A Twitter Party or Chat is a live, free event that is held on Twitter and focused around a hashtag. These events can prove fun and informative for participants but provide brands with a simple way to boost interest and engage customers and prospects. Whether you want to increase word of mouth, drive traffic to your website, get valuable feedback, get new followers, or better connect with your customers, a Twitter party can help. Here are 5 tips for hosting a Twitter party:
Cater to Your Audience
You’ll want to make your Twitter party as accessible as possible for your audience. As such, you’ll need to consider when your audience members are most likely to be available and where most of them fall in terms of time zone. The more people likely to be online and free at the time of your party, the more participants you can expect to attract.
Choose Your Hashtag Carefully
Choose a Twitter hashtag that is easy to relate to your brand or topic. This is not the time to create mystery. As always, keep your hashtag short and sweet, as you don’t want it to take up too much of the tweets you use to promote your party. Here are some good examples:
#GNO (Girls’ Night Out)
#FollowFriday
#CookieHQ
#CapezioLoveBallet
#ExpoEast
Don’t forget to check to be sure the hashtag you want to use for your chat isn’t already in use, as you don’t want a bunch of unrelated tweets and confusion for participants. You can easily check this by typing the hashtag you want into the Hashtracking Explorer Tool:
Generate Twitter Party Buzz
Generate as much buzz as possible in the time leading up to your party. Tweet about the upcoming event, but also post about the event on Facebook and other social media platforms. Start a couple of weeks out to generate a buzz but keep going right up until the event starts. And get your followers and friends involved too. Ask them to share, spread, and retweet information about the event.
You may also find it beneficial to post an invite to the event on your website. Just create an invitation page that provides the details of the event, including the following:
- Name of the event
- Twitter party hashtag
- Time and date of the event
- Host’s contact information
- RSVP instructions (optional)
- Prize details (optional)-You do not have to provide a prize, but a giveaway or two might make your event more attractive for some people.
- Description of the event
If you create an invitation page for your Twitter party, don’t just expect people to find it. Go ahead and tweet not only the party hashtag, but also the url of the invitation page!
Create Some Tweets in Advance
Of course, you will actively participate in the event once it starts, but preparing some tweets in advance can help you get things going and keep the party running smoothly. Here are some ideas for tweets to prepare in advance:
- Welcome tweets
- Introductory tweets
- Tweets concerning your giveaway
- Timing tweets (those that signal the beginning, middle and soon-to-be end of the party)
Encourage Following
Ask your participants to follow you and your co-hosts (if you have them). This is particularly important if you will give away prizes. If they’re following you, you can give contact them via DM about their prizes. Also, go ahead and follow your attendees. Their attendance shows they have an interest in what you have to say and offer, so you’ll want to stay in touch after the party.
Have an idea for a fun or informative Twitter party? Share it with us!
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