I have had a Twitter account for the past three years, and I have never once heard of a twitter chat. I have always wondered why people were always hashtagging things that I had never heard of multiple times in a row. Now that question has been answered. Twitter chats.
I participated in a Twitter chat for the first time tonight called #journchat. I had never done a Twitter chat before. I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I sat watching my computer screen while all these different tweeters were commenting. Finally, I visited the #journchat Twitter page. They had tweeted four simple rules.
1. Quick introduction. For example, “Hi! I’m a Senior PR major at Baylor University
and this is my first #journchat!”
2. Play nice.
3. Submit questions to @prsarahevans without hashtagging.
4. No pitching.
So I got started. #journchat tweeted different questions. The first question said, “Kenneth Starr recently spoke out about camera use in the Supreme Court. In your op, are they overdue?” There was also an article attached to the tweet for everyone to read. I tweeted back and was able to give my opinion on the issue. But what was more exciting is that I got to see what others thought about it!
Live Twitter chats are becoming more popular and they are an easy way to talk about topics online. It is live, fast, and many people participate. There are different Twitter chats that take place every single day, which gives many people the chance to participate and state their opinion over different issues from politics to fashion. It is a great way to form different opinions on things or even learn about something you never thought would interest you. Twitter chats are a great form of social media.
P.S. I love rule #4. I feel like if you get all those PR/Journalists together, someone is bound to start trying to get a story published or a job.
ReplyDeleteI liked that this twitter chat featured a wider audience than the one I did. I did #PRstudchat and it was what the hash tag says, PR people.
I think it's important that as PR professionals, we learn and know what it's like to be a reporter and journalist.
I'm interning at KWBU (The local NPR affliate station) as a news reporter. It's something that I didn't ever envisioning myself doing after deciding to be a PR major.
However, I've already learned some good lessons and especially how easy it is to make a job for a reporter and how it's easy to not make it so easy.
I feel like if you can make good working relationships with reporters, understand their needs and make their jobs easier, you'll be rewarded with better media coverage, nicer stories and maybe even something you didn't expect.
I look forward to the next #jourchat, I think i'll have to attend the next one!
I did #journchat as well, Sydney, and I think it was a great opportunity to hear from both sides of our "industry", if you will.
ReplyDeleteI like "Rule #3: Play nice." There was one journalist in particular in the chat who consistently said negative things to and about PR people and the state of our job prospects compared to theirs. I thought it was interesting that someone in a field that is supposed to be unbiased was using such an extreme level of bias to interact with those in his industry. He seemed to really hate PR people, which makes me wonder if he's just had a bad experience with a few that clouded his judgement or if he has consistently encountered PR people that are difficult to work with.
I think there is always going to be some natural tension between journalists and PR people, because in some ways we want different things. But if we can use opportunities like #journchat that includes the perspective of both sides, maybe more time will be spent focusing on the things we want that are the same.
All in all, it was great opportunity to learn and grow through communication and interaction with professionals in our field that we would otherwise not have access to.
I also participated in #journchat and I agree that it was very beneficial to hear from both journalists and PR professionals.
ReplyDeleteIn my post I also wrote that it was important to use rules when participating in something like this Twitter chat. Like Rachel mentioned, there can sometimes be tension between journalists and PR professionals, so there should be rules to keep things from getting out of hand.
I think #journchat is a great opportunity to talk and network with other people in the industry every week.
Sydney, Twitter chat is definitely live, fast and has many participators.
ReplyDeleteI did not participate in #journchat, but I agree that any chat provides a way to learn about something new or something you never thought would interest you.
During #blogchat teh discussion was about professional athletes and social media. People were talking about athletes tweeting during games for their fans. I never would have thought of something like this.
The topic was completely new to me and interesting to read responses to this sports and social media idea.