Twitter Town Hall Chats: Best Practices
What It Is
A Twitter town hall, or Twitter chat, is when agencies invite public engagement for a scheduled time period during which users can ask questions or find out more information about a topic via Twitter, much like a webinar. The questions are tagged with a pre-designated #hashtag, and the agency responds to questions using the hashtag, follows-up via a blog post, or uses another digital means of meaningfully responding to the engagements.
Why It's Important
A Twitter town hall allows you to leverage Twitter, beyond the basics of sending messages and engaging in dialogue.
How to Implement
The most important steps you can take in organizing a Twitter town hall chat are to:
Set Clear Expectations
As in any use of social media by government, it is important to clearly define what the expectations and policies are for the engagement. This can be accomplished through a blog post before the event, which can be distributed during introductions, or as part of your overall citizen engagement strategy.
Many successful Twitter town halls focus attention on one topic, such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development's sustainable communities or the Department of Education's Federal Student Aid team's role in student aid. The more open–ended your request for engagement is, the more unrelated the responses will be. Also, defining a topic helps you gather the right subject-matter experts to answer the questions.
For example, the FAFSA team wanted a Twitter chat for Public Service Recognition Week. Through #AskFAFSA, they scheduled an event that focused on key programs related to that topic, such as the Federal Student Loan Repayment Program and the Post 9/11 GI Bill. As a result, they were also able to schedule special guests from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Partnership for Public Service to answer questions on these topics.
The end result defined the purpose of the engagement, and allowed for staff support that ensured the effectiveness and quality of those engagements. If someone asked a completely unrelated question, expectations for when and how it would be handled were communicated.
See a sample Twitter chat agenda that can help you plan your event.
Ensure Efficient Communication Between Support Staff
Especially for agencies new to Twitter chats, it takes a team to most effectively execute an event—and that team needs to be in contact throughout the course of the engagement.
Your agency will need staff in these roles during a Twitter chat:
- The Host: In addition to a tracking hashtag, every Twitter chat needs a clearly defined "host account" the public can look to in case the hashtag is overrun or improperly used. The host may be an agency account, or it may be the personal account of a senior leader or program manager.
- The Policy Wonk: Whatever the topic, your host needs someone on hand who knows the subject matter in detail and can pull up related blog posts to share with the audience. This improves the quality of your agency responses and removes the urgency placed on the host to both formulate responses and research them.
- The Social Media Manager: No matter how tech–savvy the host and policy wonk may be, your agency needs a coordinator dedicated to monitoring the tool, identifying questions, and seamlessly expediting between the public, the host and the policy wonk. This role is especially critical for spotting trends such as improper use of the hashtag, improper engagements, or otherwise ensuring the flow of the event.
While many agencies use more than one employee to fulfill those three roles, there are additional roles recommended for a successful chat and the development of your citizen engagement program:
- The Co-Host: Consider having a co-host. A co-host can officially or unofficially help follow-up on responses after the host has moved to the next question, direct unrelated questions to a more appropriate area, and ensure minimal dead space during the dialogue. The co-host role can be filled by an official agency account or unofficially by a social media specialist.
- General Counsel: It is always beneficial to invite the attorney from your agency who works on social media to observe. The attorney can help mitigate risks in some cases. But more importantly, he or she is present to witness citizen engagement and can help build your agency’s institutional knowledge.
The key to a successful event is for everyone supporting the live chat to remain in contact during the event, either in the same room, by conference call, or in a video chat service (such as a Google+ Hangout). If staff can't be in verbal contact, it may be necessary to revisit the planning of your Twitter chat until they can.
During a Twitter chat all participants' eyes will be focused on the hashtag, researching answers or compiling responses. Don't rely on other forms of digital messaging to communicate during the event. You risk overlooking or ignoring messages that are critical to success.
Follow–Up on Engagement
If your agency invites citizens to ask questions, be sure to answer all related questions, during or after the event.
The FAFSA team states that they respond to questions via their blog. This makes it clear that their public's time is valuable and their questions are heard.
In the sample Twitter town hall agenda, note that extra time is scheduled at the end of the event to respond to questions, finish dialogue, or discuss related topics.
It's a good idea to plan for extra time to show your participants that what matters most is engaging with them, and not abiding by an arbitrary time limit. This practice, which can be implemented by the co–host, is critical if there are technical issues during your Twitter chat. Problems always arise, but by adding additional time, your customers don’t miss out.
Monitor and Report Performance
Event performance metrics builds institutional knowledge and supports the mission of your agency. As you refine your strategies, you can better demonstrate how your Twitter chats are improving customer services or reducing costs.
Among some items to consider reporting:
- Number of customers reached
- Mission–focused questions asked/answered
- Response time
- Post-event traffic to resources
These metrics should be added to your overall social media performance reports for your agency to continue refining and improving citizen engagement outcomes.
Examples
- Department of Housing and Urban Development—To celebrate the first anniversary of HUD’s Open Government Plan, their Office of Innovation and Open Government worked with the Office of Public Affairs to organize a discussion on the department’s progress in the past year and forecasting for the coming year. The event was focused and well supported by staff—a successful first step into this style of engagement. HUD expanded the scope and profile of its Twitter chats as evidenced in their Strong Cities, Strong Communities Twitter Town Hall.
- Department of Education Federal Student Aid—Another example of a Twitter chat-style program is the monthly ongoing #AskFAFSA chats by the Department of Education Federal Student Aid team. Citizens who have questions about managing expenses and financial aid throughout college submit questions on Twitter or Facebook, using the #AskFAFSA hashtag in their tweets. The FAFSA team then monitors questions on Facebook and Twitter for a week, and at a designated time, sends out the responses. To view a Storify post illustrating one early #ASKFAFSA session, visit their blog. FAFSA follows up on engagements and sets expectations by noting: “Can’t make the live session? A summary of #AskFAFSA Office Hours, including the full Q&A, will be posted on Storify and the ED.gov blog following the event."
Resources
Content Lead:
Justin Herman
Page Reviewed/Updated: September 27, 2012
