Over the past several years, I’ve been engaged by leading brands, who want to reach small business owners, to host Twitter chats.
Twitter chats can be a great way to: 1) boost your Twitter following 2) build engagement around your brand 3) leverage an influencer’s reach and credibility all to connect your brand with small business owners.
Here’s a few things I’ve learned over the years, in hosting Twitter chats.
If you’re interested in working with me and the Smart Hustle Magazine team to host a Twitter chat or anything else, just let me know. Email me – ramon@smarthustle.com
- Choose your overall theme and topic
- Identify which influencer(s) to work with
- Build a simple landing page
- Identify your metrics of success and how you’ll measure that success
- Market the Twitter chat
- Prepare a minute by minute script of how Twitter chat questions (it’s optional to script the influencer answers
- Have a pre-Twitter chat call a few days before the Twitter chat to review the chat operations
- Have a telephone conference call line setup for everyone to chat in real time (via phone) about the Twitter chat as it’s going on.
Choose your overall theme and topic
A Twitter chat works best when you have it focused on a narrow theme or topic. Don’t pick something like, “small business growth”. Instead pick something like “mobile productivity” or “mobile security” or “finding startup financing”. You want to be able to focus the Twitter chat as much as possible so that the questions and answers can be as specific as possible.
Identify which influencer(s) to work with
You want to work with an influencer who who has these four criteria a) they’re easy to work with b) they have a decent sized reach (Twitter reach and beyond) c) they can reach out to other influencers and get them to participate in the Twitter chat and d) ideally they’ve done a few Twitter chat’s in the past.
You can do a Twitter chat with ONE influencer or pair up two – I’ve done this very successfully as well.
Build a simple landing page
Some brands I’ve worked with, have felt it not necessary to have a landing page for the Twitter chat. I think it’s a mistake. A simple landing page with the Twitter chat date, time, hashtag, host/influencer pictures and bios and simple instructions for how to do the Twitter chat are important. A landing page is always a good rallying point for marketing the Twitter chat.
Identify your metrics of success and how you’ll measure that success
Like any marketing campaign you want to identify the metrics of success for your Twitter chat. Are you looking for brand uplift, more followers, engagement, etc. Whatever your goals are, let the influencer know ahead of time so they and your team can work to make the Twitter chat a success.
Market the Twitter chat
Marketing the Twitter chat is essential. Of course market it via Twitter, but also use other social channels, send it out via email blasts and more. Of course your influencer partner should be engaged to do the same.
Prepare a minute by minute script of how Twitter chat questions (it’s optional to script the influencer answers
A script is an essential component of a Twitter chat. You’ll use the the script to easily send out each Twitter questions, space the questions out and you could even pre-plan some answers. In particular the answers you’ll use (you the brand). It’s also important to plan ahead what links and other elements you’ll use in the Twitter chat.
Have a pre-Twitter chat call a few days before the Twitter chat to review the chat operations
While this is not NECESSARY or a MUST – having a pre-Twitter chat phone call can be a great way to ensure everyone’s on the same page and is clear on what each person’s role will be.
Have a telephone conference call line setup for everyone to chat in real time (via phone) about the Twitter chat as it’s going on.
For the actually Twitter chat – have everyone on a conference call line. This is helpful so you can, in real time, mention things that need to be done, alert everyone when a new question has been posted, call out a particular user and etc.
TweetChat is a common service used by many, but you can also just use Twitter’s search capacity on your phone or Web browser, Hootsuite or any number of other tools that can easily follow a hashtag.
Of course make sure your hashtag is not used that day and/or one that’s popular in another context or by another brand.
Have fun and I hope this has been helpful.
Wanna work with me to do a Twitter chat? Just let me know – ramon@smarthustle.com
Did you find this useful – could you email me and let me know too?
I hope to see you at the 11th Annual Smart Hustle Conference – https://smarthustle.com/conference ! Sponsor and/or just attend the media reception the night before!
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