by Ryan Barr (@ryanbarr) from SpookyIsMyName
Twitter is considered a micro-blogging service and though its original intention was to allow users to keep friends and co-workers in the loop, it has transformed to a vast social network of its own. For those that aren’t aware, a social network is defined as a group of people or friends that share a common goal or interest. Some users on Twitter find no reason in leaving their little community of friends, family, or office mates; they have little interest in wandering the depths of
the Twitter public in search of new ideas.
It’s quite obvious that you can’t force anyone to follow you nor can you really force anyone to go hunting for new information. You can, however, offer someone the content and dangle it in front of their face like a cruel dog owner and encourage them to click that follow button. Though it seems fool proof, this trick isn’t as rock solid as you may think: you have to actually offer content that is desirable.
Now, how do you offer great content and still keep your Twitter somewhat personal? It is pretty simple: find something you are very interested in or experienced with and start talking about it in most of your tweets. Then, on the side, post about other interesting personal moments in your life such as what fancy meal you are eating, movie you are seeing, or place you are visiting. The less posting about sleep or bathroom trips you take the more likely you are to receive followers.
Great content doesn’t just fall from a tree and into your hands; rather it is your structured ideas that form it. In fact great content can even be hidden behind a boring tweet. For example, take these two tweets I’ve fabricated:
“Just saw a good movie with some friends.”
“Went and saw Taken with a few friends. Great movie, amazing storyline, and tons of action. It is a must see for anyone!”
They both state that I saw a movie, but one is a bit clearer and provides more information. Here are some tips to focus on when structuring your tweets:
- Be clear and concise with your tweets; avoid filler words, slang, or shorthand (unless you really have to cram the words in there). Being able to understand what you are saying is extremely important.
- Remember that Twitter’s character limit is 140 characters. Though it may seem that characters get used up fast, a lot can be said within a tweet.
- Take note of what your followers are interested in: what are they replying to? what is being retweeted the most? what is creating a bang within your network? Knowing what is returning the most allows you to better target your tweets.
- Be consistent and organized. Posting heavily about an interesting topic one day and neglecting it for a week will do you no good if you want to attract followers who are interested in said topic.
- Most Important: Pace yourself! No one is more annoying than someone who hops on Twitter, fills the timeline with tweets, then disappears for some time. Even in a less extreme, no one enjoys someone who posts spontaneously. If you have issues pacing yourself try a service like HootSuite or TweetLater
Some simple tips can return amazing results so don’t let them float past you. Also, when tweeting, remember that retweeting information can do more to help you than hurt you. Many services highlight when people retweet and your users might not have seen that tweet before and could be affected by it themselves. As well, retweeting information can also show users who aren’t following you that you care about that information which could also result in an easy follower.
Now, contrary to what you may believe, it doesn’t end there. What is the point in providing great information to your followers, gauging their reactions, and gathering statistics without putting it all to work? Start or find a blog to post on with your newly discovered information, provide helpful articles or encourage your friends to become a more powerful Twitter user. Don’t let your resources and knowledge go to waste, social networks exist to share information and the more you get involved the more return you will see.
@josephgelb
Thankyou for the helpful information. I will try to be more useful to the twitosphere.
@markshaw
Great article.. Twitter is all about engaging with others.. Those that simply turn up just to sell, will be sorely dissapointed. Engage with your followers, with social chit chat, sharing of ideas, resources, knowledge, tools, opinions, and demonstrate your knowledge and credibility and promote your self now and then… thats a good recipe for Twitter success..
Mark Shaw
@edawg
Just remember that no matter how hard this is to realize, its not all about you, its all about me!, joke;).
Interact with people the way your would if you were talking to them face to face, be interested in what they have to say, and give them some ideas to help them on their way, they will remember you for it.
Most of all, don’t be spammy, nothing will get you unfollowed quicker than 10 tweets one after the other saying, “Hey. Just updates this page”, as soon as someone does that, they get unfollowed quicker than a donkey with gas!. But links to your sites here and their never hurt anyone;).
@enm181
nice. always good to be reminded. good for twitter noobs like me. thanks.
@floris
I rather suggest to ‘use’ the social network to their and your benefit, so it’s a positive for everybody, example:
“Just saw a good movie with some friends.”
“Went and saw Taken with a few friends. Great movie, amazing storyline, and tons of action. It is a must see for anyone!”
I would possibly post :
“Just saw #movie Taken with friends (tnx @user for joining us). Great movie, a quick review for those interested here: linktomyblog”
The link to blog is optional .. and only if i would actually made a review first.
This way I stay in touch with my twitter friends, and my followers get introduced to not just my blog, but the people I follow (growing the circle of friends). And it’s still short, with optionally more info for those who are actually interested. And using the hashtag you also introduce yourself to non-friends who search or filter on hashtags. Maybe finding new friends who share the interest. Isn’t it fun going to the movies with a few twitterers? Now that’s social.
Twitter isn’t about plugging your blog, or to let the world know you’re at the movies, it’s about being social, just how you would be in real life, but you give people the option and freedom to find out what you’re doing when they’re interested. No pressure.
@tamalanwar
One of the most interesting twitter based article I ever read… thanks Ryan!
@tumblemoose
For a lot of folks, their narrow focus and use of Twitter hog ties them and decreases the experience for them and their followers. This gentle reminder shows us that expanding our horizons a bit in terms of our tweets helps to male the overall experience a bit better for all involved. Very cool.
Cheers
George
@ecomind
Great point you bring up here.
It’s a challenge how to be interesting and informative enough on 140 characters, so you can direct your followers to your blog.
How many times can you twist the same message around without over doing it?
When you are new to Twitter and want to present a message that hopefully creates a buzz, you have to do some testing.
Finding your Tweeting niche is a great approach to get yourself identified towards potential followers. Combining your Tweet niche and blog niche is what makes you stand out.
I’m not 100% sure yet if I agree with the Tweet Pace. We all need a break sometime. But you want to stay as current and up to date as possible. So Tweetlater is great when you take vacation or a break, or you can do as Darren put a note on your profile that you are in vacation mode….
Article is bookmarked and retweeted…
Cheers..
@amauiblog
Great points. Modesty aside, I am glad to read this and know that I am doing some of the tips you mentioned. Of course there are always room for improvements so I am very thankful for this post. I also forwarded this to my husband, and my dear friend (both of them just signed up for Twitter yesterday).
Aloha,
Liza
@bzsmith
Very useful info. I’m sending this on to others who are trying to learn “efficient” tweeting.
@BILL_ROMANOS
Great post.
I have read a ton of Twitter tips on many blogs and websites. But this particular post was very insightful. It went to the core of the issue. Focus on the key driver. The key driver for someone choosing to follow someone – and remaining a follower – is whether you are *useful* or not – from the follower’s stand-point. If you are, you will eventually be found, followed, and continue to be followed.
However, people change their interests over time and thus what they Tweet will change over time. Likewise, what a follower finds useful (including, interesting or humorous) today may change over time. Thus, people may adjust who they follow over time commensurate with their change in focus and interest. I don’t believe this should not be viewed in a negative light, but rather regarded by all as a natural consequence of growth, etc.
I particularly liked when you stated, “[...] retweeting information can also show users who aren’t following you that you care about that information which could also result in an easy follower.”
I haven’t read this anywhere else, and I am going to take this advice and try to retweet more. I believe this is a key insight.
Thanks,
Bill Romanos
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
@wfavero
Excellent suggestions for better Twittering. However, now we need to find a way to get Twitter past the corporate firewalls. Many companies “stop” anything that looks like it is for social networking, regardless of the potential value. We need to find a way to re-educate the individuals responsible for corporate security policy.
@cheth
Amazing writeup! I will make sure my followers read this! A lot of tweeps over there are focused on quantity (read high follower count) more than quality of the tweets.. I always try to be resourceful by engaging in conversations and retweeting good content.
@ScottWilliams
I do some of what you are talking about… pacing myself is sometimes a stretch, depending upon what I have going on! You mentioned post or write a blog on your newly discovered twitter stuff and I will often times do that.
Yesterday I posted a blog entitled “To Be Or Not To Be” 5 Twitter Basics: http://bit.ly/UCO18
@tkrysak
In the beginning I followed everyone who chose to follow me.
That was a mistake.
Although the fancy dinner you might have had last night may interest a chef or food critic, it is useless information to me. As well as you enjoying your morning coffee, letting me know you are off to work etc etc etc. All useless information as far as I am concerned. I have unfollowed most of the folks who provide that kind of stuff.
Now, when someone follows me I look through their tweets carefully to see if they talk about something that might be interesting.
@ryanbarr
Thanks for all the great comments so far, everyone! It is a honor to have my post here on TwiTip for everyone to read.
Interaction and powerful content are surely the recipe for success on Twitter, as many of you have said.
Are Morch (@ecomind): Good point on needing a break, that is entirely true and the break might even be beneficial for yourself and your followers. Although, remember that people see a timeline, and if a person isn’t around for an hour and all of your Tweets are condensed within that hour, they are missing it. For example, I try to keep my strongest ideas and links I want to share aside until after work hours are over and target for when users are around their computer.
Scott Williams (@ScottWilliams): Great blog post, though brief, you hit on some major ideas to become a key player in the Twitter world.
Terry Krysak (@tkrysak): Actually, I’ve gone through that same trend with my account. At first, I followed anyone and everyone that followed me. I even considered an auto-follow at one time. I quickly learned, however, that it lead to be receiving a lot of spam, tons of unwanted direct messages, and more useless content than useful. As far as following new people goes, I only follow if the content in their latest page is interested and informative and/or if I know the person in some way.
Hope to see some more great responses from everyone! Thanks again for reading, looking forward to submitting a few more entries at the least.
@DotComDud
Great advice, especially about pacing. Not only is it annoying but if you only occupy a short amount of the time line rather than spacing your tweets out over the entire day, you’ll miss out on exposure to a wider range of followers.
@LoneWolfMuskoka
I think that the important thing to remember is that we all have different expectations for Twitter. Some people only want to use it as a “friend update” tool and there is nothing wrong with that. Others use it to broadcast their message without interacting. As long as people are interested in following them, more power to them.
But I believe that the majority of Twitter users right now are looking for ways to share information, make new contacts and friends and promote their business. Your tips are great for those people (including me).
As for pacing, I’m not sure if tools to tweet when you’re not online are valuable or not. I like to stick around a while after I tweet to see if there is any response that I can follow up on. The only exception is when I have to sign off, which happens too often 8=( I usually try to leave something interesting as I go though — it lets followers know that I’m not going to be responding right away and possibly entertains them in the mean time.
Shalom
LoneWolf
@niksiv
Great post! But what LoneWolf says is absolutely true. Everybody has different expectations of Twitter. Some people want to use it just like Facebook to connect with their close friends while others use it to interact with their market and build their brand.
@mattwardman
An interesting challenge for a multi-niche blog.
@blissfullyteal
Great article! Answered so many question I had! THX!
@johnhood
An excellent article, which I will bring to the attention of my followers!
@thebenchs
Thna you for the pots its interesthing.
@kateleg
Hey Ryan, awesome post! From the 23 comments (!) it’s obvious you’ve answered many Twitter questions. Just wanted to say a quick thank you for the Hootsuite mention. If you have any questions just let us know. Great work.
@clairejarrett
A LOT of people need to read this, sadly they aren’t the ones who will ever make it here to read it I suspect. So many people keep Tweeting about BORING topics. We don’t care if you just ate soup for lunch!
@loftninja
I use twitter the same way i used blogger and RSS feeds waaaay back in 2004…to give a way for apartment and space seekers in NYC a way to keep up with my listings and tell me what they need..i am glad to say that there aren’t very many out there who have harnessed this power…write me if you want more info…good post
@SabineOsmanovic
Thank you for this article. Although I am on Twitter quite a while I still appreciate this kind of information to improve my tweets.
@diversityhotels
Thank you for the article… We take note about all this things!