By Aaron Lee, {grow} Community Member
What is a Twitter Chat?
To me, I like to think a Twitter Chat is like having a discussion over coffee, only online.
It’s quick, informal, and laid-back.
People meet at a certain time and discuss topics and questions set for the day. The only difference is that there are more people joining in the discussion.
Just imagine more than 50 people talking simultaneously. Good luck doing that over a small coffee table!
On Twitter, however, it WORKS!
Two months ago, Post Planner decided to start our own Twitter Chat and I was assigned to work with the team to organize it from scratch. It wasn’t easy to set up but it was worth it in the end!
Today we’re consistently receiving over 2000 tweets per chat. Just imagine what 2000+ tweets a week could do for your company’s visibility.
Twitter Chat is just too powerful to ignore!
Today, more companies are realizing the power of Twitter Chats. Companies like Expedia host their own Twitter Chat and it’s pretty awesome to see them sincerely engage with their audience.
If that’s not enough to convince you, here are a few of the key benefits Twitter Chats can provide:
1. Increase Brand Exposure
On average, Post Planner’s Twitter Chat, codenamed: #viralchat, gets about 2,000 tweets per chat. Since these chats are public, we’ve also benefited from hundreds of other people seeing the hashtag each week.
This all provides exposure for your company. We’ve even reached new people, since we’re getting exposure from our guests followers as well. Some of them subsequently started using our products after joining our Twitter Chat sessions.
Here’s an overview of one of our most successful Twitter Chats with social media author and educator Marsha Collier:
2. Humanize Your Brand
How often do you see brands come together with their fans to discuss a particular topic with them?
Not often. Twitter Chats are a great way to do just that, since it allows you to engage with your fans. This helps humanize your brand as you engage with your community.
It’s a great way to engage with your fans who join such chats to listen to what you have to say.
3. It’s A Great Way To Listen
Okay, your company has tweeted enough! Those thousands of creative tweets need to take a back seat. Now it’s time to listen to your community.
Since your community will be online throughout the one hour of the chat, it’s great way to see how your fans feel about the topic.
4. Get Instant Feedback.
Ask and you shall receive! Remember, since Twitter Chats are a great way to listen, you can use this opportunity to receive important feedback from your audience.
Post a question about what you want to know and you’ll get instant feedback immediately!
How fast? About A MINUTE! That is how fast people are during Twitter Chats. It’s a great way to learn from your audience about what they love and what they don’t, use these feedback in your marketing.
5. Create A Loyal Community
Twitter Chats are also a great way to build a loyal community behind your company.
Since we started our chats, we’ve had many repeat visits from loyal people who continue to tune into our chat to learn and contribute their thoughts each week.
6. Add Value
A Twitter Chat is the best way to add value for your audience! I don’t think there is any better way to do this on Twitter. This is a platform where people tune in to learn and to share with each other.
One of our chats was led by the people behind Canva and they taught all of us how we can design better visuals. For someone like me who is a beginner, I found the session very insightful and had a lot of takeaways from it as I knew nothing about designs and color palettes.
7. New followers
Who doesn’t want more followers? Twitter Chats are one of the easiest ways to get them since you’re constantly gaining exposure from tweets people are tweeting during the chat.
To date, in just 8 weeks, we have nearly 600 followers on our Twitter Chat handle: @viralchat, and we used it almost exclusively for chats. No following, no tricks, no gimmicks.
Summing up:
I think Twitter Chats are one of the best ways to reach more people on social media! I think the pace, information and conversation is what drives its effectiveness.
While Twitter Chats may not be a new thing, it’s definitely not fully utilized.
I’m seeing a massive gap in many different industries and now is the time to start one– especially if your industry is fairly niche. Imagine being the go-to person for Twitter Chats for your industry.
What do you think?
Aaron Lee is the Grand Master of Customer Delight at Post Planner, a platform that makes it easy to increase Facebook engagement. During his free time, he shares his fun adventures at AskAaronLee.com.