Twitter Chats: How to Create a Successful Tweet Chat

Are you familiar with Twitter chats?

Wondering how Twitter chats can help market your business?

To learn more about Twitter chats and what they can mean for your business, I interview Pam Moore for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.

More About This Show

The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.

It’s designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).

In this episode, I interview Pam Moore, founder of Marketing Nutz, an agency specializing in social media marketing. One of Pam’s areas of expertise includes Twitter.

Pam shares why businesses should host Twitter chats and the marketing benefits of running them.
You’ll discover how to get started, where to find participants and ways to promote your Twitter chats.

Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!

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Here are some of the things you’ll discover in this show:

Twitter Chats

What Is a Twitter Chat? 

A Twitter chat is a way to get people together at a predetermined time and talk about a subject. Their purpose is to organize conversation and connect people.

Use tweet chats to connect people around a particular subject. 

Image source: iStockphoto

Pam says that if you’re new to social media, and to Twitter specifically, then Twitter chats are a great way for you to learn how to use it. Twitter chats not only allow you to form a deep connection with a community, but Pam has also seen people empower their lives and businesses faster than they thought possible.

When you plan a tweet chat, you can make them formal or informal. You’ll find out why Pam recommends that you have a combination of both. You can also do tweet chats in a series, which can help with your brand’s positioning. With this type of tweet chat, you need to put together a strategy over several months.

One of Pam’s clients, IBM, recently held an event called IBM Connect in Orlando, where they hosted tweet chats with some of the influencers and speakers for the event. The aim of these tweet chats was to generate awareness and excitement for the event, plus drive registration.

IBM used tweet chats for the IBM Connect event.

This particular chat had over 40 million impressions over the course of a few days, and included 2500 tweets. Nearly 600 people took part in the conversation
.
You’ll find out what comes after the tweet chat that is just as important as the chat itself and why you are left with a social asset.

Listen to the show to find out what IBM added to the front and back ends of their tweet chat for IBM Connect.

Why host a tweet chat?

One of the marketing benefits when you host your own tweet chat is that you can start to a build a community around it. You can capture the mindshare of that audience for a specific time on a regular basis. This gives you an opportunity to communicate and support your marketing objectives.

You can build a community around tweet chats. Image source: iStockphoto

Your core goal is to focus on the needs of your audience. When you provide great content, which can bring good people to the community, then they’ll begin to depend on you and want more.

Pam has seen so many people—clients included—grow their businesses and make connections and partnerships. It easily puts you in a leadership role.

Listen to the show to discover how a tweet chat can easily go viral.

How to prepare for a tweet chat

Pam says that the process includes both art and science. As the chat leader, you need to provide some framework, but you don’t want it to look like you have planned everything that you say.

You have to balance structure with flexibility and agility. In a structured-style tweet chat, you have a list of questions. Pam usually creates a list of questions and has a specific topic to talk about.

Pam is the leader of the GetRealChat, which is held weekly to educate and help the audience. As the leader, you can share your expertise and also leave the questions open for the community to answer.

Pam leads the GetRealChat every week.

You’ll hear how you can use tweet chats to grow your email opt-in list and subscribers.

Listen to the show to find out what led IBM to put together a social buzz chat after the tweet chat, and how the company created a social asset.

How to get people to participate live 

When you lead a tweet chat, you need to make sure you work in unison with any guests whom you invite to join you. Don’t ever throw them in at the last minute.

The best way is to get on the phone with guests ahead of time, so you can have that voice-to-voice connection first. If it’s your first time on a chat, then Pam encourages you to be on the phone while on the chat.

You’ll discover why Pam likes to get on the conference call 15 minutes before the chat with everybody who is participating. Behind the scenes, the chats are very structured, but to the community it needs to look completely unstructured.

The way to get people to participate in a tweet chat is to leverage your existing community using your email list. If you don’t have one, then you need to start to build a list.

Build an email list if you don’t already have one.

Pam likes to do some market tipping to let people know about the chat.

The most important thing is to make sure your content is good. You can also reach out to some key influencers within your community and get them to partner with you.

You’ll hear the story behind how GetRealChat came about.

A lot of different tweet chats have arisen from the GetRealChat, created by people who came in 3 years ago and hardly knew how to tweet or retweet. These people now lead their own communities and some even work for Pam and her team.

Listen to the show to find out how long a chat should last, and what you need to do to make it succeed.

How to find tweet chats

If you’re new to tweet chats, then head over to the GetRealChat blog to see all of the transcripts from Pam’s tweet chats.

Pam recommends that you use the TweetChat platform. Once you enter the specific hashtag, it will automatically filter all of your tweets for that hashtag. It will also add the hashtag at the end of your tweets, so you don’t have to.

TweetChat will add the hashtag at the end of your tweets.

Listen to the show to find out how we use TweetChat at Social Media Examiner.

Common mistakes to avoid

Pam says that if she were to do it all over again, she would structure her chats more from the start.
The objective of tweet chats is to serve and help people. So if you see it start to take off, then you need to think about monetizing your platform.

IBM is a client of Pam’s because they approached her to participate on her platform and to communicate with her audience. You’ll hear the reasons Pam set up the GetRealChat blog.

Make sure you have a platform for your audience to go to.

When you first start out, you need at least 10-20 people on a chat. It’s about quality over quantity.

Pam has always tried to focus on quality, and to ensure that people feel part of the community. You need to keep the people who care about it really engaged, because they are the heartbeat of the chat.

It’s better to have 100 people who are interested in your content and communicate within your chat on a monthly basis than it is to have 500 who are just tweeting or retweeting because they want to become famous and be part of the hashtag.

You’ll discover how many questions you should have ready and why five is normally not enough.
Listen to the show to find out what turns up the dial on the viral nature of a tweet chat.

The strategic use of retweets

Pam says that when she runs a tweet chat, she has windows open for TweetChat and HootSuite.
You need to make sure you know the key players in your community and give them some social love. Some of the best ways you can do this is to:

• Notice when they ask questions
• Greet them as they come in
• Share relevant content they tweet

Another thing you can do is welcome people back. Pam has people in her community who over time have stepped up into a welcoming role. People just want to be acknowledged.

Listen to the show to hear why Pam doesn’t consider influence score when replying to people.

Tools to help manage a tweet chat

Along with TweetChat, there are a few other tools available to help you manage a tweet chat.
You can use a platform like Storify to help manage your tweets. Tweets can be collected within Storify and then shared in a blog post.

During tweet chats, you or a colleague can favorite some tweets in a separate Twitter window that you know you’ll want to pull into a transcript. This will make it much easier for you to go into Storify, do a search and pull up those tweets.

Use Storify to turn your favorite tweets into a transcript.

To create the transcript, it’s simply drag and drop. Storify then shows you what your transcript will look like.

You need to install the WordPress plugin for Storify on your blog, and once Storify gives you the URL for that transcript, you can easily embed it within your blog post.

The WordPress Storify plugin allows you to embed your tweets into a blog post.

Hashtracking is another tool that Pam loves. It gives you real-time insights for your hashtag.
Some of the measurement features include:

• The reach of your hashtag
• How many impressions you are getting
• How many people participated in the chat
• How many tweets were sent
• What other hashtags were communicated

You’ll discover why Hashtracking is a very powerful tool when you have sponsors involved in your tweet chats.

Pam believes that if you are new to tweet chats, these tools are all you need to get started.

Check out the full podcast episode with Pam Moore.

Listen to the show to hear what you can view in the Hashtracking transcript.

Other Show Mentions

This week’s podcast is sponsored by Social Media Marketing World.


Social Media Marketing World 2014 is our physical mega-conference, which is set to return to San Diego, California on March 26, 27 and 28.

The conference features more than 80 sessions in four major tracks: social tactics, social strategy, community management and content marketing.

If you want to see the excitement for this conference, check out our hashtag #smmw14.

If you enjoy networking and a key part of your business strategy is to meet people who could possibly become business partners, strategic alliance partners or future customers, you will love this conference. We have integrated networking in so many different ways.

1. Bingo on opening night
2. Walks/runs in a morning
3. Opportunity after the opening keynote
4. Dedicated networking space
5. Dedicated networking ambassadors

Be sure to check out more about the conference.

Call in and leave your social media–related questions for us and we may include them in a future show.

Key takeaways mentioned in this episode:

• Connect with Pam Moore at The Marketing Nutz or at Pam Marketing Nut.
• Check out IBM Connect and the hashtag for the event.
• Use TweetChat for Twitter chats.
• Check out Jessica Northey, a country music artist who runs a tweet chat at CMchat.
• Look at the GetRealChat blog for transcripts of Pam’s tweet chats.
• Try Storify to manage your tweets.
• Install the WordPress plugin for Storify, so transcripts can be embedded in a blog post.
• Use Hashtracking to gain real-time insights into your hashtag.
• Learn more about Social Media Marketing World 2014.
• Contact Emily at emily@socialmediaexaminer.com if you are interested in corporate sponsorships for Social Media Marketing World 2014.

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What do you think? What are your thoughts on creating Twitter chats for your business? Please leave your comments below.

5 Ways to Grow Your Twitter Reach

Are you struggling to grow your Twitter following?

Do you want more people to see your updates?

If you’re a small business, it can take a while to build up your Twitter followers and that can be frustrating. You may wonder how other companies grow quickly and how you can replicate their success.

In this article you’ll discover five ways to jumpstart visibility for your Twitter profile and tweets.

#1: Follow Twitter Basics

Before you do anything else, be sure you understand a few Twitter fundamentals. You can increase your tweet exposure with just a few tweaks:

• Don’t start tweets with @username. Starting a tweet with @username restricts its visibility to only you, the person you’re tweeting and any mutual followers. Your reach is automatically cut short!
  

  Starting a tweet with @username limits your reach.
  

  
  

  Here’s an example of a tweet crafted to put text before the first @username to give this tweet a wider reach.

  
  
• Don’t use more than three hashtags in any one tweet. Too many hashtags in a tweet makes it look spammy and reduces your tweet’s shareability.
• Don’t over-tweet about yourself or your products. The 80/20 rule applies on all social platforms. The 80/20 rule means you spend 80% of the time interacting with and promoting others and 20% of the time promoting yourself and your products.
• Provide as much value as you can. Listen to your followers and the people you follow. What are their pain points? How can you solve those? When you share relevant, interesting tweets (without over-promoting), people see you as an expert and may recommend you to others as an important resource.

#2: Promote Your Twitter Profile Everywhere

Use your other social profiles to tell people about your Twitter handle. Add your Twitter username to the About or Contact sections of Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and any other social profiles you use.

On your website or blog, be sure you have social sharing buttons to make it easy for readers to tell others about your content.

Configure your social sharing button to auto-populate your Twitter username when someone shares an article.

Plugins make it simple to install and customize sharing options and expand your reach by adding via @yourusername every time someone tweets content from your site. This simple customization gets your Twitter handle in front of hundreds of users you may not have reached otherwise.

#3: Cross-Promote Your Giveaways

Giveaways always drive more traffic, visibility and engagement. Take advantage of that by creating a Q&A giveaway that requires entrants to give their answers by tagging you on Twitter and using a specific hashtag.

Extend visibility of your Twitter profile by cross-promoting campaigns using hashtags.

The hashtag is easy to track and ensures you don’t miss part of the conversation. Requiring users to tag your @username ensures a wider audience sees your handle. Be sure to engage with any users who respond or use the hashtag—it’s just good etiquette and you’ll reach even more people.

When you’re ready to promote your giveaway, post the question to all of your social accounts. Start with the platform that has the most engagement, then share across your other social profiles. Don’t forget to share on Twitter!

#4: Interact With Niche Influencers

Whether you’re offline or online, networking is a tried-and-true method for extending your reach. If you haven’t started networking on Twitter, now’s the time.

If you’re truly listening on Twitter, you’ll be able to tell who the influencers are in your niche—those are the people with whom you want to establish a relationship. Remember, the influencers don’t have to be national in scope, they can be important locals as well (e.g., the newspaper editor or local newscasters).

Start a Twitter conversation with a few of the influencers in your niche and add as much value to the conversation as you can. The more interesting you are, the more likely it is that an influencer will respond to or spread your message.

The Fort Collins, CO band @FierceBad has a modest 683 followers, but has established a relationship with the amazingly popular @newbelgium (New Belgium Brewing, also in Fort Collins). When Fierce Bad released a new video, New Belgium Brewing tweeted it out to their 187,500 fans—quite a bit bigger audience.

Influencers can attract huge attention for you on Twitter.

#5: Find Allies in an Online Community

If you think you’re alone in trying to build Twitter exposure, think again! There are lots of communities for people just like you who want to network.

These communities are generally built around niches, so it’s easy to find one where members share your interests. Shared interests mean it’s easier to find good content to send out to your followers (remember the 80/20 rule!). Since sharing is usually (but not always) reciprocal, you’re benefitting too.

Most online communities are free to join and welcome new members with open arms. Here are 10 communities you can join to increase your exposure on Twitter:

• BizSugar
• Blokube
• DoSplash
• Klinkk
• Inbound.org
• List.ly
• ManageWP.org
• Social Buzz Club
• The Writers Social
• Triberr

BizSugar posts have a Tweet button and the tweets from this community can add up.

You’ll find that many serious marketers have a strong presence in multiple online communities like these because they realize the overall value. Joining the same communities allows you to connect with those influencers (and expand your Twitter reach) on a larger scale.

Conclusion

Whether you’re starting a brand-new Twitter profile or you have an established profile that’s struggling to develop a larger following, you can increase Twitter exposure.

Make sure you’ve got the basics down, then move on to connecting with influencers, sharing interesting updates and joining relevant communities.

What do you think? What’s been your biggest challenge with getting exposure on Twitter? Do you have advice for others? Let us know in the comments.

5 Ways Businesses Are Using Visual Storytelling on Facebook

Are you looking for creative ways to use visual storytelling in your social media marketing?
Do you have a great story to tell, but you’re not sure how to share it?

Every company has a story to tell.

It could be anything from brand history to internal innovation to fun customer feedback. Unfortunately, few businesses share their stories effectively on Facebook.

In this article I’ll show you five imaginative ways brands are using pictures to tell compelling stories that generate engagement on Facebook.

Why Tell a Visual Story?

A picture is worth a thousand words. It’s a cliché for a reason. When you’re scrolling through the news feed, what catches your eye? Most updates are text, but Facebook users like pictures.

Posting images can help increase engagement and shares on Facebook. Photo posts account for 93% of the most engaging posts on Facebook. They can get 53% more likes, 104% more comments and 84% more click-throughs on links than text-based posts!

Are you using pictures to your advantage? Below are five examples of companies that are wowing their fans with visual stories.

#1: Use Clever Photo Collections

The American Express Facebook page strives to give a strong visual representation of the brand.

That can be a tall order for a service-based company. American Express rose to the challenge by taking photographs of related items, then sharing them with short updates that ask a question or evoke a certain feeling.

Recently, the freezing weather in the US has everyone talking. American Express shared this simple
 but hugely descriptive picture on their Facebook timeline.

American Express connects with fans through a simple image.

Not only does the picture convey winter and snow days, it also subtly includes an American Express card. To me, that picture said, “You’re probably having a snow day, but all you need is your American Express card in case you need to order pizza, download a movie or do some online shopping without braving the weather.”

The company used the same technique on December 23:

Interesting pictures and fun questions encourage Facebook engagement.

The post asked, “Guess whose holiday essentials these are?” It was a clever alternative to the in-your-face holiday posts that had been doing the rounds, and invited plenty of discussion and good-natured responses. Hey, doesn’t everyone need a credit card? Those reindeer vet bills sure do add up.

Tip: Photograph your product with everyday objects or in a live setting to tell a fun story or spark an emotional connection with your community. Take advantage of trends that are relevant to your audience to show how a customer could use your product.

#2: Create Stand-Alone Visual Campaigns

Sometimes a company’s marketing gimmick can take on a life of its own. Several years ago, UK-based insurance comparison site Compare The Market created a campaign around the idea that market sounds just a little bit like meerkat.

They introduced Aleksandr Orlov, a meerkat with a Russian accent and an aristocratic heritage. The campaign was a huge hit. Even though Compare The Market isn’t actually on Facebook, Aleksandr has his own page, with more than 800,000 likes!

The story of Aleksandr, his friends and his family (including the new baby, Oleg) is played out on this fun, interactive page, which drives traffic back to the company website with its clever use of storytelling and merchandising (a free meerkat toy with every purchase through the site).

Compare The Market uses Aleksandr Orlov, a meerkat, to share stories with its audience.

Tip: If you don’t have a mascot, why not tell the story behind your logo, choice of location or something else that makes your company unique? Marketing is not about B2B or B2C anymore, it’s about P2P (people to people).

Your fans want a human connection with your brand and your people. They want to peek behind the scenes and explore your culture, understand your mission and find out what inspires your innovation.

#3: Develop Community Around a Charity

Many businesses make a point of giving back to their community, but TOMS shoes goes much further. The company was founded on the charitable concept that for every pair of shoes they sold, they would donate a pair to children in poverty around the globe.

TOMS makes an impact on their fans by sharing pictures of those they’ve helped. It’s one thing to know a company has a strong charitable background, but seeing it helps fans appreciate the effect they’re having on the world.

TOMS gives their fans a connection to the people they (both the company and its fans) are helping all over the world.

Tip: Share your company’s passion with your fans. Every brand has a story about the inspiration behind the innovation or employees’ passion for company product(s). Use pictures to convey your brand’s core values.

#4: Incorporate Fan-Generated Content

The Starbucks’ Facebook page celebrates the most important people to the company: their customers. Starbucks posts Instagram photos from their fans to give a customer’s-eye view of the brand.

Not only is this a fun way to show customer appreciation, it’s a really clever way of generating fresh, relevant content that brings business and customers closer together.

Starbucks uses fan-generated content to show customers its appreciation.

When Starbucks shared the customer photo above, it generated a massive response with over 78,000 likes, 460 comments and 1,500 shares.

Using customers’ own photos to tell a brand’s story is an inclusive strategy and clearly resonates well with other fans. This authentic word-of-mouth is priceless.

Tip: Your customers are your greatest asset; make them feel like a valued part of your story by sharing their images. Ask fans to use a specific hashtag when they share photos of your brand so you can find them easily.

#5: Share Your History

Positive nostalgia fosters true emotional connection. Reflecting on your brand’s history brings a whole new dimension to your marketing.

IBM has an illustrious history of innovation and the company capitalizes on that by sharing pictures from their archives on their Facebook page. Some of the company’s most liked and commented-on posts are those that show how much technology has changed and how IBM led those changes.

Fans love to see how things have changed over the years.

Showing how your brand started, the challenges you have overcome and celebrating some of your best achievements can make your followers proud to be associated with you and all the great work you have done over the years.

Tip: Don’t bury photos from your past in offline archives. Use them to show how far you’ve come and the moments you’re most proud of. Celebrate those moments with your community and ask them to share their own memories.

Share your stories.

Your brand has some great stories, so why not tell them? Don’t settle for long text updates that get glossed over in the news feed. Tell your story with pictures and rich media so your fans connect with you. Customers who feel more connected to a brand display greater loyalty and are more likely to advocate for your brand.

What do you think? How have you used pictures to share your company’s story? Do your fans respond more enthusiastically when you post pictures? Share your comments below.