Scotlandhour Chat Format: How it Works

Scotlandhour was founded by Dougie Baird (@bairdtravels)  in 2011 and is a monthly Tweet-up or “Twitter Chat”  promoting Scottish tourism. It’s a place where travellers and industry insiders connect to share what they love about Scotland. For many travellers it can be a first step in planning their visit.

Scotlandhour takes place on the last Wednesday of each month, 9-10pm GMT. Each month revolves around a specific topic, like “Scottish Cities”, “Scotland’s History and Heritage”, “Scottish Festivals” and so on. Anyone with a Twitter account is welcome to participate. All that is required is to follow #Scotlandhour and include the hashtag in your own tweets so they can be seen and enjoyed by everyone else.  Typically hundreds join in, resulting in thousands of tweets during the hour. The speed of the chat often leads to #Scotlandhour “trending” on Twitter, a reflection of the number of Tweets generated.

To make the conversation easier to follow members of Team Scotlandhour, along with our monthly co-hosts, tweet out a series of five questions inviting your response. The hour is broken into 10 minute segments with questions being tweeted in order at 9:00 pm, 9:10 pm, 9:20 pm, 9:30 pm, and 9:40 pm. Beginning at 9:00 pm for example:

Q1: What is a favourite location for a family holiday and why? #Scotlandhour

When you see the question, you reply with your answer, maybe:

A1: We love St Andrews because of the great beaches! #Scotlandhour

Questions are numbered Q1, Q2, etc. and you should begin your answers with A1, A2, etc. (Don’t forget to add #Scotlandhour!)

So, every 10 minutes a new question and 10 minutes to tweet your answers. From 9:50 pm the remaining 10 minutes of the hour is available for everyone to share photos, videos, and any additional thoughts relative to that month’s theme.

Even though the conversation is built on those 10-minute segments, you can join the hour at any time and always answer an earlier question if you missed it. If you miss all or part of a monthly chat you can review the online archive here to catch up.

Monthly topics are posted here on the website. We always welcome your suggestions for chat questions via our Facebook page or via tweets to @scotlandhour or to any #scotlandhour team members.

Once decided, each month’s set of questions are announced a week in advance via this website, on Twitter and Facebook. All that remains is for you to join us!

We look forward to chatting with you on the next #Scotlandhour.