For those of you looking to leverage the social networ Twitter, to engage with your followers, one of my favorite tools to use for this is Tweetchat.
If you’re unfamiliar with Tweetchat, what this tool does is it allows you to hold a chat on a specific Twitter hashtag. There’s no need to refresh your screen or sift through multiple hashtags. You simply enter a hashtag and it Tweetchat creates a room where you can tweet and chat with your followers.
Tweetchat features
Here are a few features of Tweetchat
- Put blinders on to everything else going on on Twitter and focus on one hashtag
- Feature certain accounts so that they stand out
- Converse in real-time
- Have fun!
How I use Tweetchat
Personally, I’m a big fan of Tweetchat. I use it during conferences by broadcasting it to LCD and plasma screens that I have setup. This way, attendees can follow what is being talked about on Twitter while they’re walking around. If they want to participate, all they simply need to do is visit Tweetchat and sign-in to their Twitter account and they can easily add to the conversation from their mobile devices such as their smartphone or tablet and it will show up on Tweetchat.
Another way that I like to use Tweetchat is to embed it into my website. This way someone can easily join the conversation from my website. The great thing about Tweetchat is that if you want to, you can embed tweetchat into your WordPress blog,
Embedding tweetchat into your WordPress blog takes just a few minutes. Here’s how to do it.
1. Login to your self-hosted WordPress dashboard
2. Create a new page
3. Click the HTML tab
4. Paste the following code
5. In the code, be sure to change the following items to fit your own site: CLOUDCHAT, value of width and value of height
6. Click “Publish”
Note: When adding your own hashtag, you do not need to include the hashtag (#) symbol. Just the words. Also, do not toggle back and forth between the Visual and Height tabs. This may cause WordPress to strip out your iFrame code.
Once you’re done, this is what you should see on your WordPress blog.
Embedding a tweetchat in WordPress is not just really simple, but it’s a great way to engage with your followers.
One thing to remember is to market your chats beforehand to your readers and followers. Let them know where you’ll be holding your Tweetchat -be sure you provide the URL. Also encourage them to share your link and invite their friends too. This way the conversation is more lively and you can get maximum participation.
If you have questions on using tweetchat, feel free to send me a tweet or contact me.