If your business is active on Twitter, it’s time to consider participating in Twitter chats, which are open, moderated conversations that use a relevant hashtag for the topic. While it can be challenging for businesses to successfully participate in, it can absolutely be done. Here are a few ways your company can utilize Twitter chats to grow its network.
1. Gives your business a face
One of the biggest issues with businesses joining a Twitter chat is that most conversations are made up of individual participants. Humanizing your organization’s Twitter will help make a deeper connection into the conversation. Try including the Twitter handle or name of the manager of your company’s Twitter account on your profile so people know who to address when they respond to your tweets.
2. Promote the chat on your channels
Before the chat starts, be sure you are contributing to the hype. Retweet and share the details through your Twitter account in the days, hours and minutes leading up to the chat so your followers are aware of your participation. This will show the host you are supporting the event while making yourself visible to other chat participants.
3. Participate to stand out
Prepare questions ahead of time so your contributions to the chat are set to stand out. You can add value to the chat by sharing statistics, facts and quotes related to the topic. Even better would be to prepare shareable images or quote graphics to go along with your tweets. If done correctly, this tactic can help your business break through the chat stream and catch the attention of other participants and the host.
4. Ask your employees to join the conversation
Engaged employees make an impression, to empower your workers to participate in the chat along with your company Twitter. This gives continued brand exposure while further humanizing your business within the chat. It also gives employees the chance to share their knowledge on the topic and support your business to their own followers and channels.
5. Become a sponsor
If you are having doubts about joining a Twitter chat as your brand, consider sponsoring one instead. When you sponsor a Twitter chat, you have the chance to build brand awareness without needing to actually join the chat. Hosts typically mention sponsors before and after events, so participants will still be aware of your organization’s role in the event. Keep in mind, though, that brands that both sponsor and participate in chats see the best engagement results.
Kyle Barkins co-founded Tapp Network with more than 10 years in marketing and application development, and calls on his experience to enhance the usability of web and mobile applications for high-conversions for our clients.
