When I wrote about my first experience hosting a twitterview last month, someone commented, asking what the heck a twitterview was.

Yeah. BIG oversight on my part.

So, here, for your edification, is the long-delayed explanation.

A twitterview is an interview conducted by tweet chat. What’s a tweet chat, you ask?

Tweet chats are when Twitterers, or Tweeps (people on Twitter), get together and chat about a specific topic. They make themselves a virtual meeting room by using a hashtag to mark all of their tweets. Only those participating in the chat and using the hashtag can see all of the tweets, but the followers of each participant get to see all of that participant’s tweets.

This is why it’s so important to use the hashtag consistently. If you don’t, your tweet will not be included in the conversation and will not be replied to. It’s also kind of frustrating to see only half (or less) of a conversation.

Here’s a hashtag directory where you can identify topics of interest and show up for the meeting: http://twubs.com/p/hashtag-directory/twitter-chat/1064600_179

But how do you participate?

There are several ways to tackle this.

In Twitter itself, you can search the hashtag and bring up a list of the most recent tweets using it.

This is what it looks like.

If you want, you can participate in the chat from there, but you will experience some limitations, like the inability to alter tweets when retweeting (RT) or modified tweeting (MT). This can be a pain in the butt.

If you’re comfortable with Hootsuite, you can set up a stream for your hashtag. In the new stream panel at the end of your existing streams, select Twitter, and then the Search button. Enter the hashtag, and voila, you have a stream dedicated to just that hashtag.

You can also use Hootsuite to alter tweets when RTing or MTing, or to schedule tweets for the twitter chat if you’re so inclined.

Also, hashtag rooms can be set up using tweetchat.com (chat must be active to enter room) or tchat.io.

The main benefit of a hashtag chat room is that the hashtag is automatically added to your tweets posted using the chat room service. Very convenient.

If you want a little more information on tweet chats and how to participate in and conduct them, here are a few helpful links:

• http://www.hashtags.org/platforms/twitter/what-is-a-twitter-party-tweet-chat-101/
• http://www.hashtags.org/business/management/tools-to-create-a-successful-tweet-chat/
• http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/twitter-chat-guide/

Or you can Google your own results using the terms twitter party, twitter chat, or tweet chat.

Thus endeth the lesson.

I’m doing this in the hope of encouraging some of the more Twitter-phobic among my followers to give tweet chats and twitterviews a try, especially my upcoming twitterview with book doctor and bestselling author, Roz Morris next Saturday.

That’s Saturday, March 29, 2014 at 2 pm EDST. Use Twitter, Hootsuite, tweetchat.com, or tchat.io to attend, but if on Twitter or Hootsuite, don’t forget the #Mto5 hashtag!

So looking forward to my second twitterview hosting gig. If you like Roz or have read any of her books, please drop by next Saturday. We’re going to be talking about all things Roz 🙂