Twitter 'hours' - What Do You Gain From Participation?

[justDAJ]

I'm curious about Twitter hours....and what people get out of them.

For example, #smallBizUK hour (I'm not picking on it specifically, just using an example of one).

It runs at specific times and the idea is that you Tweet during the hour and include the hashtag. Sometimes there is a 'theme' and questions to answer. The idea, in principle, is sound however

I participate in a few. My aim is to network and hopefully pickup a few good contacts (aka followers) and leads along the way.

Some of the hours are mad -- people don't participate but just fire out sales/marketing tweets. The hour becomes a tsunami of mindless nonsense (in my view).

Does any good come of it? What is your experience?

 

[Pete Brindle]

I think it's all about exposure and networking. Sometimes you can get chatting to people who end up being quite good to know!

 

[justDAJ]

I agree, I have made some good contacts but weighing it up against the time invested in 'hours' I do sometimes wonder.

So many people on the 'hours' are only interested in grabbing followers. For me it is not about quantity, but quality. No point having a bunch of followers if they never engage, share or interact with you.

 

[Pete Brindle]

I agree, I have made some good contacts but weighing it up against the time invested in 'hours' I do sometimes wonder.

So many people on the 'hours' are only interested in grabbing followers. For me it is not about quantity, but quality. No point having a bunch of followers if they never engage, share or interact with you.

This is true. A friend of mine actually bought some of her followers and they just never interacted with her at all because they weren't interested in the accounts they were following. Whereas my account, that only has a few hundred followers, is always in discussion with other people.

 

[justDAJ]

I'm the same as you Pete -- I only have a few hundred but I think I have mostly earned them via participation

 

[Branded Merchandise]

I've never participated in Twitter hours but I'm a little bit skeptical about social media in general. I agree with the point above about quality over quantity. We have had some success from Twitter in terms of leads and orders but I'm not sure we would ever get someone to focus on Twitter 9-5. It's good to dabble into during the day and try to see what's out there and maybe start to build a few relationships. For our business, it's not really worth investing too much time in because, as you say, a lot of people are in the 'get more followers' game and it just dilutes the quality

 

[Pete Brindle]

I've never participated in Twitter hours but I'm a little bit skeptical about social media in general. I agree with the point above about quality over quantity. We have had some success from Twitter in terms of leads and orders but I'm not sure we would ever get someone to focus on Twitter 9-5. It's good to dabble into during the day and try to see what's out there and maybe start to build a few relationships. For our business, it's not really worth investing too much time in because, as you say, a lot of people are in the 'get more followers' game and it just dilutes the quality

I can understand why larger businesses would hire someone to tweet all day, though. A lot of people direct comments or complaints via Twitter as well so these would have to be dealt with.

 

[Gemma Rowlands]

I got involved with a few of these when I was working with a charity, and it works well in that respect, for awareness purposes. But I don't see what it could do for me business wise.

 

[Pete Brindle]

I got involved with a few of these when I was working with a charity, and it works well in that respect, for awareness purposes. But I don't see what it could do for me business wise.

I suppose you have a good chance of getting something trending. Do you mind if I ask which charity? How successful did you find it?

 

[Gemma Rowlands]

I suppose you have a good chance of getting something trending. Do you mind if I ask which charity? How successful did you find it?

It was the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. I have supported them for the past few years because I know (or knew) four people with the disease - which is quite a lot considering it's a lesser known disease. I did a sponsored slim for them and raised a few hundred, and have been involved in a couple of other campaigns which were great as well!

 

[Pete Brindle]

It was the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. I have supported them for the past few years because I know (or knew) four people with the disease - which is quite a lot considering it's a lesser known disease. I did a sponsored slim for them and raised a few hundred, and have been involved in a couple of other campaigns which were great as well!

Oh right. It's good that you've managed to raise plenty of money. And it's great that Twitter has been able to help you do it!