How To Twitter Party

Twitter parties were a mystery to me the first time someone invited me to one, so if you are new to blogging and keep seeing them in your feed, here is the plain english version. A Twitter party is a scheduled hour where a group of people all tweet around one hashtag at the same time, usually with a host asking questions and sponsors giving away prizes.

The two things you need are the hashtag and the start time. When it kicks off, you follow the hashtag in a separate column so the fast moving tweets do not get lost in your regular timeline. TweetChat and TweetDeck both make this easy. Answer the host’s questions, include the hashtag in every single tweet, and reply to other people so it actually feels like a party and not a broadcast.

A few small habits go a long way. Show up a few minutes early, have a couple of thoughts ready, and do not spend the whole hour only watching for prizes. The relationships you build with other bloggers in that hour are worth more than any gift card. That is how I met half the people I still talk to today.

A lot of those relationships are how I end up hosting giveaways myself, like my 12 Days of Giveaways and the Howling Halloween Giveaway Hop. Twitter parties and giveaway hops go hand in hand, so once you are comfortable with one, the other feels natural.

If blogging tips are what brought you here, Mom With a Dot Com has more of them scattered through the archives. I try to write the posts I wish I had found when I was starting out.