Showing posts with label Chat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chat. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Join Me For #devchat On Twitter

I started a Twitter chat called #devchat, all about the software development business. Right now the time is every Wednesday at 7PM MST. Everyone is welcome, but I'm hoping this will be a very technical discussion. A little background on Twitter Chats here.

Please follow the Twitter user @dev_chat, and use http://TweetChat.com to follow #devchat. No need to register, but you can find more information here.

Please Tweet this, blog about it, post to Facebook, or any other resource you use to communicate with other devs. You can also follow me on Twitter by clicking the Twitter icon in the sidebar at the top.

See you on Wednesday, September 2nd, at 7PM MST.
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Monday, July 5, 2010

Tweet Chats Cast A Wider Twitter Net

I've been a Twitter user for a few years now, and I have seen the service morph from a conversation tool to an advertising marketing tool. At first it was "What are you doing?" to "Hey, look at what I've done!". I enjoy and sometimes even appreciate links to articles, news items, even events, but the platform isn't the same one I used to love.

There seems to be a movement right now (and maybe has been for a while, I just didn't notice), but Twitter users are starting to host what are known as Twitter Chats, based on a hash tag and topic. Here is how a Twitter Chat basically works. Tweet often carry a hash tag like #blogchat, or some other keyword to describe the Tweet. When a hash tag is clicked, most Twitter clients will create a search based on that hash tag, giving you a view of Tweets that only carry that tag. Fine tuning the stream you are viewing means you can focus on the "Chat" and exclude you complete stream.

Example of what a chat column looks like in Hootsuite:



Most of these Chats have scheduled times, hosts, topics, and even web sites dedicated strictly to the hash tag. I follow several, mostly about writing, and a very cool tag #blogchat. I'm looking for more, and would love any recommendations. Here are the ones I'm following at the moment, and have a column dedicated to the tag in my Hootsuite application.

#blogchat
#writechat
#scifichat
#scribechat
#storycraft

There's a few draw backs to Twitter Chats. One is the increased number of Tweets in your stream that most of your connections don't want to read. The second is Tweet Chats move fast, several thousand Tweets are generated during a chat, and you need to refresh your tool to see all the new Tweets. It's hard to stay involved in a single conversation for too long, and I tend to miss a good number of Tweets and or questions.

My advise is to watch a Twitter Chat a few times. See what people are asking, how they respond, and who is participating. Then jump in. There is no right or wrong way, only that you make sure the Chat tag is included somewhere in your Tweets.

If you use a tools like Hootsuite, or TweetDeck, you can create dedicated columns to follow a topic. You can also use a cool web application like TweetChat.com. This application creates a stream that auto refreshes every few seconds.

Tweet Chats have helped me get excited about Twitter again. I'm connecting with more people, having relevant conversations, and learning more than I have in a long time. Happy Tweeting!
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