I love a good social media chat.
It’s social media doing what it was designed for: provoking discussion, idea sharing and promotion of best practice.
I really enjoy participating in as many as I can each week, but if you can’t be online at the time, it’s still worth a flick through the discussions when you find the time.
So, which chats are the best for public relations and communications professionals?
Monday
- #CommsChat – Europe’s most popular comms conversation, hosted by @CommsChat – 20:00 (GMT)
Tuesdays
- #SEOChat – Discussing all things SEO – 18:00 (GMT)
- #BlogHour – Hosted by @UKBlogAwards – 21:00 (GMT)
Wednesday
- #SEMrushchat – ‘Be a digital marketing rock star with SEMrush‘ – 15:00 (GMT)
- #BufferChat – Hosted by @buffer – 16:00 (GMT)
- #SproutChat – Social media chat hosted by @SproutSocial – 19:00 (GMT)
- #PowerAndInfluence – A weekly discussion of hot topics in PR and communications – 20:00 (GMT)
Thursday
- #PRStudChat – Conversation between public relations students, educators and professionals – 16:00 (GMT)
How can you make the most of Twitter chats?
- Use the hashtag – sounds obvious, you’d be surprised how many people forget. I like to ensure I’ve copied it so I can quickly paste it in.
- Follow the rules – if there are topics, ensure you label answers A1, A2 etc.
- Follow people you chat with – if you have a discussion with someone, follow them. If you find their points of view interesting, follow them. You’ll start to build up a network of engaging people (and chances are they’ll have found value in the exchange and follow you back too).
- Build Twitter lists – if you find a chat you particularly like, add people from it to a Twitter list so you can catch up on their thoughts and content outside the chat much easier.
- Ask questions – even if you don’t have opinions or ideas to add, ask people questions to find out more about their answer or what led them to this idea.