5.04 – Getting Guests for Your Twitter Chat

Finding Guests for Your Twitter Chat

Twitter chats can take on a couple of different formats. You can host a town-hall type format where it’s just you and your community, or you can invite special guests to participate. We get into how to host both types of chats in the section “Hosting Your Twitter Chat,” later in this chapter. For now, we focus on how to find guests for your chat.

The beautiful thing about the online social media world is how many people fancy themselves experts and have something to promote. Authors, bloggers, independent musicians, online talk show hosts, podcasters, and a variety of professionals are interested in sharing their knowledge online. What follows are some ways to find these people:

» Social networks: The people you follow on social networks and those who follow you have interest in your topic. How many of them are experts or have something to share or promote to your community? Many times, you don’t have to look further than the friends, followers, customers, and brands who are sharing with you online.

» Public-speaking networks: Speakers love to share their expertise both online and offline. Many of them are happy to participate in Twitter chats.

» Publishing companies: Book publishers want their authors to succeed. See who has anyone of interest. Many times, if you follow publishers on Twitter or Facebook, you can discover which authors they’re promoting. See who is a good fit.

» Brand pages: Similar brands also have experts who like to share. Don’t be

afraid to reach out – it can be the start of a beautiful collaboration.

» Colleges: Teachers and professors are a gold mine of information and enjoy sharing with others. Invite them to take part in your Twitter chats.

» Web searches: Search Google or Yahoo! to find the movers and shakers in your world and invite them to chat.

» Crowdsourcing: Ask your community members who they’d like to see as a #chat guest.

When you interview people or invite them to participate in a community project, it’s always a good idea to let them know what’s in it for them. If you can present your chat as something of value, they’re less likely to say no. Here are some of the ways to sell a Twitter chat:

» Visibility: Let your guests know that your community has great reach. Each person who participates in your chat has the ability to reach hundreds of people, depending on the number of followers. If you estimate all your participants by the number of people who follow each, the number of people who view the hashtag can number in the thousands – the bigger chats average millions of views.

» Promotion: Let guests know that you’ll allow time at the end of the chat for them to plug books, products, services, and so on. Sometimes your guests may even have special discounts or offers for your Twitter chat community.

» Stats: If you use a service such as Hashtracking (www. hashtracking. com) to put together your Twitter chat stats, share some of these stats with potential guests so that they can see the value. Let them know the average number of participants, the reach, and how many new followers you gain after each track.

» Influential participants: Every niche has its influential members. If you have influential regular participants, do share this information with your guests. But don’t look like you’re name-dropping, because that can be a turnoff.

If you can’t find a guest for a particular week’s chat, don’t sweat it. You can find plenty of things to talk about with your community. Sometimes the community-driven chats are livelier than those involving guests.

Controversy can attract negativity. If you’re bringing in a guest with controversial views or an infamous reputation, be prepared for some people to tweet negative comments. Sometimes a controversial chat can erupt into a free-for-all of bashing, such as what happened when author E.L. James hosted a Twitter chat to promote her new book.