How can a Hashtag turn twitter into a room?
Online networking – a guide to chat hours
A chat hour is a pre-determined time on Twitter, where a group of people join in using a hashtag to have a conversation.
A fair few news ones have sprung up recently as a result of the coronavirus pandemic – so we have updated our blog to reflect this.
In our local area (Sussex) we now have
- #EBChamberHour for Eastbourne & surrounding towns – Mondays 1:00-2:00pm
- #BrightonHour – Mondays 8.30-9.30pm
- #EastGrinsteadHour – Wednesday 11:00-12:00pm
- #1066Hour for Hastings & Rother – Wednesday 11:00-12:00pm
- #SussexHour – Thursdays 10am – 11am
- #EBHour for Eastbourne & surrounding towns – Thursdays 7.30-8.30pm
- #UCCHour for Uckfield – Fridays 11:00-12:00pm
- #FirstFridayVirtual – every First Friday of the month at 1:00pm
Or there are sector or themed chat hours such as
- #smallbizhour
- #Charityhour
- #MotorHour
and so on.
Always worth checking the hashtags, to check they are active, see who is posting and when, and to make sure they are in the UK.
How to get involved in a chat hour
Log in to Twitter and then go to your search bar top right of the screen and type in the name of the chat hour with the hashtag e.g. #EBHour
You will then be taken to a view which has two options – View Top tweets, and latest. You need to select ‘Latest’ so you can see the conversation as it happens.
If you intend to join in regularly you can save that search (top right of the screen)
It’s a good idea to open a second browser screen and have that screen logged in for Twitter and select your notifications tab. This allows you to check if someone tweets you directly, so you can reply quickly without going away from the search screen.
It’s just businesses selling – right?
Wrong! Yes, businesses are the predominant group in some chat hours, but they are there to develop relationships – just as with any networking event offline. Charities and other organisations also join in as do individuals!
Chat hours give people a chance to get to know each other as people, share stories, a laugh, and other experiences as well as a little bit of promotion what they may be doing.
If you are new to Twitter, chat hours are a great way of getting to know people and build a network.
Top tip! Don’t forget your Hashtag, and don’t forget if you begin a tweet with a Twitter account (the @…) this can reduce the visibility of your tweet.
