I'm a huge believer in the power of Twitter Chats. If you've ever seen someone or a group of folks in your stream start appending their tweets with a common hashtag for an hour or so, chances are you are seeing your Twitter friends in a Twitter Chat and didn't realize what was flowing through your stream.
I find that Twitter Chats have a number of great benefits. Here are four that come to mind this morning.
First, Twitter follower growth. If you want to grow your follower base, especially if you want to grow it in a targeted way (think industry vertical) go find and engage in a Twitter Chat. Honestly, I can say that pretty much every time I truly engage in a chat I pick up 20-30 new followers. Maybe it was something I typed or maybe it is just that folks are looking to find new folks to follow, but it never fails. I always pick up followers and I'm sure you will to. So, instead of reading and applying the latest 10 tips to grow your follower blog post, drop into a Twitter Chat or two and engage in some good old fashion conversation.
Second, dialog. God how I miss the good old days (and by old days I mean like 2008/9) when Twitter was more about discussion than publishing. It used to be that you'd see multiple Twitter debates throughout the day where one or more persons would engage in an ad hoc discussion/debate over an item that both had strong opposing POV's over. I first "met" @JasonFalls debating whether or not you can actually track ROI of outdoor advertising. From there the seeds of a relationship that I value highly sprung up and I now have a friend and excellent resource to call on when I'm trying to get a smart insight or alternative POV. You just don't get as much of that on Twitter as you used to so Twitter Chats are a great way to test your debating skills and your points of view.
Third, targeted prospecting. I love using Twitter Chats to find new prospects for Converse Digital. As a firm that is built around the idea of helping companies understand how to monitor, create and engage in digital conversations with customers and prospects, you can well imagine that the folks I want to talk to inside big companies are online and often in these Twitter Chats. Best of all, not only do I find them but I get a chance to see how they think, understand if we see digital marketing through the same lens and even engage them in a bit of discussion or debate to see what they'd be like to work with IRL. Again, I've found a number of these Twitter Chat discussions have evolved into ongoing Twitter relationships, phone conversations and requests for a formal proposal to work together. Not bad for something that I'd gladly do with no direct business prospecting benefit.
Fourth, getting smarter. There are so many smart people out there that you can learn from and many are in these Twitter Chats freely sharing information. This is not only a great way to keep your marketing skills sharp but if you're working in a new vertical or you're trying to get up to speed on a topic or technology, chances are there is a Twitter Chat for that. So you can pop over and lurk to learn a bit, find smart people to follow (so you can keep learning) and in general get a lay of the land.
If you're new to Twitter Chats and you want to find a couple of good ones to try out, here are a few that I find are good, lively and full of smart peeps.
#SMCChat, #BlogChat, #PR20, #IMCChat, #SocialMedia (which is usually tagged #SM(two digit number of that week's chat) and of course there are many more I'm forgetting right now but that is a great start.
Here is a list of over 100 Twitter Chats along with the host's Twitter handle and details about the chat.
So what about you? Do you do Twitter Chats? If so, why and what do you get out of it? Better yet, what Twitter Chats do you favor and why? List them out and together, you and me, we can create a great Twitter Chat resource that others can use to get them started.
Ready? Go.
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