This is my fifth post about Twitter for beginners. You can read the rest here, here, here, and here.
Mashable reports that 60% of Twitter users quit in the first month. My sense is that people will return to something if they see its value in their life or business. This statistic tells me that people are deciding that the return on their investment of Twitter time is not worthwhile.
Are you a Twitter quitter? If so, why?
I started using Twitter about a month after this blog launched. By early July, I still had only about 200 followers. Only a month later, I have more than 800. Of course, if you make Twitter a game of numbers, it is easy to get discouraged. Developing a following is important, but it is more important to make meaningful connections with the followers you have. If you are present on Twitter and relating to others, you will see your following grow. Just remember that even in its use for business, Twitter is about relationships.
Here are a few ideas about how to make your Twitter time worthwhile:
Try to tweet at least TEN times a day.
It is easy for tweets to get lost in the stream. To be memorable to your followers, you need to be saying something. Tweeting takes only a fraction of a minute. Retweeting takes even less time. So here’s an idea to get you started. Do a search on TweetDeck for a topic that interests you. Here’s a secret: it doesn’t even need to be related to your business. See what people are saying. If someone says something you like, retweet them. Or reply to them. Start a conversation.
Find some new people to follow.
If you’re new to Twitter and following a few people who aren’t tweeting much, you may not find your Twitter stream all that interesting. Find some new people to follow. Generally speaking, you don’t want to follow too many people at once. If I see a person who is following a lot of people but doesn’t have many followers,I am reluctant to return the follow. So try to keep your numbers in balance: follow about the same number of people who are following you.
Add Twitter to your daily online routine.
As I have written before, you don’t have to make a huge time investment. Commit five minutes a day, twice a day. But stick with it. Make visiting Twitter a regular habit. Unless you do, you will not be able to develop the meaningful relationships that will make a difference in your life and business.
This was originally posted at Mountain State University LeaderTalk and is re-posted with permission.
I am the founder/CEO of the Weaving Influence team, the author of Reach: Creating the Biggest Possible Audience for Your Message, Book, or Cause, and the host of the Book Marketing Action Podcast. I’m a wife and mom of three kids, and I enjoy running, reading, writing, coffee, and dark chocolate.
Hi Becky,
Regarding the second point: Just as I have with my own professional mailing list, I have been intentionally selective about who I follow. I noticed a lot of people tweeting that just aren’t interesting to me or that, frankly, scare me :^)(spammers, those who are soliciting something I want to stay away from).
I know its slower, but I check every profile of each person who follows me. I block those that have potential to spam. And choose not to follow some. My intent is to have a quality Twitter community, as opposed to quantity. So far so good!
Mary Jo’s point about community can’t be under emphasized. As a member of your community, your primary function should be to think about what you can give, how you can add value.
1. Take some time to read and learn daily.
2. From what you learned today, what is the BEST, that you think your community might NOT already know or needs to see. Post that to Twitter.
The real value of twitter is you have a community of professionals and experts that are scanning and filtering. That means I don’t have to do all the work every day in order to learn something new and valuable.
Don’t tweet just to tweet. If you don’t have anything to add value, silence is also valuable because it helps your community find the value others are adding today even quicker.
Keep up the good work!
Bret
I practice the same “due diligence” as Bret and MJ in hand-selecting which followers to follow back by viewing their profiles and recent tweets. If it’s not clear what value I might bring to the follower, or what value they bring to me, I don’t reciprocate. It’s time well-spent to ensure mutual benefit… and I’ve gotten past my guilt of blocking wanna-be followers.
Twitter is about meeting people. You can convey a message effectively when people are comfortable with you. When you personalize your DM’s, RT, and interact with other people, they become your friend, not your follower. Better to have 10 people who are interested in you than 1000 followers who could care less.
Thanks for sharing practical advice.
Mary Jo,
Checking the individual profiles to build an intentional community is a great idea. I am sorry to admit that I do this only sporadically. In the long run, though, it makes sense and is a habit I plan to incorporate from now on.
Bret,
I love your tip to read and learn daily and share the BEST with your Twitter followers.
Angie,
Thanks for weighing in. We would all do well to tune out the would-be followers who are only interested in spamming us.
Ryan,
I completely agree with you about people on Twitter becoming friends, not followers. It seems like every day, I get to know people more and more. The community and encouragement are amazing.
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