Granted, when I get really into something I tend to be a bit of an overachiever, but my progress with Twitter seems amazingly fast. It’s only been seven weeks since I considered myself a Twitter Newbie and posted my tips for fellow Newbies. A week later, when I was up to 800 followers, and felt like I’d reached a new level, I promoted myself to Dilettante (a lovely word that means amateur), and posted my Stage Two tips. The snowball has continued rolling (you can really see it here), my follow/following numbers are both over 3000 now, and it seems time for a promotion (though I’m having a really hard time coming up with a title for this stage), and to share more tips and learnings.
First, I should say that nothing I say here should be taken as “rules” for Twitter, it’s all just based on my personal opinions, preferences, and what I want out of Twitter. As someone pointed out last night, the beauty of Twitter is that you can use it in any way you choose.
General Thoughts About Following and Followers
- It’s all about the conversation. I’m not interested in just being broadcast to or marketed at. At this stage in my Twitter development, I’m no longer following the gurus (except for the few who actually follow me back). That’s not to say I don’t admire them and think they have lots of great information to share, but I can go to their blogs or subscribe to their newsletters for that. Or even just drop in directly to their Twitter page.
- Follow liberally. There’s no risk to following. It’s not a commitment, not a statement of friendship or an endorsement. Think of it as if you’re at a big networking event, working your way through the crowded room. Following someone is like stopping to listen to or join in a conversation. You may be drawn by what they’re saying, or who they’re talking to, or by something random that catches your attention. And you can just as easily walk away (by unfollowing) if the person turns out to be boring or creepy or just not of interest to you.
- Clear out the non-mutuals regularly. In a tweetstream last night, I used the word “culling” and someone said that sounded really harsh, but since Twitter imposes a limit to the number of people you can follow, if you’re trying to grow your mutual connections, you do have to be pretty ruthless in cutting out those who aren’t engaging with you. But again, it’s not a big deal. You can always follow them again later, and next time they might follow back.
- Don’t forget to follow back. At the Newbie stage, I tried one of the auto-follow-back applications. But I found myself spending a lot of time unfollowing spammers, so I stopped using it. Now, I’m finding it difficult to keep up with checking out new followers and following back, so I’m considering it again.
Who I Follow
- Real people. My general policy (with a few exceptions) is that I don’t follow companies or logos or anonymous Twitterers. I look for a real first and last name, a location, a bio that tells me something about who they are, and a photo.
- People in my profession. In my case, this is strategic, because of my role as IABC Chair. I want to keep growing my contacts within the communication profession, both IABC members and non. I want to know who the big thinkers are. I want to know what issues are hot. I want them to see that IABC is on Twitter. So if you’re a PR or comms professional, I want to follow you.
- People who make me laugh. Just today, when I clicked on a new follower’s page, the first tweet there made me laugh out loud. I followed back immediately (BTW, it was @dayvision, and the tweet said: A computer beat me at chess once. But it was no match for me at kickboxing.)
- People who make me think.
- Or share a common interest. It’s funny, these don’t show up in bios usually, but come as a result of dipping into the tweetstream and following someone else’ conversation. Or they find me in a similar way. These are the frivolous tweets, like what’s for dinner, or when I live-tweeted Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and people were singing along.
- PR/Communication students. I am really happy to help them begin to put their social networking savvy to use in a business networking context, and of course, I want to help lure them towards IABC for the future.
- Journalists. I started following several just to see how journalists were using Twitter. What I found was that they’re often my favourite tweeple. Funny, smart, and laid-back. I think many of them are wary of PR people who might try to pitch them via Twitter. But since I don’t do pitching these days, they can relax with me. And sometimes they come to me when they’re looking for a source, and I can quickly find them one from my real-world network.
- Anyone who engages with me. If I get an @reply from someone, I usually click on their ID (which in Tweetdeck pulls up their bio and recent tweets in a side column), and if they meet my other criteria, I’ll usually click the follow button.
- People in other professions or geographic markets. I just thought of this today, but my new goal is to follow lots of doctors and lawyers and other professionals, so that if I ever need advice, I’ll have a resource. And I want to make sure I have contacts in key markets around the world, in case I’m ever stranded in an airport or need a local resource, I’ll have someone to turn to.
Who I Probably Won’t Follow Back
- No photo or avatar. And I have to say that I’m not especially fond of cartoony avatars, so it might depend on my mood. I do try to give newbies the benefit of the doubt, for awhile.
- Following 2000, Followers 12. Anyone who has hit the 2000 initial follower limit with almost no followers and updates is a soon-to-be spammer, trying to build their numbers quickly through auto-follow-backs. They’re the reason Twitter has the limits.
- People without a bio. Or whose bio tells me they’re not the kind of people I want to follow (terms like MLM, wealth-builder, etc. are big red flags to me).
- Scary or sexy photos. When I was still using auto-follow-back, I was getting lots of gorgeous, shirtless young men. Too distracting in the tweetstream.
Who Gets Un-followed
- Spammers of any kind. They’re usually easy to spot, but a few masquerade as real people (see above) and then send nothing but links to their website.
- Bleeping tweeters. I don’t mind swearing in real life, and do a fair amount myself at times, but it really turns me off on Twitter.
- Mean or angry tweeters. I’m ok with debate and criticism, but I don’t like mean people. Twitter is positive for me, I don’t want to follow those who are always negative.
How I Manage It All
- TweetDeck is the best! I simply couldn’t do any of this if the only way to use Twitter was through Twitter.com. It’s a free application that you can download and have up and running in minutes. But frankly, I would pay for it if I had to — it’s that good. TweetDeck makes managing it all really easy, because everything is viewable in columns, without having to go back and forth between pages. You can organize the columns to suit yourself, but here’s how I do it:
- All Friends – This column shows the tweets of all 3000+ people I follow, I dip into it for a few minutes a few times of day, whenever I’ve got a few minutes and am looking for conversation or news. But otherwise, I ignore it. It’s not an inbox with a need to catch up. It’s a live conversation. Back to the analogy of the networking event, trying to read all the tweets here would be like trying to get a transcript of every conversation going on in the room — on a 24-hour basis. I love dipping it at certain times of day. For me, early morning means my Aussie friends like @jenfrahm are still online (because it’s evening there), then the UK tweeps come in, and I see friends like @jangles. Towards noon the US east coast wakes up, right on through until it’s bedtime for me and I can see my Hawaiian buddies, like @pbarton2. Weekends it’s a completely different crowd and different vibe.
- Direct Messages – This column is for private messages from people I’m following. It does get a lot of those annoying auto-messages saying “thanks for the follow” (by the way, I don’t think it’s necessary to acknowledge a new follower, and wish people would stop doing it), but it’s still easy to skim quickly, and I usually only get a handful of real DMs a day, so it doesn’t take much time to manage this column.
- Replies (or @s) – This column is where the action is, because it picks up all replies to me, tweets that mention me, and retweets. So this is where the conversation is. But even with 3000 followers, this is generally easy to keep up with, and is only as active as I am. If I’m tweeting, there’s lots of activity here. If I go silent for several hours or sign off for the night, when I come back, there might be two or three tweets to answer. So again, it’s really manageable. I only spend time on Twitter when I want to. If I feel like a conversation, with such a large base I can always find one. But if I don’t, they’ll get by just fine without me.
- Search – I keep at least one search column active all the time, and use others when I’m looking for something specific. The TweetDeck search column can serve as a real-time keyword monitor. So you can do one on your company name, a hot topic, or in my case, I like seeing every time someone mentions IABC in a tweet. That allows me to welcome new members, see what’s going on around the world, and monitor for feedback or issues that need attention.
- Groups – I haven’t used the TweetDeck Groups function extensively yet, but Paul Barton promises a blog post soon to share his techniques for organizing his friends with it.
Final Thoughts
- If I’m not following you and you want me to, just send me an @ and tell me.
- I’m still learning here, which is why I enjoy it so much. All the above is based on where I am at the moment. It’s not right or wrong, and I may change my mind about it all by next week. If so, I’ll let you know.
- Don’t be intimidated by Twitter. If I can go from Newbie to whatever I am now in just seven weeks, anyone can. I’m not techy or especially cutting-edge. The only thing hard about it really is the clunky Twitter.com interface, and lack of instruction for Newbies. But once you get going, it gets very easy. If you need help, just tweet me.
Barb, This post is extremely valuable for many reasons. For me, the explanation on what TweetDeck is and how it can be used is HUGE. Also, the idea to follow people in other professions is a good one. I had not thought of that. Thanks for the tips!
Wow, really good list of info. Very informative for us tweeple who are just starting out… only had my account since Jan 1st, and as of this comment, I have 500 followers… but I have to “cull” again soon.
Great tips and insight here, Barb. I’ll echo Susan on TweetDeck – I just started using it yesterday and can already see how much value it might have. Your explanation helps me along in that regard.
Excellent post, Barb. These are some great tips, thanks for sharing.
Without question one of the best posts I’ve seen with regard to using Twitter. Everyone will come up with their own style, but these tips will provide a great foundation for anyone getting into social media.
One tip I give to people who want more ‘quality’ follows and followers is to watch the stream of tweets from your friends, especially those who you like, and you will quickly discover more interesting people to follow. (This was also mentioned in Barbara’s stage two article!)
Great post, as usual Barb. On TweetDeck, I love the groups function. I currently follow more friends than communications professionals, as I’m still working on building my network. The communications professionals tweet far more frequently than the friends, but I enjoy catching up and reading everything the friends tweet. So, on my TweetDeck, I have a group for Friends and a group for Communications. When backlogged, I may briefly skim the Communications group but read all tweets in the Friends group.
Groups could also be used to sort by categories of interest/profession – for instance, communications, technology, medical professionals, etc. Having the groups gives an easy frame of reference when scanning the tweets, I think.
Barb, the piece you’ve nailed that so many of the Twitter advice articles missed is that it’s a process. There is no magic formula, no surefire list of Rockstars you can follow en masse.
The only thing I might modify is the policy about reciprocation. I don’t demand it, and wouldn’t put that presure on others to follow me. I don’t even like the “Courtesy-Follow that later becomes the Unfollow.”
My office has some restrictions about what we run, and with no official clearance for Adobe Air, Tweetdeck isn’t viable. At work, I’m using the web interface to follow 600 people. Should 1800 people unfollow me in disgust because I don’t reciprocate?
The rest you’ve nailed… and thanks!
This is some great insight and recommendations for Twitter use. You are becoming a Twitter rock star (just kidding)
I appreciate your efforts Barb! Best to you and yours in 2009.
Mark
Nice post. I’m glad I read it before my meetup tonight. I’m holding a meetup at 7 PM where we’ll be talking to other local twitterers and trying to find out how to use it effectively and efficiently. We expect around 40-50 to attend.
If you have any free time this evening around 7 PM, it will be live on UStream. We would appreciate any good comments or questions on the same subject. See http://snipr.com/72p6f
Hey Corey, hope your meetup is successful Sorry, 7pm your time is midnight my time, so I’ll be asleep. But if you get some good tips there, please let us know.
Ike, you make some good points that I hadn’t considered. On the other hand, if you weren’t following me, but we were having occasional exchanges, as we do, I wouldn’t unfollow just because that wasn’t reciprocal. Interaction can work without a follow. And following doesn’t necessarily mean interaction either.
Thanks for the Groups tips Linda Beth. I’m wishing I had started organizing mine when I had 500 followers. Now it’s a bit daunting. And organization is not my strong suit.
Thanks for the namecheck Barb! But where are my sexy photos? How am I missing out? How do I get lots of gorgeous shirtless young men — see, that is a definite use for groups in tweetdeck!! : )
@jenfrahm
Great posts & tips. I don’t use auto follows at all just for the fact that when someone news follows me I always check out their page. I follow the person but if I notice that they are tweeting about things that are just not relevant or TMI’s I unfollow them.
Twitter has helped me expand my network so I can now reach other people in my field much faster. If I have a question I can tweet it and people are so nice to answer back. I do the same, it’s great and helpful tool.
I personally don’t use TweetDeck. I like Splitweet on the web and Tweetie on my iPhone.
Thanks again for the great post.
@jayphilips
Excellent post. I have a similar approach to who I do/don’t follow.
When I get new followers I’ll have a look at their profile and if what they are saying is of interest I will follow back. If they look spammy I’ll block them straight away.
“Follow liberally. There’s no risk to following.”
On one hand I understand and even agree – I *should* be roaming more, from person to person, listening in.
On the other hand, I find myself spending more time per person lately, deciding both who to seek out to follow, and who’s invitation I should accept as a follower.
When I do decide to follow, I try hard to draft a sincere Direct Message, including their name and a comment regarding what they’re tweeting or blogging about, even if it amounts to “keep it up!”
I like to think of myself as a quality versus quantity person, though I don’t think the two have to be exclusive. I do use TweetDeck, yet still prefer to sprint through All Friends, waiting to be surprised, delighted or educated.
I have to admit I’m thrilled when a post of mine is retweeted, and nothing beats a Direct Message that leads to a conversation.
But I guess one of the beauties of social media is scalability, so it fits different styles – and different levels of free time.
Okay, back to Twittering!
Barbara;
I have to agree with Ike. I usually don’t follow someone until they either @me or I find them through some other means and I am interested in them. I have never “culled” my list – at least not yet – for people who don’t follow me back. I, like you, have little time to check out every one of the people who follow me, but I make a point to check out everyone that retweets something and/or makes a comment to me directly. Like you also, if they meet my overall criteria I usually add them.
I have only unfollowed someone a handful of times, and usually because they misuse the direct messaging (DM) function.
As for limits on number of people you can follow in Twitter, it really depends on how many people are following you. If you follow fewer than follow you than you are generally okay. You can read about it on Twitter’s blog.
http://blog.twitter.com/2008/08/making-progress-on-spam.html
Interesting post, and very useful stuff for Twitter newbies like me. However, something puzzles me. You seem to be implying that being a successful Twitterer depends on how many followers you have. Is this always true? Is it not possible to use Twitter successfully with just a select group of friends and followers whose interests complement each other? If it’s all about the numbers it just seems like an exercise in ego-massaging to me. Or maybe I’m missing the point? Intrigued to hear your views. @mjmccracken
Hi Matthew. I definitely don’t believe that “success” on Twitter depends on how many followers you have. And everyone uses Twitter in different ways for different things. But for how I am currently using Twitter, I’ve found that the more interesting people I’m mutually following, the better it is for me. It’s not about ego-massaging (that’s what I tend to think when I see someone with 20,000 followers who is following 100 people). I don’t think of followers as fans or friends (though I certainly have made some friends on Twitter). I don’t measure my “success” by the numbers of followers, but by the great conversations and the fun I’m having and the things I’m learning and the responses I’m getting. It’s completely subjective, but to me, it *feels* like I’m getting something right, like I’ve discovered something really valuable. I’m still exploring, and I’ll keep sharing what I think about it all. But it may or may not apply to anyone else or what they want out of Twitter.
Thanks for the reply Barbara. I’m sure you’re right – the real value of Twitter starts to reveal itself when you’re engaging with lots of interesting, switched-on people. I should add, I’ve been following your advice since I read your post, and I think it’s definitely helped me get more out of Twitter. In fact I think I’m slowly becoming an addict. Now I just need to figure out how on earth people manage to keep up with Twitter and hold down jobs at the same time
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