I have been a community leader at The Blog Frog since November 2010. It is hard to believe that 8 months have passed that quickly. If you are not familiar with The Blog Frog it is awesome community! It is filled with bloggers and readers who like those blogs. You do not have to be a blogger to join the fun. It is FREE join and once you create an account you can join a variety of communities. If you are a blogger you can create your own community for your blog. Of course if you join we would love to you to join the Stockpiling Moms Community!
One of my favorite aspects of the Blog Frog is the Live Chats! In fact I host more than “the average” Community Leader because they are so fun! I thought it might be nice to share some tips on how to host a successful blog frog live chat.
1. Choose a time that is convenient to your readers (both community and blog). I would suggest that you play around until you find a day of the week and time that works. For us we find that Wednesday at 9 – 10 pm EST works perfectly.
2. Choose a theme for your chat. You need a direction and topic that your readers enjoy chatting about. Once you have a theme you may want to turn that into a series. For example I started an Extreme Couponing Live Chat that lasted for 10 weeks. Every Wednesday night during the show we chatted LIVE at The Blog Frog during the show. It was a huge success with over 3,800 comments during the finale!
3. Host a giveaway! It doesn’t have to be extravagant. This can be as simple as a $10 gift card. For the Extreme Couponing Live Chat Series I actually asked some of my affiliate partners to sponsor prizes. Not only did the sponsors help promote the Live Chats some of them actually participated.
4. Have a Co-Host for the chat. If you have a couple of Community Leaders that you work well with then ask them to Co-Host with you. It is nice when you have help to answer questions and if one of you can’t attend for some reason then the Live Chat can go on. This is especially helpful for a long series like our Extreme Couponing Live Chat. In addition you are all cross-promoting each other and the chat so it is a win/win.
5. Promote your chat via social media. I suggest that you promote your chat 1 week in advance within the community. It is also nice to tweet the link several times before as well. I suggest posting about your live chat 24 hours before with a blog post to give your readers a heads up. Then 10 to 15 minutes before I suggest promoting it on facebook and twitter. What I find is that those readers that are available at the moment will just hop over and chat, especially if you have a prize.
6. Keep the chat fun and upbeat!
Live Chats are a great way to really get to know your readers. I had many regulars and even a handful that attended all 10 of my Extreme Couponing Live Chats. I hope these tips help you if you are considering host a live chat. I would say that I have easily hosted 20 chats since I started as a Community Leader and though I am not an expert I have had some successful Live Chats and thoroughly enjoyed them!
Please join me at the Savvy Living Community where I am a Community Leader as well as Stockpiling Moms Community!
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Melissa
What a great set of tips for hosting live chats on Blog Frog! I enjoyed and learned a lot about couponing during your Extreme Couponing live chats
Thanks so much Arlene!
Love these tips! I’ll definitely be referring people to this post!!
Thank Mama Kat!
Great tips, #4 if especially true. If I see a chat starting (with prize, wonka, wonka) and I am already in social media mode I am all over it.
I think #5 might be to use HootSuite to ping your twitter and facebook during the Chat time with a “Join us over at ….url…. we are having a blast. Tonights prize is Free Goat Milk”