With the popularity of Twitter and Facebook over the past few years, there’s plenty of chatter on how social marketing can help your business. For example, Tina’s post outlining the differences to keep in mind when marketing your business on Facebook and/or Twitter.

Photo from Keep Calm Shop Etsy

Recently Twitter has seen an influx in specialized conversations via hashtags, or “online socials” as Craft Social dubs them. It’s quite similar to a chat found in the Etsy Labs or in an old-school chatroom but it’s on Twitter. One benefit is you can take part in one of these hashtag-driven conversations even when away from your computer if you use Twitter on a mobile device. A program like TweetDeck is good for this since you can set up separate columns of your choosing to view.

The Craft Social hashtag is #craftsocial and during that event you’ll find craft advice and topics like the Light-Box-Along occurring throughout the month of March.

For a more business-minded conversation, there’s the weekly conversation via the hashtag #indiebizchat from the independent business-friendly Indie Biz Chicks.

These Twitter conversations are useful for any fledgling business-minded crafter. For one, you can get your questions answered right away. Think of it as free business advice for the instant gratification set. Of course, keep in mind this is still the internet and all advice should be weighed accordingly. Secondly, you can lurk all you want if you’re too shy to partake in the conversation, or just have nothing to add at the moment. And the best part about that? Gain plenty of insight towards forming a business plan with none of the awkward silence that can befall real life conversation.