Travel & Tourism pros are embracing the power of Twitter Chats. Here are tips to participate, moderate and start your own Twitter Chat.

1. Catherine J. Heeg
Customized Management Solutions
Phone: 403 726 0171 Fax: 403 726 0371
Catherine.heeg@cmsspeaking.com
www.cmsspeaking.com
Tips to Create Twitter Chats
What’s this? Twitter Chats are a way to engage in a written conversation using Twitter and
connecting with people from around the world.
Wouldn’t you love to connect with clients and potential clients creatively and effectively?
Successful Twitter chat Checklist
 As Moderator
o Set a theme for your ongoing chats
o Determine the length and day of your ongoing chat
o Set a start and stop time
o Create a title for each of your chat sessions
o Create a unique # that’s easy to type and related to your theme
 Keep the same # for the ongoing series of chats
o As the moderator you may want to start a separate twitter account so that other
moderators can take control over time.
o Compose a series of questions to stimulate conversation
 You may wish to start with an introduction and then ask people to
introduce themselves.
 Prepare questions and relevant links in advance
 For a 1 hour chat about 10 questions works great.
o Begin each question with Q (for question) and then question number. For
example, Q1 for your first question, Q2 for the second question
o Advise participants to answer using A1 for their answer to the first question, etc.
o Market the chat
 Directly invite people to join
 Market thru your other social sites
 Set up a new Facebook page and create events for each Twitter chat
o Maintain a fun conversational style that encourages sharing and conversation in
140 characters
o As the moderator, sometimes called the bot, try to remain neutral.
 You may want to participate on your personal twitter feed.

2. Catherine J. Heeg
Customized Management Solutions
Phone: 403 726 0171 Fax: 403 726 0371
Catherine.heeg@cmsspeaking.com
www.cmsspeaking.com
 As a participant
o Sign in to your Twitter account and search the # for the chat
 Use the Twitter search bar and type in the # provided by the moderator
o If you’re new to the chat you may want to include this info in your introduction
o Watch for the questions from the moderator
 Remember there is no audio
o Answer using A1 for your answer to the first question
o Provide links to material to support your answers
o Keep in mind that your answers, including any links, must be 140 characters or
less
o Follow other chat participants if you’d like
o Keep conversations to the moderated questions.
 Side conversations can be distracting and may be better in a direct
message
o Re-tweet or favorite tweets that you find remarkable
o If you participate in numerous chats, you may want to warn your followers so that
they’re not overwhelmed with your twitter stream.
o If you believe your followers would be interested in the twitter chat content you
may want to invite them to join.
o Remember all tweets are public, unless you direct message someone.
Here are a few chats that may be of interest:
o #smbiz: A chat where small business owners can get answers from experts and
other SMB owners. Takes place every Tuesday from 8 to 9pm.
o #blogchat: Offers advice on how to better your blog. Takes place on Sunday
nights from 8 to 9pm CT.
o http://tweetreports.com/twitter-chat-schedule/ provides a list of chats by topic.
o Check out these industry related chats.
http://thetravelbite.com/travelchatsontwitter/