For over four years, I’ve run #DadChat and it’s been an INCREDIBLE experience. I only missed it a few times, managing to find a wi-fi spot on the road, in the oceans off the coast of Africa, and in so many other circumstances.
#DadChat began as #DadsPov and debuted to a whopping audience of me and me. My good friend Adam Cohen (@DaDaRocks) wisely suggested a name change and “gave” me #DadChat which, happily, was not being used.
Soon we had a few people showing up, but it grew steadily from that point forward. I began getting great guests and eventually sponsors. The entire process and evolution was wonderful. Last year, we had over 2,000,000,000 impressions (that’s TWO BILLION).
Our topics ranged from the very serious (Sexual Abuse) to the light and frothy (our numerous Music chats). I sincerely believe we HELPED people all over since many of the topics offered great thoughts on how to deal with a multitude of situations.
#DadChat became a 24/7 community with several hundred tweets EVERY day and upwards of 2,000 on Thursdays. We had regular participants from ALL over the world. Because whenever you put “Dad” in a title you get dads AND moms, we were really a GREAT parenting community. Our “moms” became essential to the quality and depth of our dialogue. We also had regular “aunts” and “uncles” who joined us simply because of the quality of the people and the intelligence of the discussion. Our motto has and will be, #DadChat is for anyone who is a parent or was a child.
For the past two years while attending an annual Dad Conference, I looked around the room and realized I was old enough to be dad to most everyone there. I thought, perhaps, it was time to hang up my “dad” Social Media identity. I began to diversify my writing AND the content of #DadChat.
Now, my writing encompasses Social Media for the layman, the Baby Boomer aging journey that I’m already on, as well as parenting issues that are evergreen.
Also, I am moving this summer so my life is a bit hectic. That, and my son leaving for college (see Syracuse column), are the primary reasons for this hiatus of #DadChat. I hope YOU will keep our community ALIVE by using and hashtag and staying in touch with everyone. We will be back!
