| What I Have Learned About Twitter |
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| Written by Justyn |
| Monday, 16 March 2009 21:29 |
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As I've said before, I think Twitter is a tremendously valuable resource, for everyone. It is a wealth of information I would not have had otherwise, it is a great platform for networking with like-minded users and it can be a great place to grow your business. That said, it's not all rainbows and puppy dogs in Twitterland. It can be filled with spam, attention hogs and information overflow. Here are some of things I have learned to streamline and enhance my Twitter experience that I hope will make your Twitter experience a great one; A large following does not necessarily mean a valuable Twitterer. Some of the people I get great value from, have the same number of followers as people who are clearly using lame tactics to amass followers and are only there to promote themselves. Don't pay any attention to your follower numbers and don't follow people purely in hopes that they will return the favor. A large, irrelevant network is pointless. A few hundred followers who are engaged and interested in what you have to say are far more valuable to you than 20,000 who have no similar interests. Only follow people who can add some bit of value to your world. The same goes for re-following people who have followed you. There's a 75% chance that person is barely aware that they followed you, much less has anything in common with you. Your network will grow organically with useful people, and whether you heed this advice now or not, at some point you will wish you did. All of those meaningless followers just degrade your interactions with the useful ones and add tons of background noise, which is something we could all use less of. > 100 followers? Get TweetDeck and learn to use the filters! Even if you do a great job of only making meaningful connections on Twitter, you are quickly going to end up with more updates than you can realistically sort through. It will become difficult to find the useful posts among the hundreds or thousand you will get in a day. TweetDeck, which is a desktop program that displays your various Twitter messages, has a handy tool which allows you to create groups of users which are displayed in their own area. Using this feature, you can create a group of those users who add the most value. This is where you will find my favorite blog authors, close friends, and those who are better than me in any area I want to improve (@Tony Robbins, @Tim Ferriss, @Guy Kawasaki, @Mari Smith, etc.). These are the posts I am excited to read and the people I have meaningful interaction with. For an example of how useful this can be, take a look at my incoming notifications for the last 3 minutes:
I could either sort through all 83 messages to find the most useful ones, or I can quickly glance at the 3 I know have value. I've saved a ton of time and made sure I don't miss the good stuff. Occasionally I'll move someone from "All Friends" to my "1st String" groups. I love adding people to this group, but you have to earn the right to be there by adding value to my day. Filter @ replies from "All Friends" in TweetDeck. Another great way to use filters is to eliminate those one-sided conversation you have surely seen plenty of, from your "All Friends" area on TweetDeck. It's common and perfectly acceptable for one of your friends, to reply to one of their own (non-mutual) friends using the @ reply. The problem is, this fills up your message area with updates that have no relevance or meaning to you.
What have I gained from that? Only the knowledge that I missed something funny. Had I read that update, I might feel left out, but I didn't (read it). Here's how that post could have been useful;
In the bottom of your "All Friends" window on TweetDeck, simply replicate the filter I've shown above to get rid of those @ conversations. Don't be "That" guy. There are tons of users on Twitter today, and more will follow as it becomes more popular, who use any trick they can find to add followers. I won't go into depth on how this is done because I don't want to add to the problem. Just don't do it! You're probably reading this blog because you sell something. As such, it's in our nature to look for new ways to promote our business. Just don't take these shortcuts. Your value from Twitter as a sales professional will come from being a useful resource, engaging in conversation and making connections that ultimately grow your business as a result, not a purpose. As these practices become more common, it degrades the value of this wonderful platform and goes against the intent of why the tool was created. How NOT to get followed.
The Brilliance of Twitter This post may seem too loaded with caution and gloom, which does not accurately reflect my affection for Twitter. The challenge is that as a community, we are starting to see some worrisome trends which these ideas can help you to avoid/propagate. Now I would like to share with you some of the things I have personally gained from using Twitter;
Please share your thoughts on how we can all use Twitter more effectively?
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