How to Participate in a Twitter Chat

Twitter chats are public conversations focusing on a specific hashtag, such as a television show, holiday, or news event. Some Twitter chats happen on designated days and specific times, while others are less formal ongoing conversations centered around a hashtag. Here's how to find Twitter chats so you can join in and share your thoughts.

How to Find Twitter Chats Using Hashtags

Many companies and users create hashtags to get conversations started to promote a TV show, a movie, or a game. The quickest and easiest way to find out about a Twitter chat is to search for hashtags.

1. Navigate to Twitter.com on your desktop, or open the Twitter app on your iOS or Android device.

2. Using Twitter in a browser, find the search box on the top right of the screen and enter a search term starting with a hashtag. Press Enter or Return when finished. In this example, we'll search for #TheCrown.

   

   In the Twitter smartphone app, tap the magnifying glass to start a search.

3. You'll be presented with ongoing conversations about your search topic. Filter your search results by selecting categories such as Top, Latest, People, Photos, and Videos.

   

How to Find Trending Twitter Chats

Another way to find Twitter chats is to see what's trending. If you find something that interests you, it's easy to jump in.

1. Using Twitter in a browser, select Explore from the menu on the left.

   

   In the Twitter smartphone app, tap the magnifying glass and then tap Trending.

2. Select Trending from the top menu to see the popular topics of the day, or choose a more specific category, such as Sports or Entertainment. Select any trending subject to jump into a conversation.

   

How to Find Live Twitter Chats

Live chats feature people joining in to talk about a particular topic. These types of Twitter chats are at designated times, so you can add an upcoming chat to your calendar.

To find a live chat, visit the Twubs Twitter Chat Schedule, the TweetReports Twitter Chat Schedule, or ChatSalad's list of upcoming chats, just to name a few sources.

Third-Party Twitter Chat Tools

There are several third-party Twitter chat tools that make it easy to find tweet chats. Some of the most popular are TwChat, TweetReports, tchat.io, and Twubs. All of these tools are web-based, and they will load quickly even on smartphone mobile browsers. These tools will also help you find a "live chat," which is an organized Twitter chat set for a certain date and time.

Some of these tools also make participating in tweet chats much easier. For example, tchat.io will automatically add your hashtag at the end of your composed tweet, so all you'll have to do is press the Tweet button on their site. With TweetDeck, you can filter your Twitter chat results even more or reply to individual tweets with a simple click. Twubs features live scrolling tweets, giving you a feeling of being part of a live conversation.

How to Find Twitter Chats Using TweetDeck

We'll use TweetDeck as an example of a tool that makes it easy to see all the messages related to a hashtag.

1. Go to the TweetDeck website and log in with your Twitter account. The first time you log in, you'll get a brief rundown of how the tool works. Select Get Started to continue.

2. You should see several columns, such as Home, Notifications, Messages, and Trending. Select Add Column (plus sign) from the left side to add another column.

   

3. Select Search.

   

4. Enter your search criteria and press Enter.

   

5. You should see a new column with the hashtag you searched for. To chat, reply to any conversation thread, or start a new tweet using the hashtag.

   

   To tag another Twitter user so that they see your Tweet, add @ in front of the user's account name (e.g., @Jimmy).

Why Join a Twitter Chat?

Aside from being fun, Twitter chats are also a great way to promote yourself for employment, a work proposal, a product, or even an article query to a potential editor. It's an excellent and inexpensive way to interact with customers and friends.

For example, if you want to promote an event, tell everyone you know to use the same hashtag when talking about it on social media. That way, other Twitter users can easily search for information about it and join the conversation.