Do you wish to expand your social network? Twitter has always been one of the biggest platforms when thinking of social media. In 2016 alone, Twitter rose to 317 million monthly active users. According to Statista, that’s more or less 15 million growth in less than 12 months! Today, a new trend is beginning to gain momentum on Twitter that makes many business startups and thriving ones on their toes—TweetChat.

Social networking event, TweetChat, is akin to old-school chatrooms but with a twist. Instead of just agreeing to meet at a specified schedule, hashtags are being used to track down topics being discussed. This makes the chatroom swarming with online crawlers agitating market algorithms to go haywire. For first-timers, hosting or joining a TweetChat room can be of great help in organically building your brand online. To achieve your goals, here are tips to start it out right for the first time.

1. Follow common chatroom etiquette. Tweetchats all have a distinctive format which will set out the governing rules of the whole chatting period. Questions are usually numbered and with chat-specific hashtag. When you engage with someone on the chatroom, with the host or otherwise, always indicate the question number and your answer. This allows easy tracking of responses or exchanges. It is important to be courteous, too. You can be booted out or, worst, ignored with your rotten behavior.

2. Keep responses succinct and relevant. Do remember to inject some fun anecdotes, too. When someone engages with you, it is important to respond with ease. Akin to being in a party, engaging in small talks will help expand your network as you work your way to the punch bowl.

3. Go for effective visuals. Present funny memes, photos, or GIFs relevant to the topics at hand. Using appropriate emojis will also help relay emotions. For business accounts, it is essential to remember that relevant and suitable visuals be used. You can easily get lost in the labyrinth of discussion but, always remember to maintain objectivity at all times.

4. Engage with other chatters. While your main aim is to serve your own answers to the host’s questions, it would be wise to chat with other users, too. Take time to observe and look for those whom you can easily converse with.

5. For hosts, focus on your role. You are not only there to answer questions. You need to moderate interactions, too. Make sure to improve your typing speed particularly when topics posted are inundated with replies or questions.

6. Keep track of the hashtags being used. This allows you a way to measure the effectiveness of the event.  Monitoring sites like Hootsuite or Twubs can be of help in gauging the performance for the said social networking event.

7. Build up connection by participating in 2 or 3 Tweetchats. More so, consider being a “regular” on these chatrooms. This will help expand your connections as well as your following. At the very least, an hour of engagement will help fortify that connection.

Tweetchat is a hot commodity on Twitter right now. Seize the moment and be on the lookout for relevant topics. To be effective, strive to be extra careful and maintain proper etiquette. Build your social brand now!