Today I’d like to start a new type of post here at TwiTip - Interviews of Effective users of Twitter. I’m going to kick it off with an interview with Steve Rubel (@steverubel) a great Twitter user, PR expert and blogger at Micro Persuasion.
In this interview I ask Steve about his journey with Twitter, how he uses it, about growing follower numbers, for his suggestions on monetizing Twitter and for his views on the future of Twitter (and more).
Note: I asked my followers on Twitter to submit their questions for Steve and have acknowledged those followers to inspired some of the questions below. To be included in this type of thing in future follow @problogger and keep your eyes open for future calls for questions.
Steve thanks for joining us on TwiTip - Can you tell us your Twitter story. When did you start? Why? What attracted you to it?
In December 2006 I was invited to meet Bill Gates as part of a special blogger meeting on the Microsoft campus (Microsoft is a client of my employer but I was invited as a blogger). Evan Williams was at the meeting and we shared a cab to Sea-Tac Airport where he told me about Twitter. I was truly skeptical at first but I signed up when I got back to NY. I wasn’t convinced the site was going places. It wasn’t until about February or March of 2007 that I began to use Twitter in earnest and began to really enjoy it.
What are your goals in using Twitter? - question from @tylerpoling
To share my passion with the community and solicit ideas all with the intent of moving me toward my long-term goal of revolutionizing marketing communications through technology.
Can you tell us about your Twitter workflow? What tools and aps do you use? Do you Tweet all day or just in bursts? - question from @willhiggins and @zaibatsu
As a minimalist, I prefer not to run any more apps than I really need to. So I Tweet using Firefox - the web interface, Twitterbar for Firefox and increasingly Gmail/Google Talk via the Friendfeed connector. Also, I now have Friendfeed set up to syndicate my blog post links into Twitter.
I Tweet when I have time and in bursts but do not read anyone else’s missives other than replies back to me, which I also receive via Google Talk. I would love to read everyone’s Tweets but unfortunately I need to manage where my time and attention go. So this is the system that works for me. I occassionally see more Tweets when I log into Friendfeed.
How did you grow your follower numbers to over 10,000? Any tips that you could share with others wanting to grow their Twitter network? - question from @arrowheadaddict, @benjamteal and @leximo
Really, just organically. I am flattered that people want to follow what I am writing and sharing.
How do you manage the large number of your followers? Does it ever get too much to manage?
The only time it gets difficult to manage is when a lot of people respond to my Tweets at once. But that isn’t very often.
What advice would you give a company using Twitter for the first time? - question from @greenmom
I advise companies to add value to Twitter. They have to identify an unmet need that the Twitter community will respond to and then to be there with one or more human beings to meet it every day.
If you were on the management of Twitter how would you monetize Twitter? (or would you) - question from @sachendra
It seems to me that Twitter is sitting on cash. It just needs to unlock the value. One way is through insights. I bet marketers would pay for advanced insights on what people are saying/doing. The other is through contextual search. Twitter should do a deal with Google or Yahoo to put pay-per-click ads on all the permalink tweet pages and then share the revs with users. The other idea is to monetize search.twitter.com, also with contextual ads. I think the only reason they’re delaying this is to make sure they don’t alienate their community. That’s the biggest risk they face.
Is Twitter just a passing fad or will it still exist in 5 years? How do you see Twitter evolving? - question from @AnitaBruzzese and @justcreative
I have been a participant and observer of online communities since 1988 - that’s 20 years. There’s no community where I am spending time today that was not born in the last five years. If I think back to what I used over the years it spans from Compuserve to AOL to GeoCities to Facebook, Twitter and Friendfeed today. No community has ever had staying power. TIme will tell if Twitter can break the trend. I don’t see a moat there yet.
Further, they’re at risk at becoming just infrastructure as people interface with the site through all of the other ports, most notably, apps, Facebook and Friendfeed. I hope I am wrong. Five years may not be a timeframe long enoughf for change.
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
That was a really great interview. Great advice from Steve Rubel. He’s the renegade (new media) master.
Great pots abnd interview
Really interesting insight into Twitter’s longevity prospects. I rarely think of the fine line the site walks, I just use Twitter for entertainment and rarely consider it as a resource for anything more than that. I hope they do maximize the financial opportunities they have… I certainly wouldn’t be put off by the suggestions made here. Thanks for an interesting read!
Steve’s closing comments are perhaps the most perspective I have on Twitter’s longevity in the format we use now. It reminds me too that my first blogging was armed with HTML 4 under my arm as I managed a layout on Geocities (before Yahoo bought Gcities). I wrote for three years there before the word blogging was part of a vocabulary. At this point in time, between blogs, PODs and groups and communities among social networks, I am experiencing my own selfish desire, and that is to have a circle of listening friends and mates. Surprisingly, or not, these friends vary on the globe and sometimes am closer through 140 characters or less, to them than my neighbors. One of the practices that I have taken from the challenge of 140 characters or less in the message, is carrying this over to my conversations in audio/video enabled chat. With the upcoming implementation of Google’s audio and video Gmail client the future is there and just as in real life, no long paragraphs or drama. Don’t be a bore. In actuality, in my years in chat interface, anyone who uses more than 60 characters gets flagged as potential troublemakers or ignored quickly. Guess that is why Emoticons were created. Please no emoticons in twitter any time soon.
Steve Rubel has been around for a long time. I can’t believe he has been doing it this long. Speaking of the interview I hope Twitter stays around for a while. I’d hate to see it go. It’s a great tool
Darren,
Thank you for taking the time to interview Steve Rubel. I have followed his tweets for a some months now and he has taken me in some interesting directions.
I for one would like to know some of the creative ways Mr. Rubel has made use of Twitter (promoting blog posts, supporting causes, growing his business, helping others, etc.). I look forward to more Twitteratti interviews from you Darren.
Thanks for bringing these sorts of folks closer to Earth.
John Easton
http://www.customerflypaper.com/about
wow. over 10,000 followers and he’s a minimalist… more power to ya Steve!
Anyone how has the audience of Bill Gates is worth checking out.
Thanks for the post Darren
what a great idea, interviewing those successfully contributing to community development and promotion of their business. I have already started asking more questions from the Tweets following me~thx for sharing your insights.
Will this interview idea be a continuous thing? Will you be hosting weekly or monthly Twitter interviews?
Great post. Steve Rubel is an expert at social media or anything web trends
That’s great interview Darren. I’ve always amazed on how you can find this cool idea of interviewing prominent Twitter users. Love Twitter.
This was an awesome interview. I hope twitter stays around for a while too. I think some of us would have to go to therapy if twitter went away. Hee Hee.
Greate one.I am following <50 and having problems reading everybody there and he is doing it marvelously. I also hope twitter will be there at my 30th Bday. Also monetizing Twitter they will do it soon as per my view.
I really like the idea Steve mentions of syndicating your blog posts links through Friendfeed so they also post to Twitter. I’m going to check that out.
Also, the reason Steve has so many followers is because he has a knack for sharing excellent tips and insights. I’ve picked up a lot from him.
Thanks for the great interview!