“Twitter is the new melting pot of ideas, people, and disruptive innovation.” Audun Utengen, Co-founder of Symplur and the Healthcare Hashtag Project
#PowerandInfluence Tweetchat
One very high profile #PR tweetchat which took place on Wednesday 2 October 2019 was #PowerandInfluence founded by @EllaMinty who is Co-Chair of the Energy Leadership Platform @CIPR_UK, @ILM_UK Fellow, and Crisis and Reputation Management Consultant.
Conor McGrath, Lecturer in PR and Lobbying at Ulster University hosted the tweetchat which was an overwhelming success.
A simple tip for having a peep at the Tweetchat is to log into http://tchat.io and enter the tweetchat hashtag! Give it a go! Lurk and learn. 🙋♀️
If you want to find out more, check out some of the best Twitter moments from the Tweetchat, click on this link: https://twitter.com/i/moments/1179497828281962496?s=13
What is a Tweetchat?
A tweetchat simply affords Twitter users the opportunity to engage in conversation with each other. A community of like minded people gather around a particular subject or keyword using a hashtag at an agreed time and date. It is a bit like watching the subtitles in silence on a fast paced TV debate although you will find there is plenty of noise!
I have taken part in many tweetchats over the years. I founded my own and co-hosted others such as #ebnjc for the Evidence Based Nursing British Medical Journal! I was also invited to speak about tweetchats at the NHS Confederation Conference in 2015. Tweetchats could potentially bring you on on amazing journey with your #PR Tribe. Typically, the tweetchat general topic(s) or specific questions will be shared by the founder and host(s) of the tweetchat in advance either on a blog or using images such as the one used below in #PowerandInfluence last week.
Merits of #PR Tweetchats
Tweetchats are so much fun. You can connect with #PR people from academia and professional practice who are based all around the world. These PR tweeps share their ideas and expertise freely! This is important if you are a new #PRStudent seeking to understand Public Relations. It is also relevant for those tweeps with more PR knowledge and experience who wish to thrash out and debate the nitty gritty of #PR.
However, on a more serious note, a PR tweetchat also provides a #PRStudent with “real time information” as to what #PR academics and professionals are saying about a particular topic and many networking opportunities!
#IrishMed Tweetchat NodeXL Social Media Graph shared with kind permission of Dr Liam Farrell
What is a hashtag?
In the healthcare world, Symplur have advised that if you want to understand what the conversations are all about for any topic, what is trending, how it is changing over time and learn how the healthcare stakeholders differ and what they have in common you can drill down to the individual tweets using the hashtag.
This is equally applicable to the world of #PublicRelations on Twitter.
Some of the hashtags used both on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram for finding, curating and publishing Public Relations content are:
#PublicRelations
#PR
#PRStudent
#WIPRNI (Women in PR Northern Ireland)
#WomeninPR (Women in PR)
I am looking forward to connecting with you on Twitter!
Nóirín O’Neill is an MSc Student in Communication & Public Relations at Ulster University. She can be found on Twitter @Noirin0Neill and on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/n%C3%B3ir%C3%ADn-o-neill-426b91110/