How I found Twitter-topia
by Melly on August 26, 2009
in my thoughts on stuff
When I write this I totally understand that there are peeps who are experts (ps I want to gag every time I say that word) and have devoted their lifes work to this subject so I do not mean to take the mick out of them, just to humbly share what I do to get the most joy out of “Twitter Land”.
So there you have it.
Twitter in all its glory. A device which brings milions of peeps together every day, from all over the world. How cool is that?
This week I noticed I was finding myself irritated at Twitter. An inanimate thing! Except it wasn’t really Twitter it was how I was using it. Then I sat down and took a little time to rekindle the joyful side of it again.
When things get out of whack sometimes it’s about unrealistic expectations. I looked closely at what I like & don’t like about Twitter and came up with some guidelines to keep my twitter world happy & peaceful. (Plus, I just plain felt like writing a post about Twitter, anything wrong with that?!?!? *wink*)
What makes MY twitter world a happy one:
1) Less “selling”. I get it. You have a product, tell me once and be done with it. If I want it, I’ll click. Trust.
2) Don’t try to “sell” me without getting to know me. I don’t like it and I would guess most peeps don’t but are to nice to tell you.
3) Be friendly. That goes a long way.
4) If you feel the need to use an auto DM, know that I will probably unfollow you.
5) I follow peeps who truly share with me. The ones who treat me as more than a contact or bottom line.
6) If you don’t answer me when I directly ask you something (via @), I can’t keep following you. For me twitter is about exchange. 2 way street!
7) The lower the number of followers the more I get out of each connection. I’m not knocking following 10,000 peeps. If it floats your boat, go for it. For me, under 100 will do. Quality vs Quantity.
Be about others. I give as much as I get. I am not a selfish tweeter.
9) Always tell the truth. Very important.
10) Most of all it is about fun & friendship in my world.
11) Take the piss out of peeps now and again. Life can get way too serious.
12) I don’t understand “experts” and therefore will not be following them.
13) Making peeps laugh or encouraging them.
14) Drink wine & twitter it is fun (ps whatever you do don’t watch the Notebook!)
15) I will no longer feel guilty when I “unfollow” someone or yucky if they “unfollow” me. It’s all part of it.
That’s what I came up with to keep my personal Twitter-Ville a happy & content one.
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Whatever you do, don’t watch “The Notebook”!
Love it.
darrah´s last blog ..slice of life tuesday: my favorite subject
I’m with you. I follow a very small amount of people compared to those who follow me. However, I try to view every profile that follows me because I too want to hang out and interact with real, genuine people. But I won’t follow back if some of the following happens:
1) You have several tweets about “how to get 500 followers a day.”
2) You follow 2,378,173 people and 25 follow you and you have 4 tweets about checking out your profile photos.
3) Same as above except every tweet is completely random with popular hash tags. You tweet about going to watch Harry Potter and 3 minutes later tweet again about how great the Harry Potter movie was.
4) You tweet famous quotes, webinar links, and sales pitches 7,631 times per hour. Sorry, that’s annoying.
Then, if I find someone who has followed me that I’d like to follow back, I usually follow them and send a personable DM–usually with an honest question to get to know them. When I get an auto-DM back with either an obvious stock, generic “thanks, here’s my website” or a stock sales pitch and my question is not even acknowledged, I get to unfollowing quickly.
I’m not in it to get 4 million followers, I want to hang out with some cool people.
Good post, Mel!
Craig´s last blog ..Right now you don’t have any problems
This is a pretty solid list of guidelines. What will get me to unfollow most often is too many tweets. I followed someone who had followed me and he tweeted so much (often retweets) that I consistently would have a page of tweets dominated by him. I did find a few gems of content, but that wasn’t enough to me to keep him on my list. I eventually unfollowed him.
“4) If you feel the need to use an auto DM, know that I will probably unfollow you.”
I’m all about this. I set up mobile twitter and decided to only get DMs sent to my phone. One night, my phone went off at 4 am ['Tiptoe Thru the Tulips' will wake one up instantly], and it was a DM from someone thanking me for following them. When I started my day, unfollowing that person was the very first action I took at the computer.
It’s cool if someone wants to say thanks and all, but using a “form letter” version of an automatic DM is not the way to go about it.
Misty´s last blog ..Picture of the Day – Vas and the scarf
As is usual with me, I’m figuring out what I don’t want first. I went through my following list last night and cleared a LOT of people. I’m introverted by nature and having a gazillion followers doesn’t interest me. I also become uncomfortable and my Tweets become self-conscious and less interesting.
Now, I’m endeavoring to pare down to following people with whom I enjoy interacting, my local paper, and a few local businesses, because I try to support local business in a chain-store city.
Auto-DM? I’m with you. *waves goodbye to offender*
Linnea´s last blog ..The Artist’s Way Reboot and Wishcasting, umm, Wednesday
Awesome article Melly, these are some great guidelines for keeping the “social” in Social Media.
Craig brought this article to my attention, he is a great example of how to use twitter effectively. A true contributor!
Here is a similar article that I wrote. http://digg.com/d310Rtz Entitled: “Twitter – Rules for #FollowFriday”, the article explains, in practical terms, that social media is about relationships, NOT numbers.
Keep up the great work!
PS – You can configure your Tweetmeme button to show your twitter address instead of @Tweetmeme. Let me know if you need a hand doing so, I’d be happy to help.
Melly,
You do twitter right! I see you and I think conversation. And it’s so good.
My tip: be meaningful (kind of along your #8)
Lance´s last blog ..The Jungle of Food Choices
Hey lovely & amazing peeps! You rock big time. Thanks for leaving comments about what makes YOUR personal twitter-topia!
Joseph- I changed it. Hopefully that makes it easier for people to tweet.
Linnea- *High 5* Good Job!
Craig- We are so on the same page with our guidelines.
Darrah- You get me *wink* You were there that night.
Lance- Thanks, Lance. I have so much fun when I get to chat with you on Twitter. Your support is so appreciated!
Misty- Auto DM, yucky poo poo! *lol*