We’re co-hosting a Twitter party with our friends at Girlfriendology. We hope you can join us live on Twitter on Friday, August 10, 3-4 p.m. EST to share your advice on getting the most out of our weekends – from fun with our families to the time we make for our girlfriends to those inevitable chores.

Log on to Twitter and follow the hashtag #GFWeekend during the Twitter Party to participate. And yes, there will be prizes!

So What’s a Twitter Party?

In case you’re unfamiliar with Twitter Parties (also known as Twitter Chats or Tweet Chats), the best way to describe them are as live online events that take place in a Twitter stream on a specific day and time and are usually focused on a specific topic. Think of Twitter Chats as a form of online chatting.

The conversations within these organized chats are strung together through the use of a hashtag such as #winesister – or in the case of our August 10th event #GFWeekends. Hashtags are keywords or phrases that can be added to a tweet using a hash or pound sign before the word or words without spaces.

To follow a Twitter Party, you can either click on a hashtag that you see in your Twitter stream or use the search function on Twitter.com to aggregate all related tweets. However, a better way to be part of the party is to use a tool made specifically for tracking a hashtag, especially one that refreshes the stream of Tweets regularly so you see the latest discussion.

TweetChat.com is one such tool. Just log into TweetChat with your Twitter account, type in the hashtag you want to follow, and TweetChat will show you the conversations using that hashtag, refreshing automatically. If you want to ask a question or comment during a Twitter Chat, type your message in the box at the top of the page, TwitterChat.com automatically attaches the right hashtag to your message to put your tweet in the party conversation. Other Twitter Chat tools include TweetGrid, Twebevent and Monitter.

Twitter Chat etiquette is similar to basic Twitter etiquette. Read or “listen” first before speaking up. You also should note if the Twitter Chat where you’re participating has any specific rules such as holding questions until the last 15 minutes of the chat if there is a special guest being interviewed live in the stream. In a Twitter event like that, you may be more of an audience member than a participant.

Twitter Parties, in general, tend to be inclusive and often involve prizes given away during the event. Most Twitter Parties are held to promote for companies, organizations, products or events. Remember: You don’t have to speak up in a Twitter Party. You can just follow along to see what others have to say. Of course, if you want to win something, you’ll need to make yourself known.

Got it? Great! We hope to see you August 10, 3-4 p.m. EST using the hashtag #GFWeekend.

Read more about our Twitter party on Girlfriendology’s blog. 

If you don’t follow us already, find the Wine Sisterhood on Twitter at http://twitter.com/winesisterhood.