But first, what is it? According to Twitter, it's "An information network. Twitter is a real-time information network that connects you to the latest stories, ideas, opinions and news about what you find interesting. Simply find the accounts you find most compelling and follow the conversations."
I've been on Twitter for about a year, but I'm still confused. I use it to tweet a bit about my book and other author's books. I retweet a lot. Sometimes I tweet a positive saying or recommend someone's blog post. But really, that's about it. I definitely don't bombard my followers with tweets to buy my book.
But I notice some people will say right up front that if you're not following to get to know them, that they will unfollow you. What's up with that? Can you know someone in short bursts of 140 characters or less?
And that brings me to another question: Is there a strategy for who to follow or not? I mean, do I follow someone because they have a lot of followers and their reach is further if they happen to retweet something of mine? Or do I not follow them because they have too many followers to pay any attention to anything I might put out there and their stuff just clogs my feed?
I also notice that some of my new followers might have 80,000 followers and only follow 10K? Do they follow and then unfollow for some reason?
I follow mostly authors, but also a few others like Maya Angelou and Tiny Buddha who always have something positive to say. Should I be following everyone I can in order to increase my following? Should I always return a follow?
Maybe I'm being naïve, but I really don't understand if I should have some kind a strategy...
Do you have a Twitter strategy? Should I?
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P.S. Angela Brown's having a Q & A session over on Facebook on Saturday, called The Good, the Bad and the Quirky. I know from experience how fun and clever and witty she is, so I can't wait to check it out.
Hope you can stop by, too!
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P.S. Angela Brown's having a Q & A session over on Facebook on Saturday, called The Good, the Bad and the Quirky. I know from experience how fun and clever and witty she is, so I can't wait to check it out.
Hope you can stop by, too!
Definitely don't follow everyone because I get some from randoms who are trying to sell something I'm not interested in. Apart from that, I'm pretty much as in the dark as you! I try to tweet a few times a week to keep my hand in, but I haven't had much time for it lately. Definitely need a strategy...
ReplyDeleteNick, I've gotten some of those, too, and I don't follow them - too pushy. But I just kind of flounder around and am not consistent with tweeting, and maybe I should be?
DeleteI read once that most people can only comfortably follow about 150 people (give or take a few). I found that true in my case, once I got past 150, it all became noise.
ReplyDeleteI've had friends advise me to put only the people whose tweets I want to read on a list so I'm not bothered with the others, but it kind of defeats the purpose of Twitter, doesn't it?
Why have 10,000 followers if you're only interested in a couple hundred? It seems dishonest to the other 9,980 who hope they're on your approved list.
And don't get me started on tweeting. Madness! LOL!
I've wondered what the list thing is. It sounds sort of like FB where you're friends with a lot of people, but you don't want to miss some friend's posts in particular so you check the "show in my feed" box. But yeah, I don't know enough to create a list, LOL!
DeleteNah, don't follow everyone. But following other writers and bloggers and people with similar interests is a good idea.
ReplyDeleteDon't just tweet ads for books (yours or other people's). If I look at someone's Twitter profile and all they ever tweet is a book ad, I don't follow.
Be part of the conversation. Respond to other people's comments. Make witty comments yourself. Share something interesting you're doing. For instance, I once saw someone tweet that they were planning a trip to Mexico City. I tweeted back that I had just been and could recommend 2 great restaurants. A conversation ensued, even in 140 characters!
That makes sense, Dianne. I'm not on there a lot, though, so I should probably tweet more about random or more personal things so it doesn't seem like I'm just pimping books when I do get on there.
DeleteI have no idea what I am doing there either.
ReplyDeleteSome people will follow just to gain followers and then dump almost everyone. I catch those through whounfollowedme.com. (And unfollow them.)
I made a list of those who are my blogger buddies and friends and often I'll pull up just that feed so I can see some familiar faces.
I have gotten the feeling that some of those people with a large number of followers only follow me for the follow back, then dump me. Why else would they have so many followers but only follow a few in return? Unless of course they're a big celebrity, which doesn't seem like it to me. So people must unfollow to clean up their feed, right? I think I will make a list of my friends, too.
DeleteNo twitter strategy here. I tend to fill my feed with sarcastic haiku about my day job, so I'm probably using it wrong.
ReplyDeleteLOL, that sounds kind of fun, MJ - am I following you? I'll go look you up :)
DeleteI just drop in from time to time. Sometimes I see all the BUY MY NEW BOOK! LISTEN TO WHAT SO-AND-SO said about my book and shake my cyber head. Once I tweeted: "I COULD NOT PUT YEOMANS' NEW BOOK DOWN!" - Stephen King. "MY SON, JOE, PUT SUPER GLUE ON THE COVER!"
ReplyDeleteLOL, that's funny Roland. Did you get any responses?
DeleteI like to follow back, but only if it's another author/blogger/reader. I try to weed out the ones who are just looking for a follow or are spam. Right now, I could say I'm following too many people because my twitter feed is a lot of articles, buy this/that, and little else. There's no conversations, and I wouldn't know how to jump into a conversation as it is. For me, I think of Twitter as bursts of information, and I used Facebook more for connections.
ReplyDeleteI'm the same, Cherie. I mostly follow and am followed by authors and bloggers. I haven't quite connected with readers yet. I'd love to, though. But I'm on Facebook more.
DeleteI am not on Twitter. I doubt I can handle it.
ReplyDeleteRachna, it's not something I spend a lot of time doing. It's not as important as blogging or Facebooking to me and I don't stress too much if it's been awhile - not like blogging, LOL!
DeleteTwitter makes me eye-brains cross...its so impersonal. I do a lot of retweeting mostly. It seems if I retweet, others will do the same for me. ***shrugs***
ReplyDeleteHugs and chocolate,
Shelly
I mostly retweet, too, Shelly. But I do like the positive words from some of the inspirational people, like the Dalai Lama, etc.
DeleteI will reveal what I know... If someone RT's me, I RT them back. I RT new followers. I don't follow back spammers or things I'm not interested in. I tweet stuff I'm doing sometimes. I talk to people. I tweet photos. I tweet stuff for other people. I find I get the most follows when the Triberr stream is steady and I have tweets going off steadily. Follows slow when Triberr is down... I like to keep RTs in the mix, so will pop on now and then to RT other people. I try for an even mix of me talking to other people, RTing others, and tweeting original content. I'm now over 8600 followers. So it's working. And tweet things for your fans.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, I don't quite get Triberr, either. But what you're saying makes sense. I'd definitely have to get more involved...
DeleteThanks for the shout out. Woot!
ReplyDeleteI am far from having my Twitter legs, but I'm trying to figure things out in a way that works for me.
You're welcome, Angela. I'm looking forward to the Q & A on Saturday :)
DeleteYes, following and then unfollowing is SOP for some Twitterites. Many people don't notice because they've never spoken to the person (it's why I use an unfollow service to check). And follow who you want. I follow everyone who follows me, but only because I don't know who will be fun to talk to. I only ignore the obvious spammers.
ReplyDeleteI know so much about tweeting. I feel so savvy :P
Comparatively speaking, you do know a lot about Twitter, LOL! I think I'll check on that unfollow site, though. Thanks, Jean :)
DeleteMany people follow and unfollow just to build their numbers, but they aren't building any relationships. Some people can afford to do that because they actually have interesting things to say. Most don't though ;) I'll follow back anyone who follows me and unfollow if they unfollow me. I have a few special people I follow and don't expect them to follow me in return--I don't really have anything interesting to say anyway, lol. I'm really only in maintenance mode for twitter at the moment. That will likely change later down the track. I go through love/hate phases with twitter.
ReplyDeleteI'm in the same place as Lynda with Twitter. And people who follow just to pad their numbers and make themselves look important annoy me. I unfollow those right away.
ReplyDeleteI don't really have a strategy. I follow most people that follow me. Some I have no interest in because I know they're companies trolling to promote themselves or someone just looking to add to numbers. Like Lynda, there's only a few people I follow that don't follow me back.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to know I'm not the only one who feels this way about Twitter. I have never managed to find any kind of comfort zone with it. I definitely need to work on a strategy but I feel like I'm always saying that but then I never do LOL.
ReplyDeleteInteresting question! For some people having a lot of followers if simply another way of measuring their... eh e-peen (pardon me ;)
ReplyDeleteAnother approach is having two twitter accounts, one for business and one for personal. But there are few people who'd willingly follow an account that's only out there to "send", unless you run some sort of service that makes these 'auto' tweets valuable, like a news service, or a quote twitter.
For me Twitter is all about publicly sending AND receiving messages.