In this guest post George Angus from TumbleMoose.com (follow him at @tumblemoose) talks about an aspect of using Twitter that I think many new Twitter users will relate to – the need for patience.
I dragged myself kicking and screaming into the world of Twitter. For the longest time, I just didn’t get it. Follow people around that I didn’t even know? Really? With 140 characters worth of what they were doing? More importantly, why on earth would anyone care about what I was doing? Well, I gave it an honest try and now I understand.
Twitter is part of my daily routine. I see the light and the advantages are obvious. Twitter referrals to my website are trending upward and I’ve had opportunities present themselves that otherwise would not exist. My strategy has been pretty simple: Use the medium as it was intended.
Image by Essjay is happy in NZ
Sales or Snails
There seems to be a couple of schools of thought in terms of making the most of the Twitter experience. One camp employs a strategy of following as many folks as possible. For these Twitterers it’s all a numbers game. It’s a lot like sales. Anyone who has been there will tell you that sales is all about numbers. The more faces you can get in front of you, the more sales you are going to make. I guess that’s fine for some people, maybe that strategy works best for their Twitter goals.
I think the slow and steady road will lead to long term success. For myself, I figure I’m in it for the long haul. Dad always told me that anything worth doing is worth doing right. That’s worked for me so far.
Slow and steady wins the race
And it wins every time. You have to ask yourself, “Am I in this for short term gains or for building a community?” Common wisdom says if you want to be successful, focus on sticking with your game for the long term. Here are some tips for the slow approach:
- A strong community is built on a solid foundation. Determine your goals. What do you hope to gain from your Twitter experience? When you are clear on what you want you can then develop a strategy for moving forward.
- Start with people who are already in your community. Follow the folks who you already know and interact with through your blog or web site.
- When you are considering a follow, visit the profile. Are your interests similar? Do they have a web site you can visit? What do their recent tweets look like? You want a community of like minded folks as much as possible. With that said, don’t be afraid to take a chance now and then, especially if their profile speaks to you for some reason.
- Don’t worry so much about the numbers. The idea here is to have meaningful interaction. It’s not a race to see who can have the most followers.
- Your community will grow. Let things move at their natural pace. Forcing the experience will reduce the effectiveness.
- Treat your community well. Pay attention to what folks are doing and saying. When you are able, answer questions that are asked. If you find something helpful, tweet it for your community. It’s not always about business, so try now and again to keep it real with a “how is everything going?” tweet. An engaged community is a healthy community. It’s easier to have an engaged community when the focus is on the people – not the numbers.
Following these tips will lead to a more satisfying experience for you and your followers. By taking the focus off of numbers and putting it back on the people, you will find that your community will grow at a healthy pace.
So, in which camp do you plant your flag? Are you thrilled by following and followers or are you working your community to its full advantage?
@techandlife
Great post George.
‘Don’t worry so much about the numbers. The idea here is to have meaningful interaction. It’s not a race to see who can have the most followers.’
I would just add don’t worry too much when people unfollow you. They’ve either looked at your profile or your recent posts and what you are saying just isn’t for them. If they aren’t happy following you, just accept it and carry on building your own community.
@DerekHalpern
People don’t think its a race. They are just obsessed with stroking their own egos. Kind of like the Myspace friend craze a few years ago. For people, or more specifically, teens, they seem to prefer the mass model, because to them its a numbers game. They talk about how many followers they have and make it a contest with their friends.
Businesses on the other hand should definitely pursue the slow and steady race. It is just much more beneficial. I would choose 10 die-hard customers over 100 regular customers any day of the week.
@JanetRoper
Informative post, with great tips and ideas. You’re basically telling the story of ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’. Thanks for the info!
Harmony,
Janet
@phaoloo
I like your post George. Not only Twitter, but also other works need Patience.
@tumblemoose
@ TechandLife: I don’t think I’ve ever looked to see if I’ve been un-followed. I guess I kinda prefer to look forward, it’s worked well so far. Great comment, thanks!
@Derek: That’s a great analogy. I did the Myspace thing a couple years back and I think my experience there rings true with what you’ve said. And as far as business goes, yup I’ll take those ten all day long.
@Phao Loo: Thanks for the kind words. I always enjoy your tweets and how interactive you are.
Cheers
George
@Newwrldyankee
I tend to agree, I like to follow people who I would generally be interested in what they are interested in. Or people who are already friends with people i follow. Or someone who is just plain funny and lightens my day. If all their tweets are their own and they are not responding to others, what is the point, right?
@tumblemoose
NewWrldYankee,
Exactly! This is a two way street, and it should be one where we at least wave at each other when we drive by.
Cheers!
George
@lmckeogh
Good points Darren. As the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day. My consistent follower building has enabled me to develop a relationship with my community. It has also ensured that I don’t flame out since I am creating sustainable habits for managing the interaction. Your advice will be good to point other newbies to.
@anhonestwriter
I don’t that anything could be more important on Twitter! Thanks for the sage advice George.
@TracyOConnor
“I think the slow and steady road will lead to long term success. For myself, I figure I’m in it for the long haul. Dad always told me that anything worth doing is worth doing right.”
Your father was a smart man! There are quick and dirty ways to get a temporary boost, but why risk your long term success and reputation on them? Life is a marathon, not a sprint!
@BloggerNewbie
Hey George,
As usual you always have great insight. I have never understood the “get as many followers as you can” mentality. For what? I do exactly what you said, I check out their profile, sometimes I just like their sense of humor. Yes I tweet my post and share others as well, but for 90% of twitter, I want to simply tweet!
@tumblemoose
Hi Tracy! Yup, it’s a marathon. Great comment. Excuse me while I go carbo load…
Dee, Thanks for stopping by and thanks for the kind words as well. I follow your tweets and in my mind, you are an upstanding citizen of the community.
George
@theTVaholic
I think the only “number” that might be important is how many people are you actually interacting with on a regular basis, cause what you really want is not just “followers.”
@tumblemoose
Jason,
I appreciate the comment. Do you know of a Twitter ap that can collate that kind of info? I think it would be interesting to see.
Cheers
George
@tiddlytwinks
Hi George,
I appreciate how you mention that Twitter is a community. I always check out their tweets as well as their website/blog (if there is one) to see if their interests are similar to my own before deciding whether to follow or not. Or maybe even Block them.
I don’t pay any attention to the numbers, nor do I ever check to see who may have unfollowed. It just never occurred to me.
Give to Get.
One of my favorite things to do on Twitter, besides just chatting back and forth, is to give links to posts written by others that I feel my followers would find interesting, entertaining, funny, educational etc. Sometimes that may come in the form of a re-tweet, or when Stumbling or reading blogs I’ve currently subscribed to.
If there was one thing I would add to your list, it would be to just be yourself. Be real.
@tumblemoose
Hi Lin,
Nothing will ever replace just being real. I believe folks can tell the genuine article when they see it. I also try and Tweet fun things that I think my community may enjoy. I find that when I do that, things come back to me ten-fold.
George
@meredithgould
Solid, smart post, George. I still don’t “get” the obsession with collecting a zillion followers that include folks that bear no rational relationship to who I am, what I do, and who I hope to become.
As for patience, I become more patient when I remember that patience is a component of all great spiritual practices.
@tumblemoose
Hi Meredith,
I appreciate your comment. And yes, the whole virtue of patience is something that can be applied to many aspects of our lives.
I’ve heard Dr. Wayne Dyer say, “Infinite patience produces immediate results”. True story in my opinion.
George
@Webdesi3
Well said George!
I’ve made a lot of friends though Twitter, and get great advice when I need it, Tittbin is always open in case I get stuck in work or someone asks a question that I know I can help with.
@tumblemoose
Hey There WebDesi3! Getting questions answered is one of the great benefits of Twitter for sure. Also, Twitter not only does it allow me to connect with new friends, it helps bring me a little closer to the friends I do have from other arenas.
George
@shannonstoltz
Great points! I’m in the slow and steady camp. It more important to me to give to a community and learn from the community in meaningful interaction than to play the numbers game.
@louislandon
Hi George,
It was a pleasure to read your “Patience” piece. Really mature, relaxed view of what twitter should be for me. I’m in the slowly and choosy as I go camp. I wasn’t sure when I first got on twitter, but it didn’t take me long to know which way I would go. I want to be reading meaningful tweets and I weed out people who are constantly posting tweets that are promoting themselves without ever saying anything about who they are as people. I can see where the numbers could really help promote what I do, but I am more interested in the community aspect. And in the long run, I will have people that I have really connected with. And that to me is much more valuable than a ton of numbers who I can’t possibly connect with in a meaningful way. Can you tell I’m not a writer? I’m working on it.
love and peace always and everywhere~
Louis
@CoryOBrien
I’ve slowly built up my community of following/followers, and definitely work to give as much (and usually more) than I take, but I still have a large community because I have so many different interests, and Twitter allows me to build a micro-community around each one of those interests. That being said, I’ve never tried to build up numbers just for the sake of building up numbers, and think that you loose a lot of the value of Twitter by doing so.
@tumblemoose
@Jessie: Thank you so much. I believe it’s important as well.
@ Shannon: I’m glad to hear this is what works for you. i think a lot of folks are in the community camp with us.
@Louis: As a matter of fact I CAN’T tell that you are not a writer. Your comment was great. It flowed well and you have an even paced friendly writing style. It was a pleasure to read.
@Cory: I like the idea of micro communities within your community. I think that is a natural outcome of us Twitter folk who like to consider ourselves “community organizers”.
Fantastic responses, Twitterers. Keep it up!
George
@theTVaholic
@Tumblemoose: I haven’t really seen any of the Twitter stats apps that have info in regards to interaction, except TweetStats.com does tell you what percentage of your tweets are @someone. If you could also see what percentage of your followers have tweeted @you, then you would have an idea, but unless you have 1000s of followers, you can probably figure this out pretty easy just by a quick look at your @Replies.
When it comes to Twitter followers, it’s definitely a quality over quantity thing and looking at the interaction/conversations going on in your community is one way of measuring that. Much like Derek mentioned above about “die-hard customers,” you’d rather have followers that don’t just follow all the time.
@mikenichols0
Thanks for a thought-provoking post, George!
To me, Twitter is all about community. I follow those whose conversations I am interested in, or from whom I think I can learn something. And it doesn’t have to be in my chosen niche or within my range of interests.
I look upon Twitter as a way to meet and converse with people I would never have an opportunity to encounter here in the “physical” world.
@dantanner
Take a look at twittergrade.com Twitter Elite. What do you see? CNET , CNN, and others with massive followers. Yet none of these people seem to ” follow ” anyone else! All these people are non-followers, which implies should happen to follow them, you won’t be acknowledged let alone they will respond to you in kind. If that equation satisfies you great.
CNET, CNN are established businesses they don’t need anything to follow, you as small businesses owner will have to go through hoops.
@tumblemoose
@Jason: Thanks for the info on that. I wonder if any developers are listening?…
@Mike: Hi Twitter buddy! Thanks for coming over and commenting. I think you’ve got just the right take on things. And even though we’ve just recently met on Twitter, I know from your tweets that you are a community kind of guy.
George
@frank_einstien
Thank you for the wonderful post. I will tweet this post to my tweeple. I will check out the profile of the author and a few commentors. I will be more involved in the community.
Twitter is about reaching out – in 140 charecters or less!
@zaellen
Yes! Thanks so much for this…I have always been one of those people who craves interactions with REAL people…I’m so grateful for twitter and for the friends I’ve made who are authentic and passionate about what they are doing and finding and who they are meeting and what they have to offer. Feels like people who are only in it for #’s are like the stereotypical used car salesman loudly wearing their self centered agenda on their sleeve…It’s too bad, because they are missing so much! Great post…I’ll be retweeting it!
@tumblemoose
Ellen,
Thank you so much for your enthusiastic comment! You feel just the same as I do about Twitter. I appreciate the RT, as I think a lot of folks feel the same way and just haven’t been able to find a verbalizing point.
Cheers!
George
@vikdug
George,
Completely agree. Great post. Like all great things, creating community takes time and endurance. Follow with purpose, and engage it dialogue that adds value. I’d also like to add this bit: “Stop Shouting“. This SM/SN space is all about having that 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-way communication.
Keep up the great work.
@AdsenseWench
I don’t see much point in following everyone under the sun, though I’ve seen some social media mavens recommend following everyone who follows you. I’m not one of the folks who constantly sends messages to people too. There’s only so much reading of inner circle stuff I want to do when I’m on Twitter (okay, not any), so I try not to inflict much of that on others.
I agree that patience is a virtue, and there’s a bit to be said for playing it cool too. Provide some value with your little tweets and don’t try to ingratiate yourselves to people, and you’ll be probably enjoy your Twitter experience more than if you’re always angling to get in with the cool kids.
@BlackpoolCNews
The Twitter experience is different for each user and perhaps should be as unregulated as possible by ‘protocols’.
My Twitter experience today has led me;
1. To watch the leader of the UK Opposition speaking live at Reuters (and ask him a question via Twitter);
2. To welcome new Twitterers as friends;
3. To discover new interesting stuff for my Blogs;
4. To enjoyment – it’s actually been fun!
Let each of our Twitter experiences be as different and unique as we are!
@tumblemoose
@Vik: It’s good to have you here. Thanks for the compliments and the link – heading over to check it out here in a minute.
@Wench: I love your words about adding value to your little tweets. Maybe that should be the question everyone asks themselves before the hit “reply”.
@Ray: Thanks for showing us some of the very cool things that Twitter usage can do for all of us. That’s very impressive!
Cheers
George
@bloggeries
Cool post. I think a synergy of both tactics is best.
It also depends heavily on the nature of your website and the intent of your twitter goals. If you have a product that service that is of use to the entire community then your approach would be different than someone who is an expert in a smaller niche.
@hectorhenry17
good pots, i willput in practice, and its a great idea, sometime or thge great part of the time we put oar idea on nombers and not on valuable information.
Than you.
@trevorwolfe
One of the better educational posts on how to ensure a more enjoyable twitter experience. Thanks.
@OvernightSite
One of my favorite sayings “Slow and Steady Wins the Race” I use it all the time and it is so true for social media and internet marketing
@dariasteigman
Hi George,
Thank you for interjecting a dose of common sense into the otherwise frenetic discussion about followers. I raised many the same issue on my blog recently (On Twitter: Can You Have Too Many Followers?), and talked about the need to make sure that value flows both ways.
My Twitter strategy has been much like yours: to add followers slowly as I find people I think will add value, and to add them a few at a time so I can get actually listen to them and add them to my conversation. As you so aptly said, it’s about building community.
Best,
Daria
@tumblemoose
@bloggeries: I think that is an important distinction. For some users other strategies may be more effective for sure.
@Hector A: That is true, I think. It should be about people and not numbers. Thanks for commenting!
@Trevor: Hey, Thank you. I’m glad you liked it!
@Matt: Mine too. Bingo!
@Daria: Thanks for the thoughtful comments. I’m glad to know we see eye to eye on this, as apparently so many other folks do as well.
@All: Wonderful comments, folks. It sounds like this method of handling Twitter resonates with a lot of you. Thanks for coming by and contributing, one and all.