Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Twitter Hashtags & Twitter Parties! Are you in the LOOP?

Hi Everyone!

I know of two twitter parties this week.  Wednesday night @YMCBookalicious is having a book club one & Thursday is the @Boobfest twitter party.  I've been telling people about them, but then this happens...

I hear "but they are so confusing"
So I respond with "FOLLOW THE HASHTAG"
Which then I hear "what does that mean?"

So here is the way I follow twitter parties.  1st I use tweetdeck.  I have instructions about tweetdeck on this post. Twitter for pals not yet on twitter
Further down on that post I explain tweetdeck.

Now that you have tweetdeck all fired up there is a trick.  A hashtag which is essentially the number sign  #  and it makes whatever is right beside it searchable.
In tweetdeck if you click on the hashtag, a new column pops up & lists every tweet with that hashtag in it, and updates the stream as new tweets come in.

If for some reason tweetdeck is not your preference I've started using a different site that it works on as well
Kurrently.com searches both Twitter & Facebook for that hashtag & constantly auto-updates it as well.  Plus in the left column you can pick the speed you want it to update.

Test it with our FAVE hashtag #TiaraARMY Send out a tweet & put #TiaraARMY in your tweet.  Everyone following the #TiaraARMY hashtag will then see it in their feed.

How does this help? Well first off you will connect with a bunch of new twitter folks that have the same interest as you.  Second you can participate in TWITTER PARTIES!

What are Twitter Parties? Well they are a convo about a common topic.

Wednesday (March 30, 2011) night @YMCBookalicious will be hosting a Book Club Twitter Party for Jodi Picoult's  "Sing You Home" You can read more about it here Rembember to use the hashtag #SingYouHome to particpate/follow along.  Wanda is great & will help you get the hang of it!

Thursday (March 31, 2011) night I am lucky enough to be hosting @CocktailDeeva 's @Boobfest twitter party.  Make sure to register here to "Help Save First Base" (that always makes my chuckle).  With you registration you have the chance to win some fabulous prizes while helping this very worthy cause.
For more info on Boobfest, make sure to check out Boobfest.ca

Don't worry about twitter ettiquiette (which will be a separate post) during a twitter party because they move very fast!  Just make sure to keep a positive attitude & remember to have fun.  Who knows you might form a friendship or two via the twitter party. 

If you have any advice or favorite sites you use for hastags/twitter parties, please leave it in the comment section!  I'd love to here about it too!

& remember if you have questions be sure to hit me up @Those2Girls

Happy Twittering All!

4 comments:

  1. I love to use http://www.tweetchat.com when I'm attending a twitter party.

    This follows the hashtag for the party and also automatically adds the hashtag to each tweet.

    You can customize it so that the host of the party's (or any user you specifiy's) tweets are highlighted. You can also set the refresh rate and font size.

    Another reason I like using it that I can use it alone if I want to focus on just the party and not get distracted by the rest of my twitter feed.

    But no matter what application you use, @Those2Girls is right, you must remember to have fun!!! :)

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  2. Great post Lisa, I have used both tweetchat and tweetgrid [http://tweetgrid.com/]. It is a little more advanced for people new to Twitter but once you get the hang of it, it is quite easy.
    I like tweetchat, but lately I have found that Tweetchat will do wonky things, so always good to have other options to use!
    Yes, the main thing is to have fun and meet new people! Bonus if you win something :)

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  3. Hey Lisa,
    Thanks for the awesome shoutout and the tip about Kurrently.com! I recommend using www.TweetChat.com for twitter parties and virtual book clubs but suggest you keep your TweetDeck or Hootsuite account open as a backup. All you need to join TweetChat is enter your Twitter account handle plus your password and then enter the chat room with the party/club hashtag. When you tweet or RT (retweet or respond) TweetChat automatically adds the hashtag so you don't have to. Tonight from 9:30-11:00pm EDT I will be hosting a Twitter virtual book club discussion about Jodi Picoult's book 'Sing You Home' so the hashtag we will be using is #SingYouHome. During the chat I will be running a book giveaway with 2 copies of 'Sing You Home' up for grabs! Tell your friends!
    Cheers,
    @YMCbookalicious

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  4. thanks Wanda told me about tweetchat so I will be trying that one tonight. I love tweetdeck but sadly mine isnt working right !:(

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