Top Tips: Hosting tips from the National FFA Education Development and Assessment Team

The Education Development and Assessment Team at the National FFA Organization hosted the #TeachAgChat on June 16 from 8-9 p.m. EDT. What a great opportunity to share resources! Based on the experience we had, we wanted to share a few helpful tips on how to prepare for a Twitter chat.

1.        Clear Instructions. Keep in mind you could have people join the chat who may not be familiar with Twitter.  Be sure to provide clear instructions that everyone can understand. 

2.        Be alert – It moves fast!  Stay focused on the tweets.  Some questions may have a ton of responses and others may not.  Keep your eyes on the tweets!

3.        Label the question.  Since the tweets can move rapidly, it is important to label the question with “Q” and the number of the question.  For example, label the first  question “Q1.”  The same for answers – if it is the answer to the first question, label it “A1.”  This will help keep the tweets organized.

4.       Hashtags. They’re important to keep people in the loop. Pro tip: Remember to include hashtags in your scheduled answers (especially #TeachAgChat).

5.       Tweetdeck. This resource will change your life! If nothing else, it simplifies monitoring/hosting a chat for you.

6.       Elicit the image. Sharp graphics are everything and help promote, draw attention and bring people to the chat. The clearer and more visual the graphic, the better.  

 

Huge thanks to Dr. Foster and The Pennsylvania State University for giving us this opportunity. We look forward to joining other chats in the future.

Sarah Dickinson (sdickinson@ffa.org) and Casey Zufelt (czufelt@ffa.org)