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!!!

TWITTER CHATS!!!

✤ Safe and Effective

✤ Fun for the whole family

✤ FDA Approved.*

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.

But I thought Twitter was dead?

“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

Don’t All Twitter Chats Go Horribly Wrong?

Don’t All Twitter Chats Go Horribly Wrong?

Well…let’s just test this theory out.

GAHHHHHHH!SCARY!

Actually, this can be a beautiful thing.

Our adventures into Twitter chats

We have a new(ish) president

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

Yes, we had plants.

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.

But was it still a success?

What did we learn?

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

You never know what you’ll find out

You never know who will be grateful

for what you’re saying

Answer all the questions.

✤ Even the silly ones.

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

Hey, Dave, wrap this up, will ya?

✤ Be not afraid

✤ Prepare

✤ Listen

✤ Have fun.

Questions? Comments? Complaints? Aggressive Trolling?

@dtyler321www.slideshare.net/dtyler321