You’re Not Using Twitter the Right Way
I spend a lot of time on twitter, and in doing so I hear all sorts of ways to use twitter, plans for gaming the system–or great ideas to automate tweets. Um, this is all a bad idea.
There’s only one right way to use twitter, and I am about to reveal to you the secret. It will blow your mind, so get all prepared.
Are you prepared?
I can wait.
Okay, good. Here it is: Stop trying to game twitter. Use it the way it was intended. Use actual human interaction. Pick your followers by hand, post everything yourself, and don’t schedule posts to happen at a later time.
You think I’m kidding? I decided to offer up my twitter account in a little experiment for you:
I used SocialToo to auto follow anyone that was following me and had a spam score of less than whatever their default spam score is. I started with my hand picked 1,521 people I was following, and spent two days using their system. I am now following 3,272 people and received over 450 auto dm’s in my inbox. I hardly ever receive auto direct messages because I hand choose who to follow. And, now I have to go through my twitter list and get rid of all the fake accounts. This is not a time saver–so stop using these websites! Instead, do it the old fashioned way and actually network and interact with the people on your list.
That’s the key to the twitter. Just be yourself. It’s like dating–only you can do it in your jammies.
Twitter is totally play time for me. I’m not marketing savvy enough to use it any other way!
Loved your tweet about the magic wand! I have to remember to tell that to my daughter. She loves to draw 🙂
.-= Sherrie Petersen´s last blog ..Hope Beach =-.
@Sherrie Petersen, and that’s good. It means that you’re hanging out, having fun and doing exactly what you should be doing! I bet it works out VERY well for you!
Great advice, love the jammie mention, and total suckage for and time spent fixing it all!
.-= ChristaCarol´s last blog ..Why Not Begin the New Year Winning Something? =-.
I’m still learning the whole Twitter thing so I’m not even sure how to use it the real way. I do use Tweetdeck to post and see the updates (I like that it pops up each time one of my tweeps tweets) . . . is that one of the wrong things to do?
I do hand pick who to follow. Sorry you had to get a bunch of spam and now take the time to undo it, but THANK YOU for doing the experiment! I’ll know not to fall into the trap of auto following or posting.
.-= Joan´s last blog ..Ten for 2010 =-.
@Joan, Yes! That’s totally the right thing to do. Just as long as you are personally posting the stuff right then, and not like scheduling some post to show up a few hours from now. That is what so many people do. They try to trick people into thinking that it’s a real person behind the account when really they’ve automated it. That is NEVER a good idea. 🙂
Also, welcome to twitter.
@Jamie, I wouldn’t even know how to automate it. The only thing I have scheduled is for twitter to link when I do a blog post. But that’s usually within a few minutes of my post. Thanks for the welcome.
.-= Joan´s last blog ..Ten for 2010 =-.
@Joan, haha okay, now see that is automation. 🙂 I would make sure to do that on my own, and not let it automate. Or, at the very least check my twitter right after to see if anyone replies to my post. 🙂
BEST. TWITTER. ADVICE. EVAH.
Seriously. I’m so tired of people gaming the social network sites. Twitter (et al) should be about user enjoyment, with a marketing side effect as you naturally talk about what’s happening in your world.
I had to unfollow a couple of people who I really liked, just because I was tired of the near CONSTANT advertisements for their work. Drove me crazy.
@HWPetty, The other advice I have is don’t do an experiment on your twitter account. 🙂 You will be fixing it for like nine days. 🙂