For residents of the Twittersphere, a world so prevalent that it was recently added to the Oxford Dictionary, Twitter chats are a great way to expand your network online while also learning more about a given topic.
The idea is simple — Twitter users who are interested in a certain subject have a discussion over Twitter at a given time by all following the same hash tag — a term preceded by a pound sign that corrals all tweets in which it’s included. Participating can be a great way to share information about your store, brand or area of expertise, as well as learn from others. It can also be a valuable tool to interact with other users and expand your followers.
Participating is easy. If you already have a Twitter account, simply type the hash tag into the Twitter search bar. You can also use other sites like Tweet Chat [2], which make following chats even easier by filtering out non-hash-tagged tweets, as well as automatically adding the hash tag to all of your tweets to make sure they are seen by others in the chat.
Looking for a place to start? Here are just a few popular chats in the design community:
#IntDesignerChat [3]
Interior Designer Chat is a weekly chat for interior designers, design bloggers and anyone in the home décor industry. Each week’s chat centers around a different topic with industry experts serving as guest hosts. Follow @IntDesignerChat [4] for more information.
When: Every Tuesday at 6 p.m. ET
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#KBtribechat [5]
This group of kitchen and bath professionals meets weekly to talk about different topics, including design, trends and marketing. Follow @kbtribechat [6] for more information.
When: Every Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET
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#DesignTV [7]
DesignTV is a weekly lifestyle chat on Twitter, and despite the title, it’s not actually about TV — it’s about living a well-designed life. Follow @DesignTVchat [8] for more information.
When: Every Thursday at 5 p.m. ET
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#GetPublished [9]
Founded by Leslie Carothers of social media agency The Kaleidoscope Partnership [10], the Get Published chat is meant to help create opportunities for getting published in the design and furniture industry. Follow Carothers (@tkpleslie [11]) for more information.
When: First Wednesday of the month at 6 p.m. ET, with special editions before major trade shows.
Links:
[1] http://www.residentiallighting.com/sites/default/files/twitter_newbird_Cropped_4.jpg
[2] http://tweetchat.com/
[3] https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23intdesignerchat
[4] https://twitter.com/#!/IntDesignerChat
[5] https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23kbtribechat
[6] https://twitter.com/#!/kbtribechat
[7] https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23designtv
[8] https://twitter.com/#!/designtvchat
[9] https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23getpublished
[10] http://www.tkpartnership.com/
[11] https://twitter.com/#!/tkpleslie
