How I prepared and some of my observations while hosting the Twitter chat through the International Librarians Network Twitter account: @InterLibNet
The Twitter chat was on 2 April, about Libraries and Games.
I prepared by reading up on how to run a successful Twitter chat:
– 4 Steps to running a successful Twitter chat
– 7 Steps to launching a successful Twitter chat
– Taking games in libraries seriously
– The posts on ILN website as well as emails also added to my reading:
Discussion topic: games and libraries
Games and libraries: Twitter chat on Thursday 2 April
I searched for a social media management platform, and tested out Sprout Social. I was very happy with the results, especially some of the reports that could be generated.
I also scheduled my tweets before the time; a selection of 6 questions marked with Q (every 10 minutes). I also simultaneously could schedule it to post on my own personal Twitter account.
Some thoughts and feedback about the results:
– The InterLibNet Twitter followers was 1584 at 9:30 am, with 3071 tweets from the account. At 12:00 they had 1590 followers (6 more), with 3170 tweets (99 tweets that went out from the account).
– There was mostly retweets and favourites of the discussion that was happening from the @InterLibNet account.
– I would have liked to have more hands-on and personal experience of gaming in libraries. It would have made the discussion more fruitful from the hosting site. I suggest using an expert for a next Twitter chat if own experience and expertise are lacking.
– Two of the pictures posted vertical, which made it look non-professional.
– The use of pictures with the tweets worked really well! (My own thoughts)
– Sprout Social worked perfectly for scheduling.
– I should have addressed more tweets without the outstanding hashtag and added it. I was difficult from the computer since it was just before Twitter introduced the new feature of making it possible to add comments to retweets.
– I should have scheduled more tweets in-between questions. Easier to think of it before the time than during the chat.
– I suggest in scheduling some go-to sources and expert links as well. Luckily some of the participants did that for this Twitter chat.
– It is great to ask some people to help/contribute – two of my ILN peer mentors jumped in and helped quite a bit. They were excellent contributors! Thanks to Fiona Malcolm @tapsister and Paschalia Terzi @digitallitsa.
– The ILN Directors did a great job! Clare McKenzie @ccmcknz, Alyson Dalby @alysondalby and Lisa Miller @L15A (social media coordinator). Thank you very much!
The Storify of the Twitter chat is here:
Karen's 23 Mobile Things 