twitter chats including a description, schedule and moderator, planned topic queue, stats and top contributors, the ability to view and save a transcript of tweets within a certain date and view the Twitter chat via Monitter. You cannot tweet from wtHashtag. Tip: If you want to know what a specific hashtag stands for, follow wtHashtag. Once they are following you, DM them the hashtag and they’ll reply with the definition on file. Check out #HigherEdChat on wtHashtag.*
RSS Feeds
If you like reading feeds, you can grab a feed for your hashtag group in Twitter search. Enter the hashtag and then copy the link in “Feed for this query” into your feed reader. Using RSS feeds, you can’t participate in the discussion and send tweets, but you can follow the chat.*
Web-based interface that monitors hashtags. Login with username, password and enter hashtag in search function. TweeTree pulls in some additional content like photos, videos, blog posts of some approved vendors so that you can see the link’s content in your stream without clicking the link. You’ll have to remember to add the hashtag to your tweets when participating in the discussion in TweeTree.*
Web-based dashboard. Login with user name, password and enter the hashtag. You’ll see the tweets in a horizontal grid format with a very small font. Roomatic does not have any settings that you can change to make the font size bigger or change the refresh rate. It does, however, automatically include the hashtag on each tweets. You cannot send a reply or DM through Roomatic.*
Web-based interface that lets you follow hashtag and conversation. You cannot tweet from Twemes.*
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*Twitter chat tools information courtesy of Jeff Hurt of Midcourse Corrections: Views From The Trenches. Follow him @JeffHurt.
