Why We Love #CMWorld Twitter Chats (But We’re Changing Things Up)

One of my favorite ways to connect with our community is through our #CMWorld Twitter chat. The chat was a weekly get-together, connecting Content Marketing World presenters and attendees. Our community discussed their takeaways from Content Marketing World 2014. #CMWorld But in the last year, I’ve seen some changes in our chats. Are we giving marketers something of value on Twitter? Twitter chats These are not going away. We zeroed in on what conversations are important to members and asked more relevant questions. The Content Marketing World blog – Did you know we publish articles weekly on the CMWorld blog? Give us your Twitter handle and we’ll send you a reminder about our Twitter chats. It’s your community.

One of my favorite ways to connect with our community is through our #CMWorld Twitter chat. The chat began in 2013, the brainchild of CMI Vice President of Marketing Cathy McPhillips. The chat was a weekly get-together, connecting Content Marketing World presenters and attendees. Cathy built the community’s foundation around speakers and their sessions.

Since then, the CMI marketing team has grown, and I’ve come onboard. We still host discussions on content-related topics. We still introduce you to our speakers. We still encourage marketers to exchange ideas and resources.

We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished.

We hosted 270 chats.
Our most popular chat generated 6,977,213 impressions. Our community discussed their takeaways from Content Marketing World 2014.
We hit an all-time high of 2,531 tweets with a chat with content marketing predictions with CMI founder Joe Pulizzi.
328 of our community participated in a chat with Jay Baer on customer service in a social age.

A7 #CMWorld is full of the best and brightest content marketing has to offer. I can’t decide between the people and the education!! #CMWorld

But in the last year, I’ve seen some changes in our chats. We’re nowhere close to these numbers. The amount of people participating each week is dwindling. Compared to non-chat days, Tuesdays aren’t driving higher reach. We’re thrilled we can bring together marketers from around the globe. But the vast majority of engagement with our community is taking place outside the chat.

What’s going on?

We took a hard look at our chats and asked ourselves a few questions.

Are we giving marketers something of value on Twitter?

We know content provides a benefit to the person who consumes it. But were our chats evolving with the industry? Did marketers find our topics to be relevant? Were we differentiating ourselves?

Are we no longer shiny and new?

This one bruised my ego. There are a lot of Twitter chats out there. Some of my favorite chats, like #foodiechats, are thriving. And new chats, like #freelancechat and #digital360chat, are popping up. Were marketers bored with #CMWorld? Burned out?

Is there something we’re missing?

I am not a risk taker. I am very comfortable with my routine. That carries through in my professional life. Until one day, I questioned if we were in a community “rut.” Did we come to rely too much on chats? Were we not actively looking at other ways to talk with you? Oh worse yet, did you feel like we were ignoring you?

What changes are going to take place?

The content marketer in me recognized we needed to make better, informed decisions. So I went to the people I trust: You and your fellow marketers. I appreciated the feedback on the current state of our community. Based on these conversations, we planned our next steps.