Twitter chat hours have become huge over the past couple of years. I have been a massive fan of all the Equine related chat hours and always try to make it to my favourites.
As a blogger, they are a fantastic resource. By simply adding their hashtag to my tweet, the host retweets it to their followers, making my tweet/post reach even more people. Taking part and interacting with others taking part in the hours has allowed me to become part of a fantastic online community and I enjoy sitting down for a couple of hours a week for a chat and a catch up.
However, recently the host of #DressageHour and #EquestrianHour has made some huge changes and I don’t really understand why. These hours no longer exist and instead, new accounts have replaced them for 24/7 versions. The reasoning behind this is that due to the wide range of hours now available, people can’t find the time to commit to specific times of day to participate. So instead, these hours are now 24/7 chats.
I get the reasoning behind this idea, but I can’t help but think that they have turned something brilliant, into just a hashtag. Very few people only use the relevant hashtag within the weekly hour slot. I use these hashtags throughout the week, depending on what I am talking about. 9 times out of 10, these tweets are still retweeted by the relevant host, regardless of whether I used the hashtag within the designated hour.
Secondly, the best thing about the hours is people coming together at the same time each day to network. Now there isn’t a set time, will there be anyone networking using these hashtags? I’m not sure, but I highly doubt it will be as interactive and fun as the original layout. Which is a shame as I have enjoyed both these hours over the years.
I also have questions about whether they needed to create 2 separate 24/7 accounts. I would have thought a single account covering both areas would have worked just as well. As I now have a horrible feeling these accounts could just become 24/7 advertising, which is not something people want to see on their Twitter feeds.
So for those of you mourning the loss of 2 prime time chat hours, below are some of the most popular chat hours still going on, (although I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the times change now we have lost 2 hours) and there are plenty more too.
Monday: #HorseHour 8-9pm
Tuesday: #PonyHour 9-10pm
Wednesday: #TheDressageHour 9-10pm
Thursday: #RiderHour 8-9pm
Saturday: #HorseChatHour 8-9pm
Sunday: #EquineHour 8-9pm
Last Updated on 07/08/2018
JUST as I was getting good at being online at the right time, settled down with a cup of tea ready for an hour of equine related tweets and they went and changed it!! I do understand why, but I had really started to enjoy the hour set aside for it