A really useful way to find new contacts, engage with others who have the same interests as you and generally have a quick gossip 🙂
Many chats are geographical, so for example, #pborohour; some are based around a business idea or hobby. If you all have an interest in the same area then you can find people to collaborate with, so supporting each other and promoting each other as well as achieving something new for yourself/your business. Peterborough did this, and created many connections between small businesses and from that, new ideas and projects to improve the area and the business of those who participated.
To “do” a tweetchat, you need some way of chatting 🙂 Everyone uses the same hashtag (eg #fenshour – the one run by Red Barn Digital), and puts it on every tweet. Then, if you search for that hashtag, you see a list of tweets with it in and you can favourite, RT, or reply to them.
While many people only use twitter.com or their phone, it is really useful to find a piece of software to do it for you – favourites are tweetchat.com and twitterfall.com. Have a look, and have a go, you’ll find your favourite.
Running a tweetchat, it’s best to tag a few people you know are already confident on twitter, and think of a couple of questions to ask. Most run for an hour (which goes pretty fast when it’s busy!), and most are organised around a theme. If tweeters just tweet an ad, without answering or chatting, it tends to just get in the way, so it’s not recommended. The best effect of a tweetchat is to make a contact, or get involved in an idea, and follow it up after the chat!