Remember message boards? In many ways, they were the predecessor to twitter chats.

If you’re already on twitter, you should be familiar with hashtags, designated by placing a ‘#’ symbol before a word or string of text. Do you use them? How often do you click on threads to see what others are saying? Not only can you find yourself deep in a whirl of conversational pings, but using hashtags to involve yourself in conversation is a smart way to network. Individuals and organizations alike can also more easily discover you.

The opportunity exists to cultivate your own community through participation in twitter chats. You can engage your followers to sign on at a given kick off time, simply share their thoughts, and (of course!) add in the chosen hashtag. Often your feed can become cluttered with a plethora of topics, which can be distracting when you want to hone in on something specific. By clicking on the chat hashtag, a streamlined feed will display a real-time progression of the conversation as it unfolds. Nearly every conference and major event carries an official hashtag. If you’re unable to attend in person, following the stream of chat from attendees and live bloggers is a great way to participate. For popular events, dozens of updates will flow in by the second. Lively indeed.

If you are eager to give it a try, and at a bit of a loss where to dive in, start with your favorite field. For instance, a popular way to plug into what is currently happening in education? Check out #edchat to see what is happening in the educational sphere.

Also fun to take a peek at: this Twitter Chat Schedule contains a (growing) list of hundreds of current, regularly scheduled chats that you can participate in.

A feature recently rolled in the latest release of twitter, the #Discover tab at the top of the screen. Top trending stories are featured, with links to the news source and a feed of current tweets. (There is quite a bit more to this tab that does not pertain to the topic of this post, so let’s save that for another time.) Meanwhile, check us out on twitter. Looking forward to chatting!

Until next time,

Emma