by James Mallinson of Organize IT – Follow him @jmallinson
Now that Twitter has several million active users, it’s no surprise to see such a variety of people discussing a wide range of topics. But while the content of all those tweets may be so different, they ultimately fall roughly into five categories.
Now, before you all go off and close your browsers, saying you’ve read it all before, consider the following. All the most popular people on Twitter (excluding celebrities who largely get by due to their fame) are very effective at balancing these five categories to create an interesting and engaging conversation with their followers. They’re not all about retweets or replies and they don’t just talk about their personal life all the time.
I’ll go more into this later in this post, but firstly let’s look at what exactly those five categories are.
- Retweets
Twitter can feel like thousands of people all talking at the same time. There are things you can do to tame it but even so, interesting tweets can all too easily slip past people. That’s why retweeting is so valuable. It’s just like when somebody tells you a funny joke or an interesting story – you don’t keep it to yourself, you share it with your friends and colleagues. - Replies
Interaction is what Twitter is all about. There aren’t photo albums to browse through here. There aren’t groups and fanpages to join. It’s all about what you all say in those 140 characters. The more popular Twitter fans spend a large bulk of their time replying to other people. Just like in real life, you have to make yourself sociable and outgoing. - Niche specific
Unless you’re a celebrity or Twitter/social media whizz, most of the people who follow you will be doing so because of your particular niche, job or interest. Just like in any social gathering, we tag off with those who have a common interest because it’s easier to start conversations that way. When tweeting don’t neglect these people. If you claim to be a big fan of computer games but then spend most of your time tweeting about your cats and your rubbish telesales job, you’ll quickly lose that audience. - Personal
However, that’s not to say personal tweets and tweets that steer off topic aren’t welcome. Quite the opposite. People will become bored of somebody who only ever provides soundbites. People want to interact with humans, not robots. They want to see personality shine through. - Questions/engaging opinion
Nobody likes people who just talk about themselves. Much like with any type of conversation, asking questions and engaging people is key. If you want feedback on something just tweet about it. A well thought out and relevant question can spawn entire debates and conversations. People like to share their opinions so give them an opportunity to do exactly that.
Hopefully you can now see how many of your tweets fall into these categories. There may be overlap, but the principle is there. Take a look through your updates to see what you’ve got. How many are replies? How many are original thoughts? Consider how balanced your Twitter conversations are.
Focusing on just one, or even a couple of these types of tweets, will make you less appealing to potential-followers. For example, doing just retweets will make you look like you have no opinions of your own. Focusing just on replying to people will mean you provide little opportunities for others to engage with you or join in the conversation (most people don’t like to butt in). Focusing just on niche specific tweets means people won’t get to know the personality of the individual behind them.
Of course, it wouldn’t be practical to start getting the calculator out and tracking each type of tweet like some sort of twitter-economist, but a little consideration will go a long way. If you’re just spent a while replying to a few people, consider doing a few retweets or asking your followers their thoughts on a film, for example. Create a healthy balance.
@peterjrday
Really helpful post again. Thank you. The one area I haven’t started yet is asking questions. Got a few up my sleeve though!
@businessethos
These five categories are extremely useful! Twitter is growing so fast–if users don’t take time to learn “twitter best practices”, they can easily get lost in a sea of tweets.
We love Twitter because users can engage as much or as little as they like… craft your tweets into a reflection of your core values–reflecting your ethos.
Thanks for encouraging healthy, balanced, ethos centered tweeting!
@PowerCV
Nice classification of major types of conversation. In one month of actively exploring Twitter, I have come across a few other learning points:
a. There are tools (like Twitalyzer and others) which can provide insights into the type of tweets sent more often statistically. Specially, features like Sound-to-noise ratio (value rovided in terms of replies, useful links, retweet, and hashtag used) and Generosity (retweets, openness to share are important).
b. As important as contributing something useful is, of equal importance is listening – paying attention to others, finding about others and what’s unique about them. This helps in building meaningful relationships on Twitter and fun people to look forward to.
c. It takes time to find one’s own “voice” and uniqueness – knowledgeable? fun? engaging? and such other things. With some people, the tone is easily visible and when it is earnest and genuine, a connection can be built.
I have learnt a lot (at Twitter-speed)
in last one month and the sheer volume of intelligent, useful links and conversation is amazing!
Thanks for a thoughtful article, as usual, from TwiTip.
@sizzler_chetan
You are true. You just can’t keep on tweeting for self, but you should be keeping your account balanced well with replies, retweets, questions etc.
Good post.
@Debi_Calvet
Delicious food for thought!
I believe this will help make be better Twitter user.
@summertomato
Well said! I use Twimailer to decide who to follow back. This tells me a bit about the person, but what I really look at is their last 10 Tweets–balance is exactly what I’m looking for.
Sometimes I will not follow someone in my niche if it is clear they are not really interacting on Twitter but just posting articles and an occasional RT. Conversely I will follow someone I have little in common with if they seem like a sincere, interesting follower.
@writerdad
I spend so much time responding these days, I don’t spend near enough time on creating an intelligent balance. Definitely something I need to work on. I love answering questions, but it is good to ask them as well.
Do we have to be sucessful at everything?! While you are probably right about some of these points, I don’t give a hoot who follows me. I really don’t want to be popular. I have a lot of interests and don’t worry about what I say or what they think. But I am polite and get ticked when people post about 6 posts at once.
I do like your different blogs, and visit them. I just think, if you want to enjoy twittering, it’s no fun to analyze yourself. I don’t look over my shoulder.
@Travelwriticus
Thanks for the post. Generally I try to answer every reply and RT. If this lead into a conversation without relevance to my topics (castles, museums, history) I change to DM. So I hope to have much conversation without bothering my followers who only want to read my latest travel experiences.
@MattWilsontv
Twitter can be used anyway you want, but if you want to come off as a real person, you’ve got to try and do it all.
Rt, @reply, engage people, personal, professional, link sharing, just get out there
@tradingrichmom
Every day is a new learning day: so far I’ve managed to tweet Niche specifics, RTs, and some Personals. I definitely want to work on Engaging opinion and hence reach the Replies stage.
Dagmar
Trading results that make you say W.O.W.
Follow me on http://twitter.com/tradingrichmom
@dan90266
Great post. I think Matt’s got the right idea!
@basebot
It’s all so true. Balance is everything – before I follow someone, I glance at their last tweets. If they are all the same, it’s a turn off. They might be interesting RTs, but if they’re all the same, it looks they have nothing original to say. All @replies makes me think I will see nothing but one half of a conversation, but no @replies makes them look unsociable. And if they’re all quotes from famous people, I click away before you can say Thomas Jefferson.
Great post on Twitter.
I fit into all these categories and am proud of it. One thing that I’m missing so far is that I don’t know what’s up with the replies/mentions war. I like how they coexist.
@DaveSherohman
“That’s why retweeting is so valuable. It’s just like when somebody tells you a funny joke or an interesting story – you don’t keep it to yourself, you share it with your friends and colleagues.”
Unfortunately, unlike somebody repeating jokes/stories, retweeting doesn’t come with a way to say, “Yeah, yeah, stop. I’ve already heard that one 47 times.” Twitter seriously needs a “don’t show me retweets if I have already seen the original or an earlier retweet of the same thing” option.
@KriziaMissK
I’m still not quite certain how to “retweet” and like to get some tips on doing so.
As for the rest of this post, I did find it interesting and it’s surely going to help in directing me in a new direction for my tweets. Up to now, I was a bit lost and wasn’t quite sure what to tweet about, but now it’s much clearer in my head!
@KriziaMissK
@www.blinkyit.com
Thank you good potst.
@ImproveLife
I was wondering… I cant seem to find this answer. But is it good Edicut to say thank you for RT’s? I mean i can get quite alot of them in a single day. Should i say thank you to all them in one tweet or what? Thanks!