What is a Tweet Chat? How to use and follow the conversation!

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Jamie Johansen
COM 509/609 – Personal Learning Project

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• Or “Twitter Party”
• More than an organized chaos tweet session.
• A live discussion that happens on Twitter.
• Tweets in the discussion thread are identified by a common hashtag.
• #agchat
• #nptech
• #PRChat
• #SmallBizChat
• A simple way to get tweeps together at a determined time to talk about a pre-
determined subject.
www.pammarketingnut.com

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• Find hashtags you are interested in
• Hashtag.it
• Hashtags.org
• Just Google it
• Google.doc
• The 12 Most…
• Follow organizations or people with similar
interests. Chances are they involved in chats
you would like too.

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• You can follow a chat from your timeline on Twitter, but it is easy to
lose the thread of the conversation and miss out on tweets.
• Hosting sites that automatically add the hashtag to your tweet:
• Tweetchat.com
• TwebEvent.com
• Twubs.com
• Twitterfall.com
• Tweetgrid.com
• You can also follow hashtags on Tweetdeck and Hootsuite. Simply search
for the hashtag and tweets with that hashtag will appear.

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• Pre-determined time
• Tweet chats have a set time.
• Weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly
• They are typically between 1 and 2 hours in length.
• Moderator/Leader
• Sets agenda
• Guides the discussion
• Ask questions
• Keeps the conversation going
• Format
• Single Topic Questions
• Multi-Topic Questions
• Topic Free Questions
• Free Flow
• Guest – Q&A with free flow Q&A at the end
• Open Q&A

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* Introduce yourself, your connection to topic, affiliation, etc., even if you come
in late.
* Always use the hashtags associated with the tweet chat.
* Stay on topic or “respect the chat” as some like to say.
* Watch for questions to be posed by moderator.
* Use the questions number (ie: Q1, Q2…) in advance of your response so that
people trying to follow the conversation later can identify what you are
responding to.
* Learn the tool you will be using prior
to tweet chat.
* Tweetchat tutorial
* Don’t forget tweets are public.
Techsoup.org

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• Groupthink
• Occurs when highly cohesive groups fail to consider alternatives that may
effectively resolve group dilemmas.
• Theorists contend that group members frequently think similarly and are
reluctant to share unpopular or dissimilar ideas with others.
• When this occurs, groups prematurely make decisions, some of which can
have lasting consequences.

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• Tweet chats are formed so groups of people with like interests can come
together to:
• ask questions
• answer questions
• form opinions
• share opinions
• gather ideas
• When this happens doors are opened for highly opinionated and dominate people
to control what the group thinks about a certain topic.
• This could lead to changing or molding your opinions on an issue that might not
have happened if other opinions were allowed.
• Basic peer pressure.
Let’s avoid Groupthink
• Follow rules set by moderator
• Be polite and considerate of others opinion
• Remember you can leave the chat anytime you want

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• Techsoup.org -
http://forums.techsoup.org/cs/community/b/tsblog/archive/
2011/11/15/how-to-run-a-tweet-chat.aspx
• Janetfouts.com -
http://janetfouts.com/how-to-participate-in-a-tweet-chat/
• Banyanbranch.com -
http://www.banyanbranch.com/social-blog/tweet-chats-101/
• Pammarketingnut.com -
http://www.pammarketingnut.com/2011/06/tweet-chats-101-41-
success-tips-for-moderators-participants-guests/#
• 12most.com -
http://12most.com/2011/06/10/12-stimulating-twitter-chats/