The 8 reasons I love #Twitterchats—and why you should, too

For those of you non-addicts, writer Angie Atkinson likens Twitter chats to online chat rooms, but within Twitter. Each chat—denoted by a hashtag (#)—focuses on a specific topic or field of interest.

Chats typically run for about an hour and focus on questions related to the hashtag’s field. For example, #cmgrchat is for community managers, but they have various weekly topics and questions.

So, what’s it to you? Here are three benefits of Twitter chats:

• Connections. Taking part by tweeting, retweeting, and replying to tweets can create valuable connections with people in your field. People in chats show a lot of love, so expect retweets.

• Lots of valuable information in a short amount of time. If the chat is run well and the moderators ask compelling questions, you can expect to gain a good deal of worthwhile, detailed information in a short span of time.