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As the long-time Project Manager for Multicultural Children’s Book Day, one of the pieces of the vast MCBD Puzzle is love the most is the planning and implementation of the annual Twitter Party. This diverse book-a-licious gathering of authors, parents, publishers, educators, and book reviewers is one the fastest 60 minutes of the entire year!
This year, our 1/29/21 Party will occur at 9:00-10:00 p.m. ET and we promise it will be INSANELY fun and fast-paced! Be sure and follow Multicultural Children’s Book Day on Twitter so you can join the party.
GO HERE to see what discussion topics we will be facilitating and what prized participants could win.
What IS a Twitter Party?
A Twitter Party is a live chat using Twitter and the Hashtag(#) to connect to participants, thus connecting to the conversation stream.
As a participant, you should follow the appropriate hashtag (for MCBD, it’s #ReadYourWorld) and engage with other party-goers, discover new and interesting factoids and even a little more about the brand or organization party is supporting (in this case; MCBD).
For those unfamiliar with Twitter, TweetDeck is a great way to keep up with the party. TweetDeck is free to use and seemingly isolates the conversation occurring to just the hashtag you plugin where it says “Hashtag to follow.” Once you do that (and sign in with your Twitter account) you’ll be able to read everything everyone is saying at the party. This online tool automatically groups all the tweets that have that hashtag in it so it is easier to follow.
The “whys” and the “hows” of Twitter Parties
A Twitter Party generally has one or more hosts who facilitate the party once it starts. For our 2021 Twitter Party MCBD Co-founders, Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen will once again be on hand to share links, encourage conversations, and answering questions during the party.
The host(s) of the Twitter Party will inform participants what the Hashtag(#) will be ahead of time, along with what the prizes will be, in a blog post announcing the party. Like I mentioned before, the hashtag to watch for and follow is #readyourworld.
Prizes!
Most often Twitter Parties have sponsors who provide prizes to randomly selected participants. The Multicultural Children’s Book Day Twitter Party 2021 will be giving away a 5-8 diverse book bundle every five minutes! We also have some bonus prizes and prizes specifically for our non-USA participants. Go HERE to see all of the amazing book bundles and prizes.
Winners are announced during the course of the party (via Twitter Handle) and are asked to DM (direct message) MCBD on Twitter to share their address so we can ship their goodies. REMEMBER, the more you participate, the more likely you are to win something!
Why is it a great opportunity? A big plus for both brands, authors, publishers, AND participants. It also gives them a whole new pool of like-minded peeps to follow! In our case, if you are a multicultural children’s book author or publishing house, it can be a very fun way to connect and get in front of your end-user (the buyers of your books).
“Talking” on Twitter
By the way, anyone can join any Twitter Party… they are completely free and open to the public as long as you have a Twitter account (which is free to set up).
How do you “talk” during a Twitter Party? This is where your “reply” arrow will come in handy. If you see a question or comment you would like to respond to, click the arrow that points left (green arrow in the screenshot below). If you want to retweet a link or a resource that someone shared, use the Retweet arrows (the blue arrow in the screenshot).
Answering Questions.
Let’s say Question #1 (Q1) was something about the study Scholastic has done on hot trends for books and you’d like to answer or share a title you think would be of interest. Your answer would begin with “A1” so participants and hosts would know that you are sharing an opinion/answer and are referring to question #1.
One notable thing about Twitter Parties is they move crazy-fast! It can sometimes be hard to keep up with and that hour will be gone before you know it.
We invite EVERYONE to join us: authors, publishers, parents, caregivers, librarians, KidLit lovers. You don’t have to be an author or publisher sponsor to join us! Let’s talk about our favorite multicultural and diverse children’s books, authors, and illustrators! GO HERE to learn more information about the Multicultural Children’s Book Day Twitter Party 2021 and to register to WIN.
What a great idea! I’m anxious for the TW party!