So I recently followed the latest social networking trend among bloggers and joined twitter (Follow Me :D). Not because I saw value in it but because I was told by a fellow blogger (Michael Dunlop) that I needed to join!
I currently follow 39 ‘twitters?’ and am followed by 29. I am starting to see a few benefits but would love to hear your thoughts and opinions.
Especially about the following points:
- Using blog name or personal name
- follow everyone or follow a select few
- only promote your new posts or ‘tweet’ about whatever you are thinking?
- How often should you ‘tweet’
Sorry if I got the terminology wrong, but I’m looking forward to hearing all your thoughts about twitter!
Hey Tom,
We were talking about Twitter at Barbara Swafford’s blog yesterday. Here is what I said to her:
“The only tip I have is to ensure you use Twitter to be a part of a community, and not as a place to make you money or help build your blog.
Sure, Twitter may make you money and/or build your blog, but don’t start up your Twitter application each day with those goals in mind.
I like to treat it like I’m at an informal networking event where throwing your business card in front of everybody you see is not encouraged. Just spend time with the community, make friends, learn, teach and get to know them. By doing that, your blog will benefit without you even thinking about it.”
Twitter is a community tool to build relationships. It’s nothing more, and nothing less.
In answer to your questions:
1. Use your personal name. Use Twitter to put a face to your blog.
2. Follow those that look interesting. If that means everyone, then let it be everyone. As an example, I have 442 followers and I follow 325. I tend to let people follow me and then I decide if I want to follow them, rather than intentionally setting out to find new people to follow, but it’s entirely up to you how you build the community around you.
3. Tweet about whatever you’re thinking. The question on Twitter “What are you doing?” is very misleading. Don’t just stick to that question. Like you say, write what you’re thinking, what you’re reading etc.
4. As often as you have something useful to say. I’ll probably write anywhere from 10-40 Tweets a day including @ replies, and some days I go through a total Twitter binge where I write a new Tweet every 30 seconds for 30 minutes. It isn’t scheduled. It isn’t planned or structured. I just feel like doing so so I do.
Don’t make Twitter too structured. Just be a part of the community. :)
Hope that helps!
Jamie
Jamie Harrops last blog post..Our Desire Affects Our Ability to Achieve
Thanks Jamie! You hit all the thoughts that I had been thinking and a lot more. I am starting to learn to just have a bit of fun with it – and just let it be more of an informal tool.
My say would be to get really active with twitter. Let people know that you’re always there to reply them. I would use blog name by the way.
Also, try to follow more people, at least blogs that you visit and that way more people will follow you too. Helps to build up your friend list.
Ben Peis last blog post..Introducing DennisEdell.com & EasyCashContests.com
Hey! Its good you finally joined ;) You can follow me at http://www.twitter.com/farrhad
Twitter is a great way to stay in touch with many people.
-Using blog name or personal name:
I have gone with my name, as you never know you may sell the site etc. etc. Also I use twitter to create an identity for myself not for my blog.
-Follow everyone or follow a select few
I got 132 followers but follow only 50
-Only promote your new posts or ‘tweet’ about whatever you are thinking?
Out of every 10-15 tweets only one is about my blog. This makes people want to read your tweets and they don’t look at you in a spammy way.
-How often should you ‘tweet’
I have a friend who has over 50 tweets a day and I find it very irritating :D I feel 10-15 WELL SPACED tweets a day should be good.
Cheers!
PS> I think this is the longest comment I have written in centuries :D
Farrhad As last blog post..New Year’s Contest
Hey Tom,
I’m a newbie as well. I follow 30 people and am followed by 21.
I haven’t used it for shameless promotion, so I only tweet when I have something worthwhile to say, or have discovered something new.
I use my blog name: velvetblues
And I tweet about once every 2-3 days. My first tweet was on December 2 and I have 14 updates.
Yes, my Twitter behavior is very modest. :-)
Shirleys last blog post..Perhaps You Shouldn’t Blog!
I think Twitter is an amazing tool because it is so easy to use, but highly effective. I think people tend to take it a little too far when you see new Twitter based products popping up almost daily. Soon, everything will be surrounded by Twitter
Donny Gambles last blog post..Taking Article Marketing to the Next Level
I’ve yet to join up twitter, but I keep hearing that its a really great tool – Im just afraid of being tied to my cell phone all day lol
Taris Janitenss last blog post..Ultimate Bumper Cars
Jamie, you have a great post. I think it’s important to bring a face to your twitter or else people won’t have as much faith following it since you’re essentially a spammer.
Follow only the ones you’re interested in or else you won’t be able to get anything out of your twitter feeds.
Still, I won’t join, I can’t stand twitter lol.
You’re correct in your opinion Tom. Though you joined late i see you got good followers soon.Hope its increasing.
cheers!!
Arun | BE Folkss last blog post..New year’s suprises and goals for BE Folks
Farrhad – I definately agree with not overposting. I have a couple of people I follow who tweet way too often. (Following you now)
Shirley – What made you decide to use your domain name?
Donny – Yea I know. I noticed a product on DigitalPoint that allowed you to create 100′s of Twitter accounts instantly. It’s programs like this that ruin a good service.
Taris – You should join. I dont have it connected to my phone – so I just check it when I’m online.
Boyz To Men – You sound like me before I joined :P
Arun – Thanks. My follower count is slowly starting to grow.
I told you to join at the same time as Michael did!
I think Twitter is very good because, apart from the fact I love social networking, it gives you the chance to talk to high profile people that you might not usually ever talk to. Which means you benefit from what they have to say.
As to how much to twitter, I do quite a bit but only as replies. I twitter daily when it is not replying (@) to someone.
Shane Hudsons last blog post..An Interview with Jeremy J Ulmer
blog name vs personal name – either can work. Using a blog name reinforces the brand of that blog – it’s what I’ve done with @problogger and it seems to have worked well. In doing it I think I’ve aligned myself with that term even more than I had with my blog.
On the flip side using your name can be worthwhile too if you’re wanting to sell yourself in some way.
follow everyone or follow a select few – again, either can work. I follow as many as I can simply because it allows them to direct message me if they choose. It means I don’t look at the stream of tweets that my friends are writing though – I just concentrate on @replies as to look at what everyone is writing is too much to handle.
only promote your new posts or ‘tweet’ about whatever you are thinking? – if you only ever promote posts you won’t be as useful to followers as if you talked about other things relevant to your niche. Promote other people’s links, talk about what you’re doing etc – when you do this you can also promote your own links and they’ll be received a lot better
How often should you tweet? – there are no hard and fast rules but I’d suggest at least 5-10 times a day (but not all at once).
Darren Rowses last blog post..10 Traits of Highly Effective Twitter Users
Shane – You did too! Sorry. Your point is very true especially when you see the comment below you is from Darren Rowse and all I had to do was send him a quick tweet!
Darren – Thank you for leaving your thoughts. The main reason I chose to start with my name was if I ever decided to sell my blog – I wouldn’t have to give my twitter account as well. Plus I think it is a little more personal.
Also interesting point about following people. I guess that is how I was able to get a response from you. Twitter seems like a great tool to get quick responses from people that a really busy (like yourself) – which is probably my favourite feature of twitter.
Hi Tom,
Firstly I used my own name for twitter (easier to brand and easier for others to find me across the various social networks)
I only follow those on twitter which profiles I find interest in.
Tweet volume- depends on whether i find anything interesting on the stream and if I have questions to ask/comment etc.
BTW- your litebox keeps popping up for me every single time I visit your site :)
Dominique Gohs last blog post..Weekend Party at JWT Gym
Hi Tom,
I have just started to explore the potential of Twitter just 2 months ago and it seems fun to use. As for now, I have yet to see how viral can Twitter goes as there are only 2-3 responses to the questions that actually asked.
Probably got to take some time to build up the authority. Do share with us on any learnings that you have along the way.
Wei Liang
Wei Liang | Earn Money Onlines last blog post..Lesson 23: Earn Money Online With Email Marketing
I’ve been using Twitter for some time and gotta say that I really haven’t paid too much attention to it :P I hope I can change that this year!
(Following you now!)
Ikki at Blogging Blogs last blog post..Q&A
You should definitely promote other people’s stuff more than your own stuff. This seems to work pretty well and goes with this whole social media thing: Share!
I want to talk about using your name vs blog name. I started with my name, but I also run another blog about science/scams debunking and stuff like that. I am not having problems right now, but I see problems in the future in managing what I tweet about to please both communities. So I guess it all depends if you run other blogs or if you plan to launch blogs about a whole different subject.
Ben Tremblays last blog post..Your Thoughts On Twitter
Twitter is a good tool for back link building ;)
Anyway, Following you Tommy :D
Monty – Sensonize.coms last blog post..Your Thoughts On Twitter
^ Oops! Sorry for the last post.. I mean “Tom” ^_^
Monty – Sensonize.coms last blog post..Your Thoughts On Twitter
I also started recently..
i am following you too
http://twitter.com/meethere :D
Make Moneys last blog post..Your Thoughts On Twitter
hey man, why the comment luv link showing your feed ?? :D
Make Moneys last blog post..Your Thoughts On Twitter
Twitter seems quite pointless. I’ve been thnking of using it but I’m having trouble getting my head round doing something that is called a “tweet”. Just say it out loud “Tweet”. Imagine talking to your frends about “tweeting”, lol. If it wasn’t for the fact that so many people used it I wouldn’t even consider it. But I think it’s just a fad and a huge sheep factor. If I use Twitter will I have to grow a neck beard? :D
I find tweet tweet useful in the sense that it puts you in the situation wherein everyone can really share something w/you or someone can help you on something…
Melvins last blog post..Your Thoughts On Twitter
Make Money – I have absolutely no idea. It’s only just happened, so maybe it’s a glitch in the pluguin?
Laurence – I am also interested in whether it will be a passing fad.
Went over and followed you, I did.
Come on in, the water’s fine!
For a zillion tips, head on over to ProBlogger’s Twitip.com and you’ll find the answer to most any question!
Looking forward to your tweets!
George
Tom! What’s up buddy? Glad you finally joined. Dude, Twitter is addicting. I have been on it a lot recently. It is yet another way to gain traffic and join in on a community of business folks.
I notice you got Darren Rowse’s attention on this post. He is huge on Twitter.
Anyway man, keep up the good work. I will follow you on Twitter.
Ben Morenos last blog post..Your Thoughts On Twitter
Haha. My latest post on comment love is your latest post.
Ben Morenos last blog post..Your Thoughts On Twitter
Thanks George – I’m following you to now. Yea darrens Twitter blog is great, I have been reading it for a while.
Ben – I’ve started to notice the addiction! haha I’m not sure what is going on with comment love at the moment :S
Good question, Tom.
I like Twitter because it is a way for me to further build and develop relationships with other bloggers. At times, it acts like a delayed instant messenger when I am chatting with certain people.
It has been a good resource for finding links to thinks you might need or asking for software recommendations.
Here’s to your questions:
1) I use my personal name as I am building my brand of me. Can only do that as yourself. I don’t have Twitter accts for all my sites, but won’t rule it out in the future.
2) I don’t just go out and follow everyone. Following 60 and folled by 123. If someone is following me and replying to my tweets, then I will follow them. Or, I get wind of some bloggers or network with some bloggers and I follow them.
3) I say tweet about whatever you are doing or feel is worthy of tweeting. Lately, I have been tying questions into my tweets looking for feedback from the followers. But, I don’t hold back my tweets. I guess that is because the brand I am promoting is me, so I am not hiding from that.
4) Tweet as often or little as you feel. I like to be on semi-regularly because I get to keep up with those that I follow. It is in indirect way to keep tabs on them and motivate them to get moving if needed.
If we need to network or conversate more, then we can always jump on Skype and chat or talk via the computers.
Either way, You must be on Twitter in 2009.
Freddie Taylors last blog post..Your Thoughts On Twitter
Yea, something wrong with your CommentLuv, Tom.
Laurence Flynns last blog post..Your Thoughts On Twitter
I use my personal name, well part of it anyway and I decide to follow friends and a select few whom I may have something in common with.
I always tweet my latest posts for promotion, but I do enjoy tweeting my personal thoughts from time to time to see if I get any reactions. Igenerally tweet around once a day. Anyway I’m not following and I see your followers going up pretty good at the moment!
Goldies last blog post..Your Thoughts On Twitter
Thanks for your input Freddie!
Anyone have any idea whats wrong with my commentluv?
Goldie – that sounds like how I have been using twitter :D
Update on my twitter followers: Following (128) followed by (78)
Hi Tom!
For me, twitter is about extending personal relationships. I prefer to have my name on social media profiles, but thats because I’m often more interested in just contributing to the community.
I haven’t decided on what I plan to do with followers/following. I’m thinking I’ll just follow any person that @replies AND is following me. This is so, should they want to, they can communicate via DM. I use tweetdeck and have a group of my favorite twitter users. This way, I’m able to lessen the noise, while still allowing people to communicate with me.
I think some bloggers should set aside different feeds specifically for their tweets. This is because they contribute so much value in their other tweets, I miss good content. I only subscribe to about 15 blogs, so its a good way for me to keep up.
I’m still struggling to find my way on twitter – but it has allowed me to make a lot of friends :) I’m enjoying the learning process!
- Jade
You should follow only people with the same interests that you.
About the frequency, it’s up to you. Just try to be a little active…
Mr Javos last blog post..Your Thoughts On Twitter
Thats a good idea Jade! As I start following more people I am finding it easier to look at the @replies.
Mr Javo – That is a great point, you want to network with people that have similar interests.
Just wanted to let everyone know that I started following Richard Branson and he followed me :D
As you can see from your own experience Tom, whenever you follow someone, they get notified and there are great chances that they will follow you too. But first make sure that when they first look at your profile page:
1. they see your photo.
2. they see many updates, that makes you interesting person to follow.
3. they see you don’t promote your blog only, but tweet about everything you have experienced throughout the day.
Hope I helped.
P.S. I am following you from now on… :)
Enjoy!
Gennices last blog post..Your Thoughts On Twitter
I don’t know much about Twitter yet. When I do I am pretty sure that I will not going to abuse Twitter as money making gadget. Can anyone tell me whats the advantage of Twitter.
Kevin
Kevin Wynns last blog post..Your Thoughts On Twitter
Got you from DP forum. Sorry, I can’t help you about your Comment Luv Plug in. But I think I can add some thoughts on Twitter.
Anyway, Twitter is just like any social site that you can create your own network. Unfortunately, there are users who cannot make money from their followers. There are various reasons why and here are only some of them.
First, they just follow everybody and not choosing them. The result, everybody is also following him even if they don’t belong to the same niche. Therefore, no matter how hard they promote their product or service nobody buys it.
However, the worst scenario one can do to sell his product or service immediately. No audience would want that, I am very sure. Therefore, it is very important that one should establish first a very strong and professional relationship among his followers. Then find ways on how he can help them through his product or service.
Finally, it’s NOT the number of followers that count. It’s the quality and relevance that matters.
Best regards.
Rich
Richs last blog post..Your Thoughts On Twitter
I use my personal name. Though I’m promoting Green+Chic and my blog, I still have a lot of friends on twitter that I like to connect with, online retail stores I like to follow, bloggers I like to get updates from, networking and so on. For me its multi purpose and I use it that way.
Carlas last blog post..Your Thoughts On Twitter
Hey Tom, Interesting post one that came at a timely matter. I just signed up with Twitter and you brought up a good point about if you ever sell your blog you would have your Twitter account and it wouldn’t go with it. Since I’m a buyer of a blog and have had multiple problems with signing up with other social sites that I never got the passwords for (too interested in other accounts that we neglected those sites)I am now struggling with signing up with those social sites because my blogs name is already in use, or had been used. I first thought Twitter was a bunch of nothing just making a sentences here and there… I just didn’t get it at first.It also seemed like just one more thing that you had to sign into each day or check out each day. I think bloggers have enough to do each day without adding one more thing to check into and out of. I’m getting it more and more but I’m not there yet. Good conversations you got going here all because of a word Twitter who would of thought?
jj-momscashblogs last blog post..Your Thoughts On Twitter
I joined up there because of a namedrive promotion. I dont really understand the full workings of it yet but I am keeping an open mind
Warm regards
Michelle
michelles last blog post..Your Thoughts On Twitter
Oh I guess Jamie said it all. All I could say is, give your best and all in Twitter. The benefits will come out later. :)
Bryan Karls last blog post..Your Thoughts On Twitter
Hey, something’s wrong with the comment luv my friend. All are pointing to your post, not to the commenter’s last post…
:)
Bryan Karls last blog post..Your Thoughts On Twitter
I started using twitter not long ago because it was suggested by someone. This person suggested I get the name of my site, which I did. I am not sure that was the most wise thing to do, particularly given it seems everyone else is suggesting to use your name instead.
I have to confess, I do not see the use for twitter. It seems like a great way to waste time. I think Linked In and Facebook are far better ways to network, at least for me, although I have spent more time on both of those sites. I just don’t get the point of twitter really. Maybe I will moving forward.
Gene Quinns last blog post..Your Thoughts On Twitter
Twitter is really useful. I’ve posted a few methods how you can utilize it on my blog.
You should also try out FriendFeed and you can follow me here:
http://www.twitter.com/profitbaron
http://www.friendfeed.com/profitbaron
Hey tom, I have and always will follow anyone one Twitter who chooses to follow me and this is because if someone took the time and effort to listen to what I have to say, I might as well do the same back.
It’s almost like a slap in the face to not follow them back. Your followers are like your RSS Readers in a way. You wouldn’t do that to them now would you?
IronBloggers last blog post..Your Thoughts On Twitter
Seems like Darren may have left you a comment up there ;)
I still think Twitter is just a huge hype right now.
-Mike
Win Prizess last blog post..Unleashing Creativity In 5 Easy Steps
My traffic has increased by 20 % after using twitter
I am following you on twitter :) its been under utilised by bloggers
I’m a little late to offer my thoughts here and you already have a ton of insight…nevertheless, I thought I’d join in and share my own experiences and recommendations:
Re: “Using blog name or personal name”
I would opt for using your personal name. It seems like you do that already though :-) I tweet under my nickname which incidentally is my blog’s name.
Re: “follow everyone or follow a select few”
I don’t exactly follow everyone and anyone that follows me. I try to. But sometimes, you get people who do nothing but spam your update stream. People who do nothing but selfishly self-promote their work. I think that dilutes the quality of the conversations that I have with people closer to me. When someone follows me, I research a little bit about who they are and then make a decision to follow or not.
Re: “only promote your new posts or ‘tweet’ about whatever you are thinking?”
There are a few tools (www.twitterfeed.com for example) that will automatically feed your blog to twitter. But again, I don’t like it when people do nothing more than share their own content. I prefer that they tweet about other things they find interesting and share their thoughts on that. So I say mix up your posts with stuff you find useful around the web and share that with your network. That’s what I try to do. I promote my own work sure, but I promote other peoples work much, much more!
Re: “How often should you ‘tweet’”
I think you should tweet as often as you’re comfortable tweeting. There’s no wrong or write way to do it. And there’s not set timeframe for how often you should tweet. I did notice however that you were updating your tweets via the web. One application that you might consider using is http://www.twhirl.com. It’s a twitter app. that sits on your computer and refreshes automatically. It pings you when people send you an @ reply or a DM. It’s a great tool to use and makes for more efficient use of twitter. You don’t have to sit there and constantly refresh your webpage. Another application to consider once you scale your number of users is Tweetdeck.com.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. I hope you find them helpful :-)
Definitely under-utilized, I need to take the time to learn how to use it properly.
Twitter has definitely built itself up to be a major social networking median not just for bloggers but anybody that wants to connect with the rest of the world.
I’ve seen a range of listing from Gov Arnold to of course the people in my social class as well which has no presence in the media, yet with twitter, has grown credible building a reputation slowly and just enough to gain some kind of presence in our online world.
Even if twitter is just a hype now and gone tomorrow sort of thing, if you can take advantage of what it offers and utilize it to optimize what you’re trying to do as far as getting your blog or point across, i beleive you can benefit from it as much as the next person.
But being able to connect with the gurus and the major players in the niche you’re in really is beneficial.
sorry for the ranting, Tom.
I have nothing but good things to say about twitter. it has allowed me to literally within weeks be forming a new division of my San Diego IT consulting firm, Perfect Integration which will focus on social media 101 for small business. i just used twitter to help our online presence, news, networking, and micro-blogging and i must say it has been very powerful and QUICK!
Like everyone else if it’s used right you can greatly benefit from it. If not it’s still a fun past time and you do pick up unique things from it.
I wish they would take the “what are you doing” off of the main page.. because most of us really don’t care that you are going to take the kids to school. If you are going to share that type of info, I THINK you should have a twitter name just for that.. your friends and family. If you are doing it for your business, then I think it’s best left to have conversations, provide quality links to your followers, ask questions and comment on what other people are posting that is interesting to you.
I like what Jamie had to say above!