Twitter is usually referred to as Micro-blogging because of its 140 character limit. You only have so much space to say whatever it is that needs to be said, and usually a link helps get that point across.
There are these things floating around that people refer to as "Twitter Chats." But how does one "chat" in twitter?
Well, lets think about it. You start off on Twitter.com using their basic amenities and once you realize that the site is pretty lacking you move onto a third party app like Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Echofon, Brizzly, or Seismic - just to name a few. All of these apps organize twitter in such a way that you can see and do everything much better than on the original site. With something like tweetdeck you can have a number of columns just watching a number of hashtags (#) to see real time results.
But with a chat, there's a specific hashtag, at a certain time on a chosen day. For example, I participate in two chats every week - #u30pro and #jobhuntchat.
As an example:
On Thursday nights at 8pm EST for 1 hour you can search the tag #u30pro and there will be hundreds of people there discussing topics that are of interest to the "Under 30 Professional." The topic changes each week, and is moderated by 3 awesome people who founded the chat. Plenty of over 30 individuals participate as well, giving guidance and expertise, or occasionally asking questions of the Gen Y workers all in one place.
#jobhuntchat takes place at 10pm EST Monday evenings and operates in the same manner. Most chats have a format of 4 questions per hour too. The hashtag is obviously live all week, but for that one hour it becomes truly alive.
Now, how would you ever manage hundreds of live tweets all at once? Well, like I said, twitter.com is hopeless, and even the wonder of third party apps can't entirely handle it.
This is where two very important websites come into play - Tweetchat and Tweetgrid. They make it extremely possible to do everything you want to do - read, tweet, retweet, put in the hashtag automatically, and respond like almost an instant messaging system would allow.
Some of the best chats have a digest that comes out the day after featuring specific members, showing the best answers, and giving you a link to where you could see the whole chat. Some chats are just merely for fun.
There is a Google Docs file that has 143 twitter chats listed. It is continuously added to, maintained by hundreds of users, and gives specifics for dates and times and descriptions. It is the ultimate twitter chat guide.
The great thing about chats is you can just sit and watch the information cycle through. It is not unusual to walk away from a chat with dozens of new great followers and if you play it right, new friends.
For me, chats were a great way to jump into twitter. I learned more about my hobbies, developed my network quickly, created a community. Without them, it would have been a a very different story. Try one today!
There are these things floating around that people refer to as "Twitter Chats." But how does one "chat" in twitter?
Well, lets think about it. You start off on Twitter.com using their basic amenities and once you realize that the site is pretty lacking you move onto a third party app like Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Echofon, Brizzly, or Seismic - just to name a few. All of these apps organize twitter in such a way that you can see and do everything much better than on the original site. With something like tweetdeck you can have a number of columns just watching a number of hashtags (#) to see real time results.
But with a chat, there's a specific hashtag, at a certain time on a chosen day. For example, I participate in two chats every week - #u30pro and #jobhuntchat.
As an example:
On Thursday nights at 8pm EST for 1 hour you can search the tag #u30pro and there will be hundreds of people there discussing topics that are of interest to the "Under 30 Professional." The topic changes each week, and is moderated by 3 awesome people who founded the chat. Plenty of over 30 individuals participate as well, giving guidance and expertise, or occasionally asking questions of the Gen Y workers all in one place.
#jobhuntchat takes place at 10pm EST Monday evenings and operates in the same manner. Most chats have a format of 4 questions per hour too. The hashtag is obviously live all week, but for that one hour it becomes truly alive.
Now, how would you ever manage hundreds of live tweets all at once? Well, like I said, twitter.com is hopeless, and even the wonder of third party apps can't entirely handle it.
This is where two very important websites come into play - Tweetchat and Tweetgrid. They make it extremely possible to do everything you want to do - read, tweet, retweet, put in the hashtag automatically, and respond like almost an instant messaging system would allow.
Some of the best chats have a digest that comes out the day after featuring specific members, showing the best answers, and giving you a link to where you could see the whole chat. Some chats are just merely for fun.
There is a Google Docs file that has 143 twitter chats listed. It is continuously added to, maintained by hundreds of users, and gives specifics for dates and times and descriptions. It is the ultimate twitter chat guide.
The great thing about chats is you can just sit and watch the information cycle through. It is not unusual to walk away from a chat with dozens of new great followers and if you play it right, new friends.
For me, chats were a great way to jump into twitter. I learned more about my hobbies, developed my network quickly, created a community. Without them, it would have been a a very different story. Try one today!