Digital PR: Teasing out the Potential of Twitter Chats (Part II)
By Judy Gombita, Co-Editor and Canadian Contributor, PR Conversations
“Conversations are meant to take people to a new place and #kaizenblog has done that for me as the chat founder, and for Elli St. George Godfrey, who will carry it forward.” ~ Valeria Maltoni, Passing the baton
Judy Gombita
If taken to a new place in a conversation, you’ve been influenced. Maybe during the journey you did some influencing. But better to enter each Twitter chat appreciating that you’ll learn more than enlighten.
As opposed to automation, Teasing Out the Potential of Twitter Chats, Part I recommended engaging in Twitter chats for relevance and resonance, perhaps evolving to longer-term influence manifestations of reputation, trust and authenticity. But not all contributions are received or measured equally; indiscriminate and inconsequential chatter also is a form of noise.
Kaitlyn Marie: “Most days I learn more in one Twitter chat than I could have in a year of school!” #smmeasure
Like attending an industry PD or networking event, Parissa Behnia is clear on why she participates, “My purpose is twofold: The first is to stretch my mind and learn from others so that I can be a better consultant. The second is my belief that the more I am out there ‘adding value’ to a chat, the more potential business opportunity may come my way.”
Tweet Serendipitous Validation
John Kosic: “I feel I’m a Renaissance person and a lifelong knowledge learner. I like to RT people because I see myself as both a Spoke and Hub to my chat groups.“
Imagine our pleasure when Parissa Behnia, Judy Yi and I were asked permission by Harvard Business Review product manager, Susan Francis, to publish our #hbrchat tweets in the “Harvard Business Review OnPoint Collection: Guide to Managing Stress” report.
Besides sponsoring the #hbrchat forum for debate, facilitators are mining conversations to complement commissioned articles. Susan Francis explains the HBR guide series: “Our target audience is new managers or more seasoned managers who are embarrassed to ask how to do something or who need brushing up on a subject…. Some of the advice is common sense, but not necessarily common practice—like your remark about lunch.”
Not every chat results in being “published.” But in its own way, being declared a BRANDido is just as thrilling, when #brandchat moderator Maria Duron’s recognizes particularly relevant contributions.
Influence of the Conscientious Moderator
How #usguyschat’s Ken Rosen views his role: “I co-moderate a chat. I don’t own it, but I accept responsibility for its progress while I’m part of it. It came out of a group that was once robust and intellectually stimulating (#UsGuys), but is now trying to find its way and reinvent itself. For this stream to disappear or lose its vitality would be sad to me, personally.”
Why He Feels This Way
“I enjoy getting to know members who are intellectually honest and intense, with shared business interests. Even if #UsGuys stream were to disappear, as long as I’m associated with #usguyschat, I’ll be working to keep it substantive. When I show up to co-mod our little corner of Twitter for one hour I impose on myself a responsibility not to waste the time of those who tune in.”
His Goal
“It’s simple. I want every #usguyschat to be the best chat ever. Co-moderator Joe Ruiz may be more realistic in his aspirations, but he has a similar focus on quality and substance. We may never achieve the ‘best ever’ quality standard wanted, but that doesn’t change the goal. I’ve never once been fully satisfied with a completed #usguyschat … and I suspect I never will. I second guess topics and questions chosen, and my own moderating actions—every time. But we try.”
More Props to the Men
Mark Bernhardt: “My primary motivation is to network. I learn much and occasionally have something pithy to add.” 
#smmeasure
Twitter chats undercut conventional wisdom about arrogant men dominating social media. Besides offering astute views and informed opinions, males who participate in Twitter chats tend to be deferential and generous to female counterparts; chats are equitable with, “Each gender (re)tweeting half of the sky.”
Weighing in to my “What is your primary reason for participating in Twitter chats?” question, the male co-hosts of #smmeasure differentiate their personalities:
Nick Shin (from @marketwire) Personally: sharing ideas, learning new best practices, actionable insight, thought leadership. Business: brand awareness. If just one thing: to learn.
Sheldon Levine (from @sysomos) Learning, networking, meeting new people, proving whether I’m a thought leader, causing trouble. (I think that’s all the reasons.)
Generously, Nick Shin has issued numerous invitations for me to guest moderate on public relations during #smmeasure.
You’re Being Monitored….
Joseph Fiore, president of RepuMetrix Inc., a social media/reputation monitoring company pays attention to chats covering topics related to his expertise: “From the perspective of raising awareness on the need for social media monitoring, it’s fascinating to see newcomers joining in chats, wanting to learn about how to monitor and manage their online identities, business and/or personal brand. I get the most out of chats where I’m involved as a participant. I find your tweets to be consistent with my own views on social media; it gives the chat instant credibility when I see you participating.”
Is There Room for More Chats?
Dwann Holmes Olsen: “I participate in chats to keep a pulse on those in the community and to gather great ideas and feedback, regarding industry standards and happenings.” #solopr
Although the Twitterverse amphitheatre appears bursting at the seams, some chats have lost steam, focus or relevance. There’s still room, but new chats need differentiation.
Example: In July the new hosts of UK-based #commschat offered a timely chat focused on the closure of News of the World, right on the heels of the announcement. Featuring guest moderators, Mervyn Edgecombe, ex-Fleet Street and Brendan O’Neill, editor at spiked, it was a riveting hour of discussion.
Some other examples:
1. Once again the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is holding a series of one-hour Tuesday Twitter chats during its September’s Ethics Awareness Month. The new 3 p.m. EDT start time was chosen because:
- The field is less crowded.
- It’s user-friendly to more North American/international participants: lunch hour for West-coast PRSA members/non-members, evening-friendly for the UK/Western Europe, plus it works for early-morning risers in the Pacific Rim.
September 6: State of Ethics in PR (Deb Silverman, PhD, APR, co-chair of PRSA’s ethics committee)
September 13: Maintaining Public Relations Ethical Standards (Emmanuel Tchividjian, chief ethics officer at Ruder Finn)
September 20: PR Agency Ethics Officers: Who are they and what do they do? (James Lukaszewski, APR, co-chair of PRSA’s ethics committee)
September 27: Fighting the Plagiarism Trend in PR (Mary Graybill, APR, principal, Graybill Communications)
Hashtag: #PRethics; Twitter account: @PRSA.
2. From Director and General Secretary Heather Yaxley, “The Motor Industry Public Affairs Association (MIPAA) is introducing #hublive Twitter chat due to the success of The Hub email for members (see MIPAA website) and the way Twitter has extended the reach of MIPAA workshops. We anticipate motor-industry PR practitioners, journalists and others interested Twitter users around the world to join us in discussing key topics. Our first chat, following the mid-September Frankfurt show, focuses on the future of motor shows. We’re examining a variety of formats and will produce guidelines for members to engage in chats.”
3. Similarly, I’m in talks with Canadian Women in Communications about introducing a dedicated chat. We’ve examined viable times, topics, potential participants and overall focus.
Summary (in More Than 140 Characters)
Daria Steigman: “Twitter chats are great idea labs, drawing in people with different perspectives. I love hanging out and bouncing ideas around with smart people. I often learn something new, and I always sign off with my brain synapses firing.”
The sweet spot in Twitter chats is found by participating in those that make the most sense for your sector and occupation, expertise and interests. Any resulting influence is earned and bestowed; it cannot be calculated or gamed.
Alan Berkson: “My primary motivation is honing my thoughts on issues. It’s a great sounding board…. Tweet chats are like crack for my ADD personality—less prep the better!” #smmeasure #usguyschat
And humility, as per Shannon Kelly, “Meeting cool people, talking shop…to remind your self that you don’t know everything.” Or John Kosic, practising kaizen, “I like the way you made your comment. I listen, observe. Then I engage; repeating the process, again.” #designthinking
Please don’t judge me that I end with Jacoub Bondre: “The whole point of influence. If @jgombita recommends an article, I will likely read the entire thing.” #sm125
See Twitter Chat Schedule and @twchat, created by Robert Swanwick.
###
Judy Gombita is a Toronto-based public relations and communication management specialist, with more than 20 years of employment and executive-level volunteer board experience, primarily in the financial and lifelong learning nonprofit sectors. She is the co-editor and Canadian contributor (since 2007) to the international, collaborative blog, PR Conversations. Find her on Twitter.
You may also be interested in...
Published: September 1, 2011 By:
Judy,
A superbly written two-part piece on your experiences and observations concerning Twitter chats. Many of the insights and opinions shared in the article resonate well with my own experiences.
Pardon me for carrying on with a barrage of points that I found to be most key – in no way is this intended to draw away from the merits of the analysis as a whole.
IMHO, comments have always been the ultimate arbitrator of intellectual honesty, playing a leading role in democratizing the social Web.
The biggest hit 140 characters takes in comparison to dressed to the nines blogging is an absence of context and the insinuation of intellectual laziness.
Your post brilliantly points out the opposite and provides real life examples, both through merit and manner, the ways Twitter chats stretch our minds and compel us all to participate concisely and with artistic brevity.
The reason why this whole notion excites me (and why I’ve done the opposite of practicing brevity with this post
) is that ultimately this leads us towards the path of being better managers of our online brands, identities, reputations, and helps sustain and nurture our social presence and relevance within the Twitter ecosystem.
Thank-you kindly for the mention and for advancing this important discussion!
Joseph Fiore
@RepuMetrix
@RepuTrack
Joseph,
Thank you for taking the time to leave value-add commentary, plus your (pink-inducing) compliments to me.
The challenge in writing an OpEd is that it *is* at its core a personal opinion piece, but at the back of my mind was the knowledge that my thoughts would only be relevant and resonate with a greater audience (beyond known colleagues and friends) if it explored commonalities (with more voices) and/or invited people to consider—and hopefully adopt—new concepts and ways of behavior.
That’s one of the reasons I spent so much time in the research phase, including approaching a number of individuals (such as yourself) to provide commentary, inviting two Twitter chat communities (#solopr and #smmeasure) to answer the same question, as well as generally monitoring conversations taking place on Twitter, in and outside of chats. The end result was that I had a great deal of information to work with, which proved both a blessing and a curse…. Happily, Brian Pittman had earlier invited me to write either a single article or a series of them. A two-part one proved a good compromise.
I (heart) the way you phrase things, including,
“The biggest hit 140 characters takes in comparison to dressed-to-the-nines blogging is an absence of context and the insuation of intellectual laziness” and “…point out the opposite and provide real-life examples, both through merit and manner, the ways Twitter chats stretch our minds and compel us all to participate concisely and with artistic brevity.”
In fact, I can see myself co-opting “dressed-to-the-nines blogging” and “merit and manner” and “participate concisely and with artistic brevity” down the road. Except I’ll be sure to give you a h/t!
I’m delighted to contribute some collateral towards your excitement about democratizing the social Web, particularly given your core business of social media/reputation monitoring. I was very tempted to include your June “[you are] engaging, articulate and a tremendous asset to the Twitter ecosystem” #FF tweet, but decided, instead, to simply hug it to myself during the writing phase. (But here I am flashing it, after all.) Receiving that badge from you, plus your ongoing encouragement and conversations, helps secure trust that my online persona is authentic, both to myself and to others.
Thanks so much for including #smmeasure in here, Judy. Although, when I answered that question I didn’t know I was being quoted
Twitter chats really are a great and useful tool in the world of social media and Twitter. I think it’s amazing how many people want to come together to discuss their thoughts and ideas and learn new ones from others. I’m always impressed with our particular chat’s community. They’re all smart in their own right, but we’re all also learning from one another regardless of our physical locations (we have people from all over the world in our chat sometimes), industry sectors or pasts. We have people who are just starting to learn about measuring social media as well as some seasoned professionals and all contribute equally. Even as the moderator for the chat I find that I learn something new or get a new idea of to approach something almost every week. Bouncing ideas off your peers is a fantastic learning experience.
I’ve met some great people participating in Twitter chats and if I had time I would totally participate in more because there’s so many out there that all cover interesting topics.
Cheers,
Sheldon, community manager for Sysomos
Sheldon,
Including #smmeasure was a no-brainer, because being the host of this chat is a way that the combined forces of Marketwire and Sysomos (note to other readers, now two halves of the same company) is a chat differentiator in comparison to various competitors (i.e., newswire services and social media monitoring companies).
You make me laugh claiming you didn’t know you might be quoted, because I’m pretty sure Nick Shin (your co-moderator) made it explicit the question came from me, for research purposes.
Plus, as per Joseph Fiore, we need to take responsibility for our online brands, identities and reputations. Not that I think you said anything that wasn’t genuine to your personality or damaged your “personal brand.” You are very true to the offline Sheldon “personality” in the online sphere. Something worth noting: Out of all of the people I quoted, you are the only person I’ve met IRL, on several occasions. Ergo, I know from which I speak.
Congratulations on the success of #smmeasure and my thanks to Nick and you for accommodating, let alone individually answering, my question. I know what you mean about there being an abundance of great Twitter chats out there, covering so many interesting topics. But as there is limited time in our days and evenings—and competing obligations and interests—we simply must make choices as to which ones are the most relevant to our current, individual needs. #smmeasure gets my vote.
P.S. Serendipity that an ad for Sysomos is currently on this page, eh?
Thanks, Judy, for your kind comments, and for the interesting pieces.
For me, Twitter chats are an important way to connect to our customers. The Guides I create address common management challenges, so it makes sense to me that others in our community have encountered similar situations and come up with their own creative solutions. I find Twitter chats to be a great way to tap into the community’s knowledge and experience and also to help bring people with problems and solutions together. But as you found with your research for these pieces, I’m usually overwhelmed by all that I learn and all that people have to share. So sifting through it and picking the best tips and comments helps advance the conversation and also helps busy managers-—they don’t need to read everything in the chat or on our website because I’ve gone through and read everything and selected the most useful, applicable, and pertinent comments-—getting you the information you need so you can get in, read it, and get on with your day. But as others have said, I feel like I always gain more than whatever I bring to the conversation.
Susan,
What a delightful surprise and honour that you weighed in!
As proposed in my “Internal journo and SEO expert; new ‘trust’ calisthenics for the PR pro” submission to Craig Pearce’s ( http://twitter.com/commaim ) e-report, Public Relations 2011: Issues, Insights and Ideas, it’s incredibly valuable for stakeholders to have access to first-hand knowledge from technical experts within the company some of the time, instead of the usual designated spokespeople (i.e., the doers, in addition to the sayers).
You had already been kind enough to share some information about the Guides, but now my knowledge is enhanced—thank you. (Readers: the Managing Stress guide is excellent; chock full of valuable articles, supplemented by #hbrchat tweets and HBR blog comments.)
Plus it’s great to learn business rationale from the other side of the Twitter chat—of course you want to “connect with your customers!”
It’s also reassuring (and honest) to hear that it’s a bit of a slog getting through all of the information generated by a single chat—although I imagine there’s less “indiscriminate and inconsequential chatter” in an #hbrchat than in some others. (Confession: out of all the chats I participate in regularly, it’s probably the most scary regarding brain power.)
It’s been a pleasure getting to know you. It’s also lovely to have you as my “in-house” HBR resource—although I promise not to abuse the privilege. I also like the fact one of my tweets you chose for the Managing Stress guide was the one about not forgetting to eat lunch—in part because you related to it, personally.
Now when I participate in #hbrchat I’m going to think about how there’s at least one generous (i.e., not at all intimidating) “friend” behind the http://twitter.com/hbrexchange account. May our mutual learning path continue.
A fantastic compilation of information about the value and use of twitter chats. Thank you for helping out potential chatters by including a link to the Twitter Chat Schedule.
While I strongly believe that twitter chats can be the foundation of a very strong topic-based community, I also find that after a while they can seem quite repetitive and (due to the 140 chars) shallow.
However, there is always the opportunity to use the twitter community to create an engaging deeper connection with those who are interested.
#eventprofs is a great example of a group who have turned a chat community into a group that runs a series of events around the country. #KMers has built a collaborative platform around their chat at http://KMers.org Many others have wikis and blogs that would not have nearly the level of activity were it not for their regular twitter chat.
Thanks so much for supporting the concept.
Shameless plug: using http://twebevent.com as a landing page for a chat allows the host to provide persistent larger context inline with the chat itself. It also allows for the merging of audio/video with a twitter chat.
All the best,
Swan (aka @twchat)
Thanks for stopping by as well as for the props regarding my two-part article.
I think out of all of the chats I “attend” probably Kellye Crane’s #solopr most closely resembles those examples you’ve provided. Most recently, she’s introduced a value-packed enewsletter to any #solopr community member who wanted to subscribe.
I’m curious: it sounds almost like you are a bit bored with “regular” Twitter chats. I can appreciate how audio and video could change the experience…but do you need or want to do that?
Yesterday (Tuesday) was the first #PRethics chat for http://twitter.com/prsa, for its September Ethics Month chat schedule. Keith Trivitt and I had discussed scheduling it at 3 p.m. ET, so that maybe UK/European people would participate. Well, the UK folks were out in droves. And they were incredibly excited about this “transatlantic” chat.
Would audio/video have added anything?
Really like your twebevent page…have forwarded it to a bunch of chat moderators for perusal.
And on behalf of Twitter chat fans everywhere, THANK YOU for building the Master Twitter List (and especially for making it Open Source on Google Docs). That’s a real gift to the Twitterverse.
Thanks for the comprehensive response.
Not saying that I am bored, but after a while in the same community I find that I am craving more depth of information.
I am not suggesting that twitter chats should be REPLACED by audio/video, but I believe those formats can provide variety sometimes to a plain vanilla twitter chat. The idea is that the chat can sometimes becomes a backchannel for the other media rather than the event itself.
Let’s not forget that one-on-one phone and in-person meetups are also great for deeper connections.
Swan
Curious, do you go by “Swan” everywhere or only in social media?
I hear what you are saying. But I would suggest that the bulk of people who read one or both parts of my guest article are either newbies or intermediate-level chat participants. Ergo, they are probably just as excited by connecting with so many people for an hour and conversing about a specific topic in a “plain vanilla” (hey so, just where did that term originate?) Twitter chat as you are exploring supplementing long-time chats with audio/video components.
I’m also a lover of words in their stark purity, including the need for focus, brevity and tonal shading within the bounds of 140-character tweets. In contrast, I am an indifferent listener and watcher to the vast majority of podcasts and videos (i.e., Youtube and corporate), particularly as most go on for far too long and are often of inferior quality, either rambling, too long lead-ins or simply crappy production values!
I am a HUGE proponent of one-on-one phone calls, emails that go on for a block, plus in-person meetups. Check out my guest post Monday on http://twitter.com/marketingmel ‘s blog for a sense of what I think constitutes the spectrum of relationships, online or off.
It’s been a pleasure re-connecting with you on this platform, Swan. Thanks again for adding your voice to this chat…..
I have to say that your posts—here and on PR Conversations and today’s at Marketing Mel on “Layers of Friendship All Fresh So Far with Online Friendlie, Mel” certainly open my eyes to the true value of online conversations and patient relationship building online. Love the onion metaphor, and especially appreciate the new concept (to me, at least!) of “friendlie” vs. “friend.” Perhaps the best takeaway here for those of us driven by hourly deadlines is to SLOW DOWN when it comes to online relationships.
Thank you my (relatively long-time) online friendlie editor, Brian.
It was really great that you visited http://marketingmel's blog and commented. Feel free to use the “onion” metaphor yourself (although a h/t would be appreciated).
“See” you online!