Twitter Mistakes The Pro’s Make
I find myself acutely observant of the way various high profile Twitter personalities approach their use of the platform. Insight into their personal styles and why they have chosen to go about things the way they do allows me the opportunity to learn from those who have a proven track record in a way that no conference, camp, or meetup can. In many cases they honestly know a thing or two I don’t and no matter how knowledgeable or successful you are in your field, there is always something to be learned from those who are where you would like to be. Sometimes however, when you are the one in that place, there is something to be learned from those who are where you once were.
link link RTlink @reply @reply-inside-joke link @reply RTlink @reply…
So, we already know who you are because we’ve seen you or heard of you somewhere else. We follow you because we are expecting some kind of insight from you that we can’t get anywhere else. Yet when you interact it’s mainly with people you already know, and it’s only funny or interesting to the two of you. Hardly ever do you interact or publicly reply to those you don’t know. You tweet your own links, you tweet your friends links, you tweet your companies links. Seldom do you add something to the conversations going on in your stream, rarely do you interject things you have not already said elsewhere.
If you’re in the industry and so am I, odds are that I already follow Mashable, TechCrunch et al. and I don’t need a “best of” from 75% of the people I follow. Ask yourself what is unique about your stream and what nuggets you are sharing that make following you valuable to those who are actually using Twitter.. We all know just how much/little our follower count means: especially for those who know how to build that amount. It’s the ones who are interested, interacting, and responsive that are valuable to us: not the 185,853 Donald Trump MLM accounts, 54,848 porn accounts, and 12,437 abandoned accounts that make up your numbers.
If you are going to mostly post links at least go digging around for interesting and unique links that haven’t already passed through my stream countless times. Or add an interesting tidbit about your perspective on the link when you retweet it, if a heavily retweeted link is that relevant to your stream.
Though you might not be attending to your account with the same fervor as those of us in the trenches, there is definitely something to be said for those who show their followers that they are paying attention and taking in what is being said. Someone who is excellent at this is @GaryVee. He is responsive to those who attempt to interact with him, he reaches out to those who reference him: and it turns his followers into fans… into customers.
Promotion is a huge part of why we are all here, but if I’m sitting through your propaganda (as I ask those who follow me to sit through my own), show a bit of your personality as well. If you are a “personality” then I assume you must have one. Show it! Post an unrelated link once in a while. Tell a joke. Share your thoughts on a movie you recently saw or a book you read. What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream? Though too much of this can be tiring, a taste of it here and there makes those who follow you feel that they know you a little better. The more we relate to you the more we trust what you have to say.
Some people have streams that are consistently either always positive and optimistic or always negative and pessimistic. Quite possibly, that is part of your “personal brand” but real people are made up of varying shades of gray. Behind every personal brand is… ready for it? A PERSON. If all you do is gripe, complain, or rant… that grows tiring after a while. If every day you are a ray of sunshine it comes off as inauthentic. There is nothing wrong with admitting you are having a bad day or that something did not go right for you. Honestly, it makes you more relatable.
As more and more people clamor to understand Twitter, figure out the tricks of the trade, and ride your coattails into Web 3.o… what are you going to do to continue to set yourself apart? How are you moving us all forward? Are you in innovator… or will you evaporate as the playing field levels?
November 24, 2009 - 1:33 am
excellent advice about not posting links that have already been passed out. and excellent advice about showing personality too.
@garyvee is incredible when it comes to interacting with his followers. however, his tweets can get annoying because almost all of them are in response to someone (examples: “thx dude,”
, “yup,” “of course.” i decided to unfollow him for that reason. i imagine it may be tougher to tweet when you have so many followers – you want to respond to and please your fans, but you don’t want to come across as someone who tweets too many unimportant remarks.