Experienced Copywriter and Social Media Manager

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Twitter Chat Resource: Seven Social Media-Centered Twitter Chats

Aug26th
2011 6 Comments Written by James Dabbagian

So, you know how to join a Twitter chat, you know how to survive one, and you know how to behave…but you don’t know of any Social Media-related chats that you can participate in. Never fear, as I present to you some of the most popular ones below.

#socialchat – Moderated by Alan K’necht and Michelle StinsonRoss, #socialchat is a general knowledge chat related to Social Media and marketing. Most chats take the form of structured Q&A, with people answering the questions as they are stated, and additional commentary evolves from there.

#socialchat runs on Mondays from 9:00pm to 10:00pm EST.

#SMmanners – Led by @DabneyPorte, who also handles the #SMGirlfriends meta-chat, #SMManners was recently copyrighted. However, the chat itself concerns social media manners, and how to increase your influence using your manners.

#SMManners runs every tuesday at 10:00 P.M EST

#Getrealchat – Self-proclaimed Marketing Nut Pam Moore leads this chat. The purpose, according to Pam, is that the chat “focuses on power of social relationships and being real in biz & life.” Topics often cover how to blend Social Media in with direct marketing, as well as branding and performing to the people.

#Getrealchat is right before #SMManners, Tuesday at 9:00 P.M EST.

#eavchat – This Twitter chat is dedicated to what’s arguable the Social Media Stock Market of the world: Empire Avenue. Chats often entail strategies to landing additional dividends, investing in others, and using Empire Avenue to increase one’s reputation, ROI and even get new clients.

#Eavchat is every Tuesday at 7-9pm, EST.

#IMchat - Sarah Glass organizes a weekly chat dedicated to Social Media. Each chat is led by a different person, whom Sarah acts as a moderator for. Topics range from social media metrics to community management.

#IMchat can be seen on  Tuesdays, 2-3pm EST.

#usguyschat - While the #usguys Twitter group converses over the course of the week using their hashtag, They’ve recently started a weekly chat of their own where they discuss social media affairs. Like #socialchat, it is a general knowledge chat. #usguyschat is moderated by Ken Rosen. 

#usguyschat is every Monday at 3pm EST.

#likeablechat – Run by the social media firm Likeable Media and led by their marketing manager, Michele Weisman, #likeablechat is a social media chat dedicated to talking about SoMo in terms of Likeable Media’s mission: “To build more transparent, responsive, & likeable companies, nonprofit organizations, and governments.” The chat is a Q&A type with questions usually pertaining to transparancy in Social Media.

#likeablechat is held each Sunday at 10pm EST.

#Cmgrchat – This chat comes recommended by several commenters. The chat’s all about community management, arguably the core of all social media. It was founded by Jenn Pedde and Kelly Lux. According to its website, #Cmgrchat is “a community to discuss ideas, foster collaboration, and act as a resource for all of those working in this ever changing industry.”

#Cmgrchat holds court on Twitter every Wednesday from 2-3pm EST. Check out #Cmgrchat’s website.

Moderators: If I am missing information about your chat, let me know in the comments and I will correct it immediately. If you have a social-media related chat that I haven’t listed, you’re more than welcome to suggest it in comments as well.

 

Social media, Twitter    , , ,

Twitter Chat Series Part 3: Etiquette

Aug22nd
2011 1 Comment Written by James Dabbagian

Check out the other titles in the series:

In our last article, we covered the basics in surviving in a Twitter chat. However, there’s more to a chat than surviving. Like back in kindergarten, you gotta know your manners. There’s some unwritten rules about how to go about behaving in a Twitter chat. Here are some:

Lurk – It is always fine to lurk. In fact, you should do so for the first few chats so you get a feel of what’s going on. Once you feel comfortable, jump on in.

Never announce that you’re late – If you’ve just arrived late halfway into the discussion, the best thing to do is jump in. Do not apologize, do not say you were late. It’s rude, and it makes you look arrogant, as if the chat wasn’t important at all without you. Jumping on in makes it look like you were simply lurking and waiting for an opportunity to speak.

No Trolling - This should go without saying. Don’t be an asshole. People come to chats for advice, and while there are such things as stupid questions, people AREN’T stupid for asking them. Either be polite with others in the chat or shut up.

Stay on topic – If the topic is on branding blogs online, don’t start talking about using influence metrics like Klout, even if it partially relates to the topic at hand. If you need to continue a debate/commentary/discussion that’s off-topic, take it out of the chat (No Hashtag.)

Do not link to any content unless it’s relevant to the conversation – #blogchat’s Mack Collier put it best:

 If we are going to discuss ways to get more comments on your blog, and you are promoting your post on ‘How to pick a great WordPress template’, and you add the #blogchat hashtag, then it comes across as ‘spam’ to the #blogchat community.

While good content can and should be given, as it helps everyone involved, don’t link crap willy-nilly. Furthermore, always follow the specific guidelines of the Twitter chat. For instance, #blogchat discourages any links being given during the actual chat. However, the time before and after #blogchat is fair game.

Don’t take stuff personally - Again, people are jerks. Sometimes they don’t mean to be jerks. I’ve blocked a few people for sounding like assholes when in reality, they were trying to help me. Then again, there’s just people who have a snarky edge to them (such as myself) but are genuinely nice underneath. 

Follow up immediately – If you promise to do something for someone in chat (such as send a document or look at a form) do so as soon as you possibly can. Preferably right after the chat so it’s fresh in your mind.

If you mess up, apologize – We all make a social faux pas at one point or another, and we understand. If you act overly belligerent or you break a guideline, and someone calls you on it, apologize. Believe me, no matter how bad the fuck-up, it’s even worse if you don’t apologize.

Obviously, entire encyclopedias can be written on proper etiquette, but hopefully, these can serve as some ground rules.

Your turn

What are some etiquette tips you have to share for Twitter chats? Anything I didn’t cover? What are some situations you have seen?

Next time: Creating your own Twitter chat!

Social media, Twitter    , , ,

Twitter Chat Series Part 2: How to survive a Twitter chat

Aug1st
2011 Leave a Comment Written by James Dabbagian

For part 1 of this series, check out How to participate in a Twitter Chat.

So, you’ve found a cool chat to partake in, and you’re ready to start talking…except that the moment you load up Tweetchat, the tweets roll by faster than a hummingbird, and you’ve been lost in the conversation. Relax, it’s happened to everyone. We’ll be taking a closer look at how to survive your first Twitter chat.

What you need to do is figure out how exactly to talk. In smaller Twitter chats, this may not be a problem as the speed of the chat might be slow enough to look at what everyone says. However, for bigger chats like say, #blogchat, you’re going to need to do some tactics:

Feature the Chat leader and guest (if applicable) – The first thing I do is determine who the chat’s moderator is. If you don’t know, ask. Once you know, you can use Tweetchat’s “Feature” option to highlight that user’s tweets. This means that their tweets will stand out over others, allowing you to keep track of when the conversation turns. Also do this for any special guests in the chat.

You can enable this by clicking on the icon on a person on the person’s Tweet, then click “Feature.” Once you do this, you should also follow the chat leader on Twitter to keep up on future news regarding the chat.

Reply, Reply, Reply – There is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY to keep track of every conversation happening in a given chat. However, you can still reply to people in a chat publicly while still having the hashtag. Tweetchat lets you reply to multiple people at once, so you can all stay in the same conversation. Who knows? Maybe the convo can continue after the chat is done.

Keep your Twitter @Mentions page up – The more active you are, the more likely people will reply to you, and the faster the chat, the more likely you are to miss when someone sends an @ to you. The best solution to this is to keep your Twitter’s @mentions page right next to Tweetchat’s tab, so you can alternate between the two as needed. If the chat is particularily intense, you may want to wait to reply until after the chat.

WARNING: If you use Twitter proper to reply to people, DON’T forget to add the hashtag!

Be aware of questions asked -  Many chats ask questions to their followers, using the format of “Q1: What is a man?” To respond to these, you typically reply to the chat lead (or whoever asks the questions) with “A1: A miserable little pile of secrets!” As the chat progresses, you’ll notice Q2, Q3, etc arising. You should respond to those with “A” followed by the corresponding number, then your response.

These should keep you floating in the turbulent Twitter chat sea. For Part 3, we’ll be looking at Twitter Chat Etiquette.

Social media, Twitter    , , ,

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