New to Twitter chatting? Here’s a beginners guide.

Ahead of tonight’s inaugural #KELTChat, “The First Day of School” at 8pm tonight, here’s a quick guide to Twitter chatting for anyone who has never participated in one before.

1. The first thing to do is to have a search running for #KELTChat. You can do this either on the Twitter site, or using a client such as Tweetdeck. I prefer the client approach, as it updates in real time, and makes replying to people a little bit easier. With your search set up, you will be able to see all the chats sent to the hashtag #KELTChat.

2. If you have something to contribute to the discussion, type it, add links if necessary, and then add the hashtag #KELTChat anywhere within your post. Adding the hashtag is the most important part, if you forget it, or mistype it, nobody will see your post. If you do forget it, don’t worry, just copy your tweet and send it again with the hashtag.

3. If you want to reply to something someone has said, just click reply on their post, or type @[their name] anywhere in the post. This will send them a notification of your reply. Remember, you also need the hashtag so everyone can follow your discussion.

The above is all you need to know in order to get started. #KELTChat is an open forum, so jump in with whatever you have, be it resource, opinion or anything else. If you’re confused about something, send a tweet to the moderator (@michaelegriffin for today’s chat) and he will try to help you out. If you have specific questions beforehand, post them as a comment below and we’ll solve your problems.

Enjoy your chatting,

Alex (@breathyvowel)