by Jamie Harrop (follow him at @jamieharrop and learn more about him at the bottom of this post).
Having reached 750 followers earlier today and wrote over 6,000 updates, I’m a big fan of Twitter. But over the last week I’ve found myself becoming too much of a fan. Defending Twitter to the death has become a part of my daily life.
Across Facebook and forums, I’ve conversed with hundreds of people who “don’t get” Twitter, and people who claim to “get it” but really don’t.
Now, I have no problem with people who don’t understand Twitter. It’s a phenomenon, for sure, and one that is going to take time to develop in to a household name in any area outside of Uber-Geek-Street. But it’s when people claim to understand Twitter, but still say they hate it, that I step up to the plate and feel the need to bear arms and defend.
Sausage and Eggs for Breakfast
The conversation usually goes like this:
John Doe – “I hate Twitter”
Jamie – “Why?”
John Doe – “I don’t want to know what somebody ate for breakfast!”
Jamie – “If you used Twitter, you would know it’s nothing like that”
John Doe – “I have used Twitter, and it’s exactly like that”
Jamie – “Maybe that’s because you’re not using Twitter in the best way?”
At this point I usually scuttle away to John Doe’s now defunct Twitter account to find his last Tweet that reads “Had sausage and eggs for breakfast. Eggs didn’t smell too good”.
The law of attraction plays a huge part in your Twitter experience
If you follow boring, selfless, “I ate sausage for lunch” twitter users, your experience of twitter will seem boring and selfless
When I open up Twhirl each morning, all I’m concerned about is how much value Twitter brings me. But after 19 months of using it, I’ve come to realise that the amount of value I get from Twitter is directly determined by the amount of value I give to Twitter.
If you want Twitter to give you value, try giving some value first.
5 ways to Give Value to Your Twitter Followers
Here are five ways to give value to your followers, in the hope that value is returned.
1. Retweet Messages
There’s not many things on Twitter that grab the attention of somebody more than a retweet. A retweet instantly builds a relationship. It shows the person you’re retweeting that you enjoy what they just wrote and you want to engage in conversation.
When someone retweets a Tweet by me, I’m much more excited, engaged and grateful than I am when I receive a normal reply. Retweets to Twitter are what StumbleUpon is to blogs and word of mouth recommendations are to offline businesses. Positive comments and feedback are great, but it’s so much better to see people taking the time to share your message with others.
2. Build friendships by Replying
It’s very easy to be one dimensional when using Twitter. You wake up in the morning and reach the office, open up Twhirl or Tweetdeck, write a couple of Tweets, minimise the program to the task bar, open the program again at lunch and write a few more Tweets, then minimise it again.
It’s the people who take time to keep Twhirl or Tweetdeck open, and take the time to read their followers Tweets, and take the time to reply to those Tweets, that truly make the biggest impact on Twitter.
Even if it’s just for 30 minutes a day, take time to actively read your followers Tweets and reply to them. Be two dimensional in your use of Twitter and you’ll provide much more value to your new friends.
3. Treat Twitter Like a Party, Not a Show and Tell
Much like how at a party it would be classed as rude to walk up to every person and throw them a business card, it’s rude to show off your blog address on a regular basis in front of people you haven’t built a relationship with.
Parties and networking events are not meant to produce instant results, but rather meant to aid in the building of new relationships to ensure there is a return in the far future. Whether that return is a new customer for your business, or, possibly in Twitter’s case, a visit to your Web site, the relationship should be built first and done so over an extended period.
Don’t expect quick results from Twitter. You must build solid, honest relationships first.
4. Introduce New People
Twitter is a game of emotions and relationships. It’s no surprise, then, that the key to Twitter is to make people smile and to stand out from the masses. Introducing new people is a fantastic way to do this.
Maybe you’ll send a Tweet recommending to your other followers that they “follow John, he’s a great guy!”. Or maybe you’ll send a Tweet recommending several people at once. #FollowFriday, the weekly occurrence where users recommended other people to follow is exactly what this is.
You’re making people feel special, while letting them know how much you appreciate their Tweets. Win win!
5. Start a Conversation and Share the Results
In the same way that bringing interactivity to your blog and letting your audience generate the content is a fantastic way to build relationships, using polls and starting questions for debate on Twitter are excellent methods to engage your audience and promote interaction within your circle of followers.
A poll or question for debate each day will go a long way in helping you establish relationships. Of course, you should always share the results of any poll or debate you manage. All too often, I see Twitter users ask a poll question and then never Tweet the results. What use is a community poll if the community can’t see the results? Tweet your poll results, and retweet good answers to your questions.
What Results Can You Expect to See?
At just over 750 followers, I’m by no means the most popular Twitter user. However, even this relatively small number (relative to the likes of Darren’s 37,000 followers), Twitter has brought me:
- Two job interviews
- $5,000+ of freelance Web development and blogging work
- A quarter of my blog subscriber base
- The ability to build a monthly blogger get together in my local area
- The chance to meet some fantastic people and network like I’ve never done before
When you use Twitter with the community in mind, the results from even a small amount of followers can be quite amazing!
Give to Twitter what you want Twitter to give to you.
What has Twitter brought you? Do you try to ensure you use Twitter as a 2D medium, engaging in conversation with others, rather than just writing about what you are interested in? Let us know in the comments!
This has been a guest post by Jamie Harrop. Jamie has been Tweeting for 19 months @jamieharrop, and blogging for over four years. Today, with posts such as 7 Reasons Why I Wonít Comment On Your Blog, he writes about customer service, business, blogging, social media and self improvement at Jamie Harrop Dot Com.
@mintblogger
Excellent article Jamie. The statistics you provided at the end of the post are good enough to persuade any learner/newbie in tweetvilla.
@Sheamus
Nicely said. I’ve been experiencing similiar ‘problems’ with my Twitter-shy friends the past couple of weeks, many of whom complain about not ‘getting it’. What I discovered with a few seconds enquiry was that all of them were effectively treating it like Facebook, and simply following (and being followed by) their real-world mates: all of whom weren’t ‘getting it’ either.
End result was I decided to write a huge blog post with them in mind, but others have found it of use, too. (“So You Don’t Get Twitter?”>).
Twitter doesn’t help itself here, really: the first thing most people see is ‘What Are You Doing?’ and in the world of mostly inane Facebook status updates, it’s all too easy to take that too literally.
@Sheamus
Oops… tried to edit my bad link, but the Ajax editor isn’t displaying my post. Apologies…
@ecomind
Excellent article.. and then you sum it up in the end with some positive outcomes of your efforts – WTG!
Article is bookmarked and will be tweeted/retweeted.
Cheers..
@pdauncey
great post and I agree with all of this, I find Twitter incredibly useful and know that the value I have gained from it has risen in line with how much I contribute and I was absolutely terrified to begin. Really loved the stats at the end of your post too, very useful, would love to know about other people’s experiences too.
@hughbriss
I have almost 3300 followers and can’t remember the last time I saw someone tweet about something as mundane as what they had for breakfast.
@Orbius
Unscientific survey of my friends 40+ yo. 20% heard of twitter. Less than 5% could relate to its usefulness. Long way fr mainstream I think .
@DanTPlayer
I’m thinking RT’ing should be as easy as replying, where there is a link on the action tweet and you just click it to generate the message again.
@AuntieStress
Hi Jamie,
Great advice. Something I have not yet done is Suggestion # 5. Thanks for highlighting the benefits.
Sheamus, what do you think would be a better opening question for Twitter? How about, “What are you thinking?” or “What do you wish to share?”
@Sheamus
@Marianna, I think the question was fine when Twitter first started, because back then it really was little more than a rival to the status update facility on Facebook.
Things have changed quite a bit since then, however, and we’re only of late realising the vast power of the platform. If Twitter decides to change their tagline – and I think most people are now realising that they should – it needs to be equally catchy/gripping, but definitely closer to your ’share’ idea. Possibly: ‘What Do You Want To Share With The World?’ or similar. The word ’share’ definitely encourages the use of links and that kind of thing, which is where Twitter excels.
@bergenlarsen
Definitely one of the more valuable pieces of advice:
“Don’t expect quick results from Twitter. You must build solid, honest relationships first.”
I have this bad habit of wanting what I want now and getting frustrated when it doesn’t happen the way I expect it to. Valuable post for new and oldie twitter followers.
@adriandayton
Great article. So many people don’t “GET” twitter. That is fine with me right now, I am reeping the benefits while others complain about the terrible economy. Twitter is here to stay because it is just so darn useful. I have had a number of great leads for my business, and met a ton of good contacts that are helping me get my book published. I have only been on twitter a month, but I am hooked.
@jamieharrop
@Rajeev Thanks for the comment, Rajeev. The statistics really are quite hard hitting and direct, aren’t there? With those kind of bullet points, nobody can say there is no value in Twitter.
@Sheamus Thanks Sheamus! I completely agree with you. Twitter is different to almost all other social networks in that it is setup to help you meet new people, rather than just connecting with people you already know. I think the question “What are you doing?” was good at the start, but Twitter has evolved past that question. “What is of interest to you?” or something similar would probably be a better fitting question.
@Are Morch Hey Are. Thanks for the kind words and retweets.
@Paula Dauncey I’m currently compiling a list of people on Twitter who have seen real value (job interviews, freelance work, or maybe even a new girlfriend/boyfriend), so hopefully I’ll be able to share some of the more wacky and wonderful experiences of Twitter users in a future blog post.
@HughBriss That sounds like you’re following and interacting with the right people, Hugh.
@C.H. Low Oh, it’s certainly a long way from mainstream, but it will get there, and will probably do so faster than most other Internet phenomenons, I think.
@Dan Massicotte Hey Dan! This can be done in most Twitter application programs. Twhirl, for examples, allows you to just click one button. But yes, it would be nice to have this feature in Twitter’s Web interface. Afterall, the Web interface is the most popular way to use Twitter.
@Marianna Paulson Glad I was able to get you thinking, Marianna.
Thanks for all the comments so far folks.
Jamie
@bendtheweb
lol @ the end. He just didn’t want to follow people as boring as himself!
@mikecj
Hi Jamie – you’re popping up all over the place!
This is a really good piece – the bottom line with twitter is balance. I’m quite interested to know what someone had for breakfast, as long as that’s not all they’re telling me! Like you, Twitter has been very good to me, and I also end up defending it, but maybe we should give up, and let them come to the party when they’re ready.
@steveborgman
This is a fantastic post! I love the ways that you show us specifically how to add value. I am sure this can be applied to all social networking that we do. The measure we receive is the measure we give in terms of value. I liked also what you said about interacting versus being one dimensional, and about interacting, versus show and tell.
@davidbmiller
Excellent article Jamie. You covered all of the bases and it doesn’t matter if you are just starting out or have been doing it awhile this is what you should be doing.
@crgonzalez
As in life, so too in Twitter. You do get back what you put into it. Well documented, Jamie. It takes creativity to truly see possibility, so I am not surprised that the vast majority of newcomers don’t “get it” right away. If anything, Twitter is a bird’s-eye view (pardon the pun) on the human personality and its social behavior.
@LoneWolfMuskoka
I especially like your third suggestion! It is like a big party.
As for the question, maybe they should have a selection of random ones come up, like “What’s on your mind?”, “Vent here:” or “Tell me a story.” Maybe they could set up a way for users to submit them for their friends (probably would need some kind of filter on that 8=)
@vanderwijk
I think a great way of convincing new twitter users is to show them twitter search. I am sure that twitter search will soon pass Google. Real time search is the next big thing and that is what makes twitter so special.
Lately there have been quite a few occasions in which twitter has proven to have changed the way we experience the news. Just think of the twitter messages about the Mumbay attacks and the airplane in the Hudson.
Even today a simple search for gmail on twitter made me soon realize I was not the only one who was suffering from a gmail outage!
@summertomato
I think it’s funny that everyone always uses “What I ate for breakfast” as an example of the most useless Tweet. As a health/food blogger, my readers absolutely love hearing about everything I eat (I’ve been “TwEating” every single thing I put in my mouth for over 2 months). It helps people understand what healthy eating really entails, but also show them that I am human and eat burgers and cake!
Now that I have discovered FoodFeed, I actually keep a link to my TwEats prominent on my blog, and will soon convert it into a full feed.
This is overall great advice, but I contend that any Tweet can be useful if you think about it long enough.
@scottabel
I wrote a piece about Twitter recently that might help. It’s called “Ending The Twitter Mystery: What People Think About Twitter—And How They Use It”.
@DotComDud
The only issue I have is with #4, usually when I see someone suggesting another user to follow it just strikes me as another method of building up a mass following as quickly as possible (something I’ve been guilty of in the past) and I don’t really see it as adding value. That might just be my perception though and not the norm.
@retroblique
My advice to Twitter newbies:
1. Follow people.
2. Follow people.
3. Follow people.
I’ve lost count of the number of friends who sign up for Twitter, only to maintain a ZERO following count for months on end, occasionally tweeting something like, “I really don’t get Twitter!”, “Not much happening here!” or “Is this thing on?”
I usually recommend that they use a Twitter search engine to see what people are saying about their favorite TV shows, bands, movies, games, books, or whatever else they’re interested in. They invariably find something interesting, at which point I encourage them to start replying to some of the Tweets, or checking out the profiles of the Tweeters.
I suspect some people think of Twitter as nothing more than a pointless clone of Facebook’s status updates, a service that most people use just to post pointless fluff about their everyday activities. If you approach Twitter from that perspective then that’s all it will be — and if you’re not proactive enough to seek out other Twitter users and read what they have to say, it’s as good as useless.
@phaoloo
Thanks for your 5 useful tips. I try 4 of them and gain many followers. Maybe I am luckier than John Doe in your post cos I start follow folks here on TwiTip who are really kind and help me a lot.
@64bitjungle
Thanks for the informative article. I’m still trying to “get” Twitter – but I’m almost there. I can see that the benefits of Twitter are proportional to the effort you put in to it, and that it’s a potentially incredibly powerful networking tool (and fun). The more I use it, the more I “get” it
By the way, I had cheesecake for breakfast – leftover from last night. Very tasty.
@vlb
I posted a suggestion for Twitter “Twitter asks: What are you doing? Let’s change that” http://getsatisfaction.com/twitter/topics/twitter_asks_what_are_you_doing_lets_change_that
If you like the idea, vote it up
On the topic of people “trying Twitter” and still not getting it, I have a co-worker like that. He “tried it” for a whole month. He thinks it’s lame and stupid (as most social media sites are lame and stupid) and he wishes it would just go away. Or so he says.
We’ve agreed not to discuss the matter any further.
@johnsamuel
It’s great to see what you have achieved even with 750 followers.
@Sheamus
@Lonewolf’s idea of a ‘random’ question on Twitter is a great one. This way, they could very easily cover all the bases: what are you doing, what do you want to share, what are you thinking, and so on.
@Aspire_to_Grace
Great post. I am literally 3 days old. I am following three and have three followers. I have a long way to go, but am thankful for posts like these to learn the ropes.
@Sheamus
Wow, kids today are so more advanced than when I was a lad!
@robodaniel
I get a little miffed when Twitterers forget to check their @Replies regularly. If you’re following any number of active people, you can’t possibly hope to ever catch all of the stuff in the “timeline” that was directed at you. You’ve gotta check – and respond to – the @Replies.
Probably the most frustrating thing about Twitter for me as an old dog trying to learn some new social media tricks is how linear it is. And where this is more like cocktail party chatter, I’m more often that guy over in the corner who wants to actually “talk” – y’know, engage in a conversation.
@rick_smith
This was great! I do a video blog where I “interview” random people from twitter. People have really enjoyed it. It has allowed others to see that “twitter” people are “real” people. Me and some friends have also set up several area “tweetups” (www.trainfriday.com and others on my blog http://rickwsmith.com/blog ) I think this is also a good idea as it lets people get “offline” and meet in “real” life!
There really are great ways to use twitter if you are creative, and not selfish!
@leialai
Excellent post Jamie!
I was one of those people who didn’t ‘get’ Twitter at first. My boss was using it, lots of the coworkers at Old Broadcasting House in Leeds were using it, but like Sheamus says, it’s mostly because when i started i was treating it like Facebook.
It all changed within 1 day, when one of our coworkers went to an event i couldn’t make it to. But due to his expert Tweeting skills, the next day he had essentially told me everything i could possibly have needed to know. Not only did i know what had happened at the event, but i saw everyone’s comments and feedback about it, links to blog posts and future events and so much more.
Now I look at Twitter as something that is not only fun and communicative, but something that makes my job so much easier! I no longer have to spend hours doing research to work out what’s coming up – all i have to do is see what everyone is Tweeting about!
Like you, i’ve now had tons of benefits from Twitter, including both personal and business connections, funding opportunities, invitations to events, and free cake! Here’s hoping there is much more to come in future.
@holliejtaylor
Excellent advise Jamie – You are truly the “Mr Manners of the Dales” . You have picked out a few tips that many would not necessarily think of. Will go and follow. PS.I luv twitter 2 !
@producteering
I was definitely one of those who just *didn’t* get Twitter. Until i found the twitip site earlier today. Its not that i get it now becos i really havent started using Twitter, but now it sounds interesting to me. Who knows — i might end up even liking it. Thanks to all the contributors to twitip and for all the useful comments as well
Great thoughts, thanks Jamie.
And while I recognize some of the fantastic use cases Twitter enabled, and the great time people have on Twitter, I still find myself wondering, what is the overall polarity of the role Twitter plays in the great scheme of human evolution as such, and how it will be regarded (probably looked back on) in 2050 or 2100.
You are welcome to read my post about this on gyulasimonyi.com/: Is twitter good for you?