A Social Media Managers Guide to the Top 5 #TwitterChats to Join in 2016

For most Social Media Managers, their day-to-day activities are never the same. One day, you may be building out a lead generation campaign on Facebook. The next, you may be putting out a social crisis fire. The day after that, you are probably engaging and listening to your audience. And at the end of the week, you are curating content for your social media calendar.

However, one thing that never changes for me is weekly Twitter chats. I participate in five per week on Twitter. I joined these communities at various times throughout my career. Each one has helped me grow and build my personal brand as a social media influencer and advocate. I network with thousands of like-minded and career focused people.

Here are my top 5 Twitter chats that I participate on a weekly basis:

• #GetRealChat (Tuesdays at 9:00p.m. EST) – focuses social business, marketing, media, leadership, social media ROI, relationships; hosted by @PamMktgNut and @MktgNutz.

• #AdweekChat (Wednesdays at 2:00p.m. EST) – focuses on digital marketing, media and advertising; hosted by @Adweek.

• #HootChat (Thursdays at 3:00p.m. EST) – focuses on social media marketing; hosted by @Hootsuite.

• #H2HChat (Mondays at 2:00p.m. EST) – focuses on building human communication; hosted by @BryanKramer and @Suzimcc.

• #SMXChat (Tuesdays at 3:00p.m. EST) – focuses on digital business and social media; hosted by @MarkSalke and @eksays.

I participate in these weekly Twitter chats, because they are community and content focused. The chats have helped me build connections and network with like-minded and passionate influencers. At its core, they are social. Regardless of level and experience, everyone is able to contribute to the conversations.

In addition to building my personal brand and like-minded connections, these Twitter Chats have helped me build up my social media knowledge. The topics range from social media management best practices to digital marketing and building your personal brand, to measuring social media ROI (return on investment) and trending media topics.

Now, Twitter Chats are not the only teaching tool in my social media arsenal. I use social media channels, blogs, webinars, whitepapers and internet research to learn new insights and stay up to date on every social media and digital marketing trend. However, I believe that it is important to emphasize the importance of the Twitter Chats impact on my career, my personal brand, and my networking connections.

Bridging the gap with Social Media,

Sarah K. Walters