Tweet parties are a huge branding and traffic Twitter live event. But they are less popular.
Few people talk about it. Bloggers hardly mention it. And these parties are quite easy to host. That’s the happy truth.
It may costs absolutely nothing to do a successful Twitter chat party. You don’t have need for any complex software. No renting of party space.
You need however some Twitter Apps. But these are free. Again, you don’t spend anything to run a successful party. Trust me you are going to like the idea by the end of this post. If my stats don’t get you fueled, then Twitter is certainly not for you.
Table of Contents - What is covered in this post
But What are Tweet Parties?
These are group live chats on Twitter powered by #hashtags. That’s just it. You have a group of Twitter users discussing a particular topic in a chat room. The chat room is a virtual space delimited by the official event hashtag.
We’ve all been part of some group live chat (maybe on WhatsApp, Facebook messenger, etc) Everyone in the group has access to the messages posted by everyone.
But group chats on these standard apps are limited to members. If you are part of a group chat on Facebook Messenger, your follower or friends DON’T have access to it. They don’t even know what’s happening.
But Twitter Chats are more exciting and viral
If 10 Twitter users are in a Tweet party, their followers all have access to party discussion. Every tweet you post contributing to the event gets posted publicly on your profile.
If the 10 members have 5000 followers each, it means the chat party has a potential audience of 50000 readers. That’s why chat parties are so strong. If any of the 50000 followers retweet any of the party posts, it only gets viral and more exciting.
Let me explain more
To organize a tweet party, you’ve got a few things to get ready:
- The party objectives
- A list of questions or topics to discuss during party
- Official #hashtag that connects party tweets
- Party App (Tweetdeck, tweetchat.com, etc)
- Party Date and Time
These are basically all you need. Like I mentioned, none of these requires a cent except you want some prizes to participants. That’s all about the objectives of your party.
During the party, you (the host) will tweet a question or point marked by Q (Q generally for Question). Participants will tweet their responses marked by A (A generally for Answer). If you have 5 questions, you are to have Q1 to Q5. There are also going to be responses marked A1 to A5, with A5 being the responses to Q5.
Host
Q1: What are the best online Semantic SEO tools? #semanticSEOTools
Participants:
A1: I think @textoptimizer is a good option. I have used it with some exciting results #semanticSEOTools.
A1: What is Semantic SEO? I don’t really know anything about it #semanticSEOTools
The party host posted a question (Q1). Members are now sharing their ideas and answers to question 1 (A1).
Tagging and mentioning brands (@textoptimizer for instance) pulls their attention, giving a high possibility of gaining a retweet from the brand.
That’s why at the end, tweet parties have a huge potential reach:
Each tweet posting to be part of the party must include the party hashtag (#semanticSEOTools in this case). Without this, the tweet will simply not be picked by the party tracking app.
Importance of hashtags in Tweet parties
What makes Tweet parties what they are are the official hashtags. They have two main important roles:
1 – Creating the virtual chat rooms
During a chat party, chat apps filter and group tweets that include given hashtags. We have millions of tweets posted per hour. Hashtags help sort out the tweets that are part of the party.
In this TweetDeck screenshot, the three columns are different party chat rooms:
2 – Expanding the reach of the party
Have you noticed there are many Twitter-based platforms and Twitter third-party apps designed with features to pick out and rank some popular hashtags?
Don’t even go far…
Twitter has that area in your account where some popular related hashtags are published:
If your #hashtag goes popular during the party, there are high chances of it being picked by one of these thousands of hashtag based apps. Once this happens, it increases your exposure and grows your traffic.
3 – It brings your party to Twitter search results
Did you know Twitter is an excellent search engine? With an excellent internal search function, it allows users to quickly search and find useful information.
If your hashtag is a keyword, chances are high for your party posts to pull up on search results, thereby increasing your exposure and traffic.
My Tweet experience with eFAAH Jobs – 6.6 Million Reach!
Few days ago, I had a tweet party with some of the team members at eFAAH Jobs.
eFAAH Jobs is a new job board for freelances, bloggers and brands and one of the ideas that came to my mind to set the ball rolling was a quick tweet party.
The turn out for the party wasn’t a bucket of sweets mainly due the time we scheduled (2:00 am GMT). Many who got the information could not make it.
So we ended up with 5 participation and some of these had pretty low following. We had 4 Job Board and Freelancing related questions to discuss during party:
Though turn out was all together on the low end of our expectations, the result was a positive surprise, with over 6 million potential reach.
Our followers put together were not 50,000. But the hashtag magic was set to work. We had two hashtags that are hot keywords on Twitter. This for sure brought eye balls on our party tweets through third party apps and searches:
I’m sure you are thinking of tweet parties as a powerful ingredient to add to your campaign strategy. We’ve know it’s easy to run them right? But there are some issues we must no overlook. Let’s however see some points to help you organize a successful party.
How to make your party get good results
- Plan on time and get as many people as possible to participate.
- Use easy-to-remember and short hashtags.
- Mention brands and influencers in your party tweets.
- Choose a comfortable date and time for more participation.
- Let your followers know before time that you will be running a party.
- Educate your community about Tweet Parties
- Use attractive graphics during event
- Make it fun and stress-free.
- Etc
Tweet parties are easy and free to run. Does that mean there are no challenges?
No!
Problems you may face
The main problem is being able to get as many participation as possible due to time differences. In my case, 1:00 AM GMT wasn’t comfortable for many in my community. That wasn’t my most ideal time as well but we went for it because it was just necessary.
In any case, you’ll have to find the perfect time that’s ideal for many more folks to attend the party
Should brands take advantage of Tweet Parties ?
Absolutely Yes.
I personally recommend you give this a try. Work with a few influencers, track your results and measure the gains. You may never know how effective this is until you have it done.
Conclusion
I hope this and my experience has helped you with some ideas to get started. If you are interested in doing a party and you think you need my help, contact me.