Behind the Scenes of a Tweetchat with the Left Thumb Blogger
A tweetchat – a chat held on Twitter; typically with a guest host sharing an expertise with a specific group indicated by a hashtag (#). By the very nature of Twitter, anyone interested can participate in the chat.
Thanks to Association for Women in Communications (AWC) organizer and my friend Sheila Scarborough, yesterday I had the pleasure of guest hosting #AWChat, sharing my expertise in web accessibility.
Prior to the chat, I prepared my responses to Sheila’s questions as a series of tweets in SocialOomph – a handy tool for scheduling tweets and other such tasks. I also copied my tweets in to Notepad, just in case…having a back up plan is always wise!
During the chat:
- I had the #AWCchat tweet stream open in Hootsuite on the left side of my screen,
- my prepared tweets in SocialOomph on the right side of the screen, and
- my WordQ word prediction/completion hovering in the upper right corner.
When Sheila asked a pre-set question during the chat, I hit “Publish immediately†on the corresponding response tweet in SocialOomph. Except for a 60-second delay in publishing, the system worked amazingly well.
In between Sheila’s questions, I was able to respond to questions from others on the chat. By the end of the hour, my left thumb was on fire (in a good way)! A transcript from the chat is now available.
A few years ago I would have never imagined myself guest hosting such a lively discussion in real life. But, because Twitter is largely text-based and because of the other handy tools, I now have something else to add to the “Can Do†column!
Before I had wrapped up the #AWCchat with Sheila, I was slated for my next tweetchat guest hosting: #SOBCon on February 16th, 10-11am pacific. Join us!
If you run a tweetchat and if my experience or expertise may be of service to your group, tweet me (@GlendaWH) or leave a comment below with the details.
If you enjoyed this post, consider buying me a chai tea latte. Thanks kindly.