is this hashtag really necessary: taking the plunge into twitter chats
TRANSCRIPT
Oct. 18, 2016
Is This Hashtag Really Necessary? Taking the Plunge into Twitter Chats
Dave Tyler, @dtyler321 #mcs12
About Brockport
•Part of the SUNY system
•65 miles east of Buffalo, 25 miles west of Rochester
•~8,200 students (undergrad/grad)
•1979 Special Olympics
•Stan Van Gundy and William Fichtner
TWITTER CHATS!!!
✤ Safe and Effective
✤ Fun for the whole family
✤ FDA Approved.*
*may not be FDA approved. But you don’t need to consult your doctor before using Twitter chats.
“I went to look at your twitter and you were wearing cool pants. I screen
grabbed those pants and sent it to my style team #Wizwearscoolpants.”
–Kanye West, Philosopher-King
We have a new(ish) president
✤ @heidimacp started in July 2015✤ We were looking for ways to
introduce her to Brockport community
How we handled it
✤ Decided on #bportprezchat as our hashtag and an “account takeover.”
✤ Announced Nov. 3 as our date. Set up for an hour-long chat
✤ Promoted it on social, and through email to our alumni
✤ Also relied on a network of active young alumni on social media to help get the word out.
How we prepared
✤ Research, research research
✤ Listening
✤ Developing a briefing sheet
✤ Asked our student interns and their friends what they want to know about
What happened
✤ Started Slow: No questions for 4 minutes.
✤ Got 32 questions in the course of the hour, answered them all
✤ Got to share a picture of The President’s Dog.
The results?
✤ 4 times our usual daily Twitter traffic
✤ A lot of good will from alumni and students
✤ Shared the whole chat on Storify
We liked it so much…
✤ We tried it again.
✤ Held a chat with the construction team for a big construction project on campus.
✤ Leaned heavily on Cover It Live (Free for nonprofits. I think)
Prep was more challenging
✤ Didn’t get to promote it as much as perhaps we should.
✤ Was actually tougher to schedule than our presidential chat
✤ We had plants
Building A BETTER
BROCKPORT
NORTH CAMPUSREVITALIZATION
Didn’t go nearly as well
✤ Used the hashtag #bportnorth
✤ Not as many outside questions only 22 comments.
✤ Not as many on Twitter
✤ We also had 5 people who were the “answerers” and that was a little unwieldy.
Be Prepared
✤ Listen to your audiences before you chat
✤ Ask people what they’d like to talk about.
✤ Be aware of what’s being said about you in other places.
✤ Know what you’d like to say
Make Your Chatter Comfortable
✤ Ask them where they want to hold the chat
✤ Figure out who will type
✤ Eliminate distraction
✤ Snacks/drinks
What would we do differently?
✤ Have longer chats
✤ Maybe later in the day
✤ More publicity in advance
✤ Use the hashtag consistently
✤ Have another one, sooner
Questions? Comments? Complaints? Aggressive Trolling?
@dtyler321www.slideshare.net/dtyler321