Getting PR for a Small Business – Tweet Chat Summary


As some of you know, I have been participating in organized events over at Twitter.com called tweetchats (read my backgrounder on Tweetchats). 

Last week I was the featured speaker in the @Sbbuzz tweetchat, about getting press coverage for a small business on a tight budget.  The summary for “How to Get Good Press” is now posted, in case you missed it.

Tweetchats are simply events that take place for an hour or two on Twitter.  Everyone participating in the chat discusses certain questions or topics that the organizer tees up during a set time period.

As the speaker, I fielded questions from participants and answered them — all using Twitter.

The questions came fast and furious.  As a participant just silently following along, or now and then making a comment, tweetchats always felt leisurely-paced to me. 

It’s entirely different if you are the “speaker.”  You’re seeing the questions in real time.  Then you have to think about it for a minute or so to offer a decent answer. 

But here’s the biggest challenge:  you have to take the time to compose an answer that packs in value and is understandable, all in fewer than 140 characters.  That’s a lot harder to do than it looks when you’re under the gun to respond fast and questions are coming at you right and left.  It was a challenge.  It was hectic. The pressure was on.  And I loved every minute of it!

The @Sbbuzz tweetchat is on every Tuesday, from 8pm – 10pm, East Coast U.S. time.  If you are interested in hearing what other small businesspeople are thinking and how they handle daily challenges, please put it on your calendar.

Many thanks to Pamela O’Hara and Michelle Riggen-Ransom, of BatchBlue Software, the organizers of the @sbbuzz chat.  They have started a new trend for the small business world.


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Anita Campbell Anita Campbell is the Founder, CEO and Publisher of Small Business Trends and has been following trends in small businesses since 2003. She is the owner of BizSugar, a social media site for small businesses.

14 Reactions
  1. I am always impressed with the new things I read about Twitter.

  2. Twitter is amazing but with the rumors of Google buying it, I wonder if “how” it will change ?

  3. Martin Lindeskog

    Anita,

    I will check out the summary and I will participate in a chat sometime in the future. Cute buzzing bees?! 🙂

  4. Moise,

    I think change to Twitter is inevitable. I already see it happening, as it grows.

    Where once Twitter was intimate and people connected with close circles of contacts, now people have tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of followers.

    Celebrities have accounts. Sometimes you can’t tell if it is the celebrity tweeting or someone on their staff — certainly more likely. Or just a fake account (it’s amazing the trouble spammers will go to, maintaining fake accounts in celebrities’ names for months at a time).

    — Anita

  5. Interesting! Anita, how to begin with Tweet Chats?

  6. twitter is coming to be a very useful tip for small businesses. besides web marketing, social media marketing is increasingly being used for promotions. thanks for the tips…

  7. Great article,

    I did not get to chat, but I got the the chat rooms and times written down so I can go in and check them out.

    Thanks