If you spend enough time on Twitter (), chances are you’ll come across an occasional chat being held on the platform. Twitter chats are scheduled gatherings of people on Twitter to discuss pretty much anything that interests them, using a #hashtag to keep track of the conversation. There are chats for everything from blogging to art to agriculture — over 80 of them are listed in this great running list of Twitter chats.

Over 3 months ago, Lauren Fernandez and I started a weekly Twitter chat for young professionals called #u30pro. It’s been an extremely rewarding and exciting experience, and I’ve learned a lot about how to run a successful Twitter chat. Here are some tips and tricks for how you can start and run your own chat on Twitter.

1. Choose a Time, Topic, and Tag

The first thing you have to do is choose a topic. Unless you’re looking to start a competing chat, you’ll probably want to choose a topic that isn’t already being done, so ask around, do some searches, and check the Google Spreadsheet linked above.

You’ll also want to make sure you pick a time that doesn’t conflict with a pre-existing chat in topic areas that might attract similar chatters. Ask around and make sure there aren’t many other chats at the same time, especially if it’s something that both audiences will be interested in. Choosing a time can be the toughest part. Just realize, you’ll never be able to please everyone. I suggest choosing a time that works best for you, to make sure you’ll be committed to it.

Your chat’s hashtag should be as short and explanatory as possible. Everyone who participates in the chat will have to use the hashtag with every tweet, so the shorter the tag, the more space they have to write chat messages.

2. Choose a Format

There are a number of different formats that chats can take:

1. Single Topic, Question Based

This is how I run the chat I am involved with. We choose a general topic, then ask specific, numbered questions throughout the chat within that topic. Each question gets roughly 15 minutes, and the chat lasts one hour.

2. Multiple Topic, Question Based

The longest running chat, #journchat which was started by Sarah Evans, uses this format. All questions are submitted by participants and numbered. Any topic goes, as long as it’s related to PR, Journalism, and Social Media ().

3. Single Topic, Freeflow

This is how Mack Collier runs #blogchat. He chooses a topic, and just lets the discussion take a life of its own. This chat runs for 2 hours.

4. Q&A

Jay Baer runs a different kind of chat. He brings in a guest to answer 20 questions over 90 minutes. While the focus is on the guest, many people follow along and share their thoughts on the questions as well.

5. Free For All

No specific question, just bring everyone together and let them ask whatever they want. It’s a bit messy and I haven’t seen any chats adopt this format permanently, but I’ve seen a few try it for one week and the results have been great.

3. Launch the Chat

Promote it to your community leading up to the chat. Let people know beforehand when they can join and how the chat will be run. It may be smart to reach out to a few key people personally and ask them if they’d be interested in participating.

Be prepared for a slow start. Like any community, a Twitter chat takes time to build participation.

4. Tips to Help Your Chat Grow

Whether you’re starting a chat for business or for fun, I can tell you that it is an extremely rewarding and exciting experience. It’s an opportunity to bring people together and engage in valuable and insightful discussion.

If you’re starting it for a business, it is best to choose a general topic that relates to your business, and always keep in mind that these chats are for the community, not for the hosts. If you’re too promotional, your chat will fail.

Here are a few tips to help make sure your chat is a success:

* Stay open to new formats. #journchat got so popular that Sarah Evans began to look for new formats to host the chat, including video streaming, and even a country-wide live event. Always stay open to changing things up based on the community’s needs.

* Bring in guests. Every chat I’ve seen has at some point, brought in a guest moderator to host the chat, or a guest expert to take questions. It’s a great way to bring in a lot of new people and bring credibility to your chat.

* Take the chat beyond Twitter. A monthly chat for public relations students called #PRStudChat created a LinkedIn group for their chat, for example. They use it as a forum for the community to interact, and for them to share announcements and ideas.

* Consider multimedia. The weekly #DesignChat streams its chats live on video each week. The chat’s host and guests interact with participants over Twitter and answer questions on video. Video () services like Tinychat () and Ustream () integrate with Twitter, making them ideal platforms for Twitter chats.

Disclosure: #DesignChat streams live in the Mashable Lounge, which is powered by Tinychat.

* Promote your participants. At #u30pro, we send out a weekly digest every morning after the chat, in which we announce a “featured participant,” share 5 blog posts from the u30pro community from that week, write a recap of the chat, and more. Highlighting community members and the things they’re doing gets people more engaged.

* Keep it up! Luckily, Twitter chats are inherently viral. Because when someone participates in your chat, all their tweets appear in their stream with your hashtag, and they bring in their followers. As long as you keep to your schedule and keep holding regular chats, the chat will pick up new participants over time.

David Spinks is the Community Manager for Scribnia, where the world’s bloggers and columnists are reviewed by their readers. He also blogs at The Spinks Blog about business, careers and professional communities.

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Snapatar is an effective solution that allows users to update their
Twitter profile pictures in a simple and fast manner. Simply snap
a picture using your webcam and fill it out with Twitter details
and send the new image to Twitter. You can do this as often as
you like. FUN! Change your pic as often as you like.

http://snapatar.com

Have fun!
Sherry

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You might have noticed that Twitter is the biggest news on the internet now. With some hundreds of thousands of new people joining Twitter each day, it is emerging as one of the largest and fastest growing social networking sites at this time.

As there are millions of people joining up to and logging into Twitter everyday, Twitter turns out a bigger and better opportunity to get you loads of targeted traffic to your website.

Though you can access millions of people on Twitter, you will need to work aptly in reaching out to them correctly. Here is where Tweet Traffic Rush can help you out.

Tweet Traffic Rush is the easiest, fastest and most efficient way to get a flood of laser targeted visitors to your site through Twitter and this is… Absolutely FREE!

With Tweet Traffic Rush, you will be able to use Twitter to spread your marketing messages virally and work in creating an Avalanche of FREE Targeted Traffic to Your Website in a very short time.

And how it works?

All you do is sign up for a free account. Then you will need to add your twitter username in an appropriate category so as to get a tiny piece of widget code. And once you add this widget code to your websites, blogs or social networking sites, you’ll start getting more targeted visitors to your site.

If you are tired of and feel difficulty in spreading your marketing messages across the net, Tweet Traffic Rush can get you thousands of visitors to your site on autopilot.

Create Your FREE Account NOW!!

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Tweetafile a new app that allows you to share files via twitter is now bridging the email gap!

What does Tweetafile mean to Twitter users?

The one last true functionality issue with Twitter was not being a
ble to share files. While there are image sharing sites, there has
never been a truly integrated way to share PDFs, video files, Docs,
or other file types through Twitter… until now.

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Today I have a special gift for you. 5 FREE Twitter Backgrounds you can choose from to easily make your Twitter Background stand out! CHOOSE ON HERE!

Here is a video that shows you how to add your new background!

If you would like a custom Twitter Background I can make one for you! See mine for an example www.twitter.com/networkingwomen – while you are there…why not follow me??

Happy Tweeting!
Sherry Lynn

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This very informative post was found on  Technically Personal! and posted by Raju is the owner and editor-in-chief of TechPP.

1. Twuffer

• Tweet hourly/daily/monthly announcements
• appointment/milestone reminders
• run a time-based scavenger hunt
• notify subscribers about upcoming podcast or video episodes
• appear as if you never sleep

2. TwitResponse

• schedule unlimited amount of tweets
• easy to manage all your scheduled tweets
• edit or delete scheduled tweets from the dashboard
• Twitter + AutoResponder = TwitResponse!

3. AutoTweeter

• java based cross platform twitter desktop client
• Uses a “tweetfile” (like a clean text file) where each line is considered a tweet
• set your tweets in this file and schedule the time where each tweet will be published.

4. Future Tweets

• schedule your Twitter messages
• Send it at a specific time in the future or send a recurring tweet daily, weekly, monthly or yearly!
• Flip/Reverse your tweets!

5. Tweet-U-Later

• Schedule all of your meeting reminders months in advance
• you can send tweets via eMail as well
• Post reminders of assignments and papers due. Tweet when your office is open or closed
• You can schedule DMs as well as view pending tweets

6. HootSuite

• schedule tweets + manage multiple accounts
• choose to receive an email when that tweet has gone out
• you can schedule a tweet to post on more than one account at once
• no recurring tweet schedule option

7. Twaitter

• Tweet scheduler
• Twitter calendar, a multi-user management system and RSS to Twitter management
• recurring tweet schedule option
• doesn’t use Twitter oAuth which is a potential security issue

8. TweetLater

• schedule tweets by clicking on the date on the calendar
• keep your Twitter stream ticking over with new tweets even when you’re not in front of your computer
• simple and easy to use

9. Schedule Twitter Posts

• Save and schedule up to 1000 tweets — set and forget strategy
• Automatically send out scheduled tweets as frequent as every 5 minutes
• Bulk upload and schedule tweets for future posting
• For a free account, you can schedule up to 5 tweets which must be at least 4 hours apart
• With a Pro account ($19.95/month) you can schedule up to 100 tweets which must be at least 30 minutes apart

10. Tycoon Scheduler

• schedule future tweet updates on your Twitter account
• schedule tweets to re-occur on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis
• you can run Tycoon Scheduler from your OWN server
• FLIP/REVERSE Your Tweets!

If you need any help with getting Twitter working effectively for you book a time to chat about how I can help at my online scheduler in the top left!

Enjoy and let me know how you make out if you decide to give any of these a try!
Sherry Lynn

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Today’s Cool Tool is a Twitter Tool.  Tweetbeep is like Google alerts, if you don’t know what Google alerts is, basically it’s a way to keep track of keywords and phrases that you want to monitor.  Everytime your
keyword is mentioned you get an alert by email!  TweetBeep is the twitter version of Google alerts.

TweetBeep allows you to Keep track of conversations that mention you, your products,
your company, anything, with hourly updates! You can even keep track of who’s tweeting your website or blog,
even if they use a shortened URL (like bit.ly or tinyurl.com). Now, how cool is that?!

Great for online reputation management, catching all your @replies and @mentions,
finding job/networking opportunities, keeping up on your favorite hobby, and more!

Thanks to  Theo Handen for sending out this great tip!

Happy Tweeting!
Sherry Lynn

If you need help making Twitter work for you I offer special coaching at an affordable rate!
Book an appointment to chat at http://tungle.me/SherrySimoes

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If you are new to Twitter you may not realize that you can create your personal or business brand and
virtually dominate your market, simply by building a list of followers.

Once you’ve set up your Twitter account you will want to work on setting up
your profile. Twitter lets you easily customize the look and feel of your
profile page. You will want to pay close attention to your one line bio.
Bio Line
Because, besides your Tweets, this is what people will read and judge what
type of person you are before they decide whether or not they want to
follow you. You will only have 160 characters to describe who you are and
what you do, so you have to make it good! We’ll show you how in our video
series!

Photo
It’s essential that you use a real photo of you over an image your company
logo. I recommend you use a real photo because people connect with real people
and trust a user with a face. A user profile that has a business logo just
screams sales and is a turn off for most people.

Background
You also have the option to upload a customized Twitter background to your
profile. This is something you will want to utilize ASAP as this is a massive benefit
and way to get free exposure for you or your company.
(By the way I do customized backgrounds starting at $25…check mine out http://twitter.com/networkingwomen)

Follow the link below for a full video series on how to exploit Twitter for SEO rankings and more…

http://sarreno.com/twittermagic/?e=sherrylynn

Happy Marketing!
Sherry Lynn

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Mistake #1: Not using your picture as your profile avatar!

I’m sure you’ve seen it. Some users don’t post their real picture.
Admittedly, a cartoon picture, or a cheaply made company logos is better
than no picture at all. But the best picture you can use if you want to make
a good impression and get people to remember you is a photo of your face.

When you post your own picture it lets others know that you are real and that
you’re confident enough with what you do to let others see you. You want
people to recognize you as a leader in your market and having a face to go
with a name always helps. A nice smile never hurts either.

Mistake #2: Automatically sending the wrong type of direct message through an
AutoDM.

Direct messages can be seen as impersonal and pushy when they aren’t
written properly. If you decide to use a tool that automatically send messages
to your new followers keep it simple and friendly. A message saying ‘thanks
for following me’ is fine, but sending automated messages promoting your
business or product is not a good idea and most instances people will click
the unfollow button right away.

Mistake #3: Trying to build a huge following before you have done some tweeting.

People will not be interested in following you when they click on your
Twitter page to see what you’ve got, and notice you don’t have much. You
need to have tweeted more than, “Trying to figure this Twitter out” and “I
think I’ve got it figured out now.”

If you don’t know what to say, try “retweeting” (RT) some other peoples’
tweets that that are related to your niche. Read what other people are
tweeting about and reply to them, this will help start up a conversation. Talk
about market related news, what you’re doing on your business right now. That
will give you several tweets to get the ball rolling.

Mistake #4: Tweeting promotion after promotion.

Yes, you are using Twitter to promote your business, but posting one offer
after another will only cause people to ‘unfollow’ you. When people look at your
timeline and notice that you aren’t posting anything of value to them they
will quickly move on.

There are millions of Twitters to follow, why should they follow you when
you’re only tweeting about promotions?
Remember this basic rule of sales “people want to know what’s in it for me”?
Even if you already have a good list of leads, it is still not a good idea to
barrage them with promotions. As we have talked about before, promotional
tweets should be sent only in limited numbers.

These are just a few of the more common mistakes committed by new and old
tweeters alike. Take note of them and don’t make the same mistakes.

Follow the link below for a full video series on how to exploit Twitter for
SEO rankings and more…

http://sarreno.com/twittermagic/?e=sherrylynn

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A fellow Networker, Zeke Camusio posted this on Ryze this morning and I thought it was worth sharing.

Enjoy!
Sherry

Monitor Your Name, Brand and Keywords
Use the search feature to find out who’s talking about your and your products.

Re-Tweet
Re-tweeting is the equivalent of email forwarding. When someone tweets about something you find interesting, re-tweet it so your followers can benefit from it too. Plus, when you re-tweet other people’s content, they notice you and want to learn who you are.

Grow Your Network
These are my three favorite ways to grow a Twitter followers base:

* Follow people talking about a keyword related to your market. They’ll follow you back. Un-follow those who don’t. I use FlashTweet (http://flashtweet.com/) for this.
* Find the authorities in your market and follow the people following them. They’ll follow you back. Un-follow those who don’t. Again, I use FlashTweet (http://flashtweet.com/) for this.
* Use Twitter directories such as Twellow (http://www.twellow.com/) and WeFollow (http://wefollow.com/) to find people in your market.

But remember, it’s about quality, not quantity. I’d rather have 500 great followers than 5,000 good ones.

Respond to Messages
Click on your Twitter ID to see who’s talking to or about you.

Avoid Direct Messages
It’s OK to send some DMs once in a while, but a lot of spammers DM people all the time, so use these with caution.

Tweet Often (But Not Too Often)
If you don’t tweet often, you won’t get any visibility. But, if you tweet every 5 minutes, people will get annoyed. I found that 1-10 times per day is optimal for most people. Monitor your followers and if you notice too many people are leaving you, you’re probably tweeting too much (or your tweets are boring or not interesting).

Invite People to Follow You
Add a link to “Follow Me on Twitter” to your blog, website, business cards and email signature.

Contests, Content, Events and Specials
My four favorite kinds of content to tweet about are contests, events, content (article, videos, resources) and specials.

Share Other People’s Content
Most people tweet about their own content. This is not a good idea. When you find stuff you like, tweet it.

Balance Following/Followers
If you follow a lot people and very few people follow you, you’ll be seen as a spammer. If a lot of people follow you and you don’t follow them back, it’s not very nice of you. Use FlashTweet (http://flashtweet.com/) or FriendOrFollow (http://friendorfollow.com/) to balance your ratio.

Help Others
See what your followers need and try to give it to them. A lot of people use Twitter to ask questions; answer them.

Use Hash Tags with Caution
A hash tag is a keyword preceded by the pound sign. Used right, hash tags can be very beneficial, but if you use them to stuff your tweets with keywords, people won’t like it.

Zeke Camusio
Serial entrepreneur, Internet marketing expert, published author, speaker and founder of “The Internet Marketing Blog”: http://www.TheOutsourcingCompany.com/blog

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