How to promote your X chat without spamming anyone

A live chat needs people in the room at the same moment, which makes promotion more important than for almost any other kind of post. It also makes promotion easy to overdo. This guide gives you a schedule that works for a weekly chat, how to adjust it for a special session or a Space, and the habits that cost you more than they bring in.

The core: one good announcement post

Everything else points back to a single post that answers four questions:

1. What is the session about? One line, specific.
2. When is it? Day, date and time, with the time in at least two zones.
3. Where? The hashtag for a text chat, or the Space link for audio.
4. Who is it with? Guest or co-hosts, tagged.

A good example:

This Monday, Nov 9, 9pm ET / 6pm PT: we're talking about growing a newsletter from zero with a guest who went from 30 to 3,000 subscribers. Six questions, one hour. Follow #NewsletterChat to join.

Pin it to your profile until the session ends. People who visit your profile from a reply or a repost see it first.

The chat planner writes a draft of this post for you, with the time converted to ET and UK time and the whole thing checked against 280 characters.

Time zones in the announcement

Never post only one time zone if your audience is spread out. "9pm" means nothing to half your readers. Two or three zones covers most people: ET and PT for North America, UK time for Europe, and IST if you have a following in India. If the session falls on a different date somewhere (9pm Monday in New York is Tuesday morning in India), say so, or those participants show up a day late.

Be careful in March, October and early November. The US and Europe change their clocks on different dates, and India doesn't change at all. A chat at 9pm ET is 2am UK time most of the year but 1am for a week or two around each switch. The planner's table shows the correct conversion for your actual date.

A schedule for a weekly chat

That's four promotional posts a week, each with different content. Every post adds new information, so no one sees the same thing twice.

For a special session with a well-known guest, announce one to two weeks ahead and add a mid-week reminder. For a Space, schedule it in the app up to 14 days ahead; X lets people set a reminder from the scheduled Space, and you can share its link in your announcement.

Let other people do the reach

Your own followers are only part of the audience. The best promotion comes from people with their own followings:

• Guests. Ask your guest to post about the session in their own words, not to repost yours only. A personal "I'm joining this on Monday" reaches people your account never will.
• Co-hosts. Same idea. Each co-host announces once, in their own voice.
• Regulars. People who enjoyed last week's chat are your best advocates. Repost their answers during the session; many of them will mention the next one unprompted.
• Your recap. A recap that quotes participants by handle tends to get shared by the people quoted. See writing a recap.

Ask for repost-and-comment, not copy-paste. Identical text posted from several accounts looks like coordinated activity, which X's platform manipulation rules prohibit, and it reads as canned to everyone else.

Keep a home for the schedule

Keep a single page or pinned post with the next four to six sessions: date, topic, guest. Update it every week. Regulars check it to decide which weeks to attend, and potential guests check it to see what kind of company they'd be in. Our page on listing your upcoming sessions has a template.

A List helps too. A public List of your regular participants and past guests gives newcomers a quick way to see who's part of the conversation.

What backfires

• Bulk DMs. Messaging dozens of followers with the same invitation is against X's spam policy, which prohibits high-volume unsolicited direct messages and repeated identical messages. Use a group chat only for people who joined it to hear about sessions.
• Mass tagging. Tagging 20 accounts in an announcement to get their attention falls under the rules on unsolicited mentions, and it rarely works anyway.
• Hashtag stuffing. Adding three trending tags to your announcement pulls in the wrong audience and can be treated as spam. Your chat hashtag plus at most one topical tag is plenty.
• Delete and repost. Deleting your announcement and posting it again to bump it up is listed in X's rules as a form of spam. Post a fresh reminder with new content instead.
• Inconsistent timing. Moving the slot every few weeks undoes all your promotion. People remember a regular time far better than any post.

Measure the right thing

Count returning participants, not impressions. A chat where 15 of last week's 25 people come back is healthy, even if the announcement post got modest views. If returning numbers drop, look at the questions and the time slot before you look at promotion.

Common questions

How far ahead should I announce an X chat?

For a weekly chat, three to five days ahead plus a reminder an hour before is enough. For a special session with a guest, announce a week or two ahead. Spaces can be scheduled up to 14 days in advance, which also lets people set a reminder.

Can I tag lots of people to invite them to my chat?

Tag the guest and co-hosts. Mass-tagging people who haven't asked to be invited is covered by X's rules against high-volume unsolicited mentions, and it annoys the people you're trying to attract.

Should I DM my followers about the chat?

Not in bulk. Sending the same message to many people who didn't ask for it is against X's spam policy. Post publicly, pin the post, and use a group chat only for people who joined it to hear about sessions.