Twitter chat: How to participate

Tips for joining a Twitter chat:

• You can use a program like TweetChat or TweetDeck that will allow you to follow a specific hashtag.
  In TweetChat, just log in through your Twitter account and enter the hashtag you want to follow. Then you will only see posts relating to this chat, making it easy to follow. In TweetDeck, once you’ve downloaded it, created an account and added your Twitter account (all very easy to do), add a column. It will prompt you to search. Enter the hashtag of the chat you want to follow in the search, and it will create a column that follows that specific chat.
• If someone says something you like, you can retweet it or you can respond to a question or comment by mentioning them (see image below for examples).
• Shorten your links. This way you’ll have more room for commentary. Tweetdeck and Hootsuite can do this for you automatically, or you can use a url shortener like bit.ly.
• If you have your tweets streaming into your LinkedIn and Facebook pages, you may want to change your settings during the chat so they don’t annoy your friends and connections.
• Similarly, as a courtesy, let your Twitter followers know when you are joining a chat.
• Start following people you talk to in the chat.

Two important rules to remember:

1. Always add the hashtag – if you forget this, no one in the chat will realize you joined in.

2. Don’t spam the chat — it’s fine to share links to relevant content, but do not use it to advertise.

Here is an example of what a chat looks like on Twitter: