Today, Sandier Pastures dot com turns 5. Though I started blogging earlier, I launched this dot com on September 1, 2007. This is my 1,870th post.

Five years blogging had been a wonderful experience and this blog has definitely evolved from being an online diary for friends and family back home to being some sort of guide for people wanting to know more about living and working in this region in my point of view. I look forward to another year of blogging, and more.

So how do I want celebrate 5 years of blogging (aside from eating cake)?

I want to make new connections, discover more blogs, meet more bloggers in this area and understand the ‘social’ part of social media better. I’ve had something up my sleeve for the longest time and thought in celebration of my 5 years in the blogging world, I’d finally do it!

…a blog-related chat via Twitter.

There’s already a group for Dubai Bloggers on Facebook where bloggers post their recent articles. While it’s a good way to know who blogs what in the UAE, I think it would be great if there is a platform where we can interact with each other more, exchange ideas, ask questions, share blogging tips, etc. Don’t you think it would be lovely if UAE based bloggers actually ‘talk’ to each other rather than just post their articles on a public forum like a news feed?

I love blogging (if not I wouldn’t stick to it for more than five years!) and happy to interact with others via Twitter. I want to make this a weekly affair, every Tuesday at 3-4pm, Dubai time with the hashtag #blogtalk and YOU are all invited to join – whether you’ve been blogging for five years or four or just started yesterday!

Why use a hashtag?
When you add a hashtag to your tweets, your updates can be seen not only by the people who follow you but also by anyone who happens to be following that particular hashtag.

I’ll start with a new blogging topic every week and let the conversation flow and blossom from there.

Ok that sounds interesting, I want to start following #blogtalk, what is the best way to do that?

For me, TweetChat is the best and easy choice.

Log on to tweetchat.com with your Twitter ID and password and type in the hashtag. By using this Twitter tool,  there is no need to manually type in the hashtag keyword at the end of each tweet. Tweetchat will take care of that for you by automatically inserting the designated hashtag at the end of your tweets.

If you use a Twitter client like Tweetdeck, create a search column for the term ‘#blogtalk’. All tweets with the #blogtalk hashtag will show up in your column whether you’re follow the person tweeting or not.

Another way to follow a twitter chat is by TweetGrid. Read the resource: How to Participate in a Twitter Party to learn more.

Everyone is welcome to join #blogtalk – this is the place to meet new bloggers and a place we come to learn together. See you on our first twitter chat!

On Tuesday, 3-4pm Dubai time, we will ease up into the chat by just introducing each other and our blogs, number of years blogging, etc. See you there!