Chats via Twitter and My Experience

I have been using Twitter since April 2009 when I first created my account. In the early years, I did not use it too much.  I created the account simply to see what all the cool kids were using.  In the past few years, I have been using Twitter on a regular basis.  I enjoy Twitter much more than FaceBook and typically use Twitter to interact with others about an event whether that is a sporting, television, or other major event being discussed.  Mostly I have used Twitter to discuss Royals, Chiefs, Washburn, or KU.

Recently I had heard about #TwitterChat. This was new to me, so I wanted to find a #TwitterChat I could participate.  The first few I found were not so much "chats", but rather random people posting web sites to check on the topic.  I checked a few others finding the same thing of not a lot of discussion back-and-forth with the Twitter accounts, but simply people posting web sites to check on the topic.

I found a couple of web sites that listed Twitter Chats that had been compiled by various people.  Again, a few of these were helpful and a few were not.  I would find a topic I wanted to discuss and search for that hashtag finding no discussion at all was taking place on the particular topic.

I did find a Twitter Chat schedule that seems good and each of the times I have checked the schedule, there are actually chats occurring at the scheduled times.  The one I found is hosted on Google as a document.  It is simply called Twitter Chats 2.  By way of this chat schedule, I participated in my first #TwitterChat last Sunday.  It was a great time and I connected with others on the topic.

The chat I participated in was simply about blogging with a hashtag search of #blogchat.  It was exactly what I expected from a chat where a topic was posted by the moderator and people began responding, connecting, and interacting on the topic.  The topic of #blogchat meets every Sunday at 8 pm CST and I plan to take part in it again tonight.

My goal is to post on a regular basis here on my blog.  It was a inspiration to take part in the #blogchat and get ideas, motivation, and see what others were doing with their blogs.  Obviously having a blog, I want people to read and participate in said blog.

One interaction I had during the #blogchat last week was that I do not get a lot of comments, but I can see that people are accessing and reading the posts.  My thought on why I do not get a lot of comments was primarily because I post so inconsistently.  I believe if I start posting on a regular basis that will result in regular followers that will begin to post comments.

The #blogchat is very fast paced.  A lot of posts and it is recommended that you use a client that can separate those discussions in a easy manner.  I use Tweetbot for Mac and iOS that does this for me.  Many people use TweetDeck or HootSuite for this purpose.  I see fast paced discussions when following sporting events, but unlike those, I do not try to read or respond to every post like I did with the #blogchat discussion.

Until next time, have a great week!