Last week I participated in my first rapid-paced, hashtagged chat on Twitter. The hashtag being used was #journchat, an idea developed by PR pro Sarah Evans (@PRsarahevans) to be “a weekly (Mon 7-10pm CST) conversation [between] journalists, bloggers and PR folks.”

How it Works

The way that it works is that everyone logs on to Twitter with their favorite hashtag tracking tool (Tweet Grid, Tweet Deck, Twitter Search), then the moderator poses a few questions and everyone starts responding, making sure to include the #journchat hashtag. Sarah also has a great post on the #journchat site explaining the concept.

Twitter at the Speed of Light, Focused on Journalism

Though I’ve talked before about how I feel that Twitter actually fits somewhere between instant messaging and email, the #journchat discussions almost feel as if they are moving at a faster pace than chatrooms. With a tool like Tweet Grid, which updates with new tweets in real-time, hitting the stop button every once in a while is almost necessary just to keep up with the discussion, but it’s entirely worth it.

Whether you’re a journalist, public relations expert or a blogger, you’ve got to check out #journchat. The number of new connections, thoughts and ideas you’ll walk away with are worth every minute.

For More Information

Stop by the official website, search for the hashtag or follow @journchat on Twitter (used to moderate the weekly discussions).