Have to say, disagree with your stance on TweetLater. Because of my schedule and family commitments, I do a lot of my reading late at night. So if I find something really good that I'd like to share with my followers, because I think they'll gain value from it, I use TweetLater to schedule that tweet to go out when I think more of my followers will be online vs when I'm reading the content (like now at 11:15pm central time).
But as you said in your Rules post... different strokes...
Keep up the great content friend. @TomMartin
Christian Russell
· 3 months ago
Agreed Tom...I have a lot of contacts on Twitter that I know are on more around 12-3 or so in the afternoon. If I have a tweet specifically for them, I don't know why I wouldn't use Tweetlater to make sure it goes out at a time that's more convenient for them. Another good use for Tweetlater :)
Janet MeinersThaeler
· 4 months ago
How much time a day or week do you spend on Twitter usually?
Chris Brogan
· 4 months ago
God... hours. But it's my job.
dougmcisaac
· 4 months ago
One of the biggest questions I get when I'm teaching or consulting a group is "how much time should I spend?" My response is always "What are your goals?" and "how will you know if you are meeting those goals?"
Doug
Chris Brogan
· 4 months ago
bingo!
tammymcdaniel
· 4 months ago
I am in the process of helping over 1000 sales professionals successfully use social media to promote themselves as thought leaders in their industry - their #1 concern is time. Doug, the "goal" and "measurement" question is also the first step. I also ease their apprehension by telling them to use a 30 minute rule right out of the box (10 min in the a.m. / 10 min at lunch / and 10 min in the evening).
Mike Campbell
· 4 months ago
Great post, Chris. I've recently started using Peoplebrowsr as my main Twitter client. I like a web-based apps. It's just a personal preference over air apps.
I, too, keep coming back to Tweetie. I like the group feature with Twittelator, but it's too slow. I'm hoping Twitter adds groups and filters. (I wished they'd done that instead of RT.)
Also, I love the part about your followers being smarter than Google.
CoachLaura
· 4 months ago
If you use firefox, I really like this Greasemonkey script... It allows you to create groups and when you're in someone's twitter site, you can add them to any of your groups. It has a bunch of other great features too. http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/40617
mjcarrasquillo
· 4 months ago
Like I said in my most recent blog post, I feel platforms like Twitter are a doorway to learning more about your followers and their interests. I can't imagine how you deal with 91k people but your the king! LOL Great post!
jeanwarner
· 4 months ago
Thanks, Chris. This was very timely!
Chris Brogan
· 4 months ago
I haven't tried it yet, but might just. Very interesting to think about the mix of the two. Thanks!
John Carson
· 4 months ago
Hey Chris,
I used to like bit.ly until I found http://su.pr/ as it has StumbleUpon built in too = an extra level of exposure.
Cheers, John.
David G Shrock
· 4 months ago
I like this: "I use Twitter to learn about other people." It's what I like best about Twitter.
Greg Elwell
· 4 months ago
Like Godin once said, it's not that I have to,it's that I get to.
Tony Hollingsworth
· 4 months ago
Great post Chris, and I was thrilled to find your thinking on this resonated with my own. I feel you "get" online community and I hope that I am "getting" it too. I've tried but don't use the AIR apps like Seesmic or TweetDeck (they feel heavy/slow and busy to me), rather I mainly use mobile web sites like http://m.tweete.net and good old Twitter.com elsewhere. Although my local community in Australia has not embraced FriendFeed, I like it's search, grouping and threaded conversation facility, and the newest entrant PeopleBrowsr is very interesting and powerful, albeit rather busy on the screen. I think it's one to watch though.
Your point about Twitter as a communications platform and not using it to microblog is a good one and a reminder to us all that the value of Twitter is in learning about other people, helping them, and engaging in conversation with them - building relationships online that serve to enhance our face-to-face relationships and our lives in general.
I'm just so excited to see where this is all heading.
Cheers, Tony Hollingsworth
Chris Brogan
· 4 months ago
Remember, this is just my perspective. Some people are blogging on Twitter and it's cool. Some are making fiction and it's cool. There are tons of ways to do it. They're all unique.
Jamie Favreau
· 4 months ago
This is also a great tool to learn from. Thanks for the conversation we had on DM I learned a lot and made me ask more questions regarding #journchat LIVE Detroit from a different perspective! I guess I am GREEN and really interested in the entire journalism community which I would have missed had you not helped.
perivision
· 4 months ago
Ah, well then you might want to have a look at twittFilter.com . You can sort based on use score as well as control your email alerts for new followers. Given the amount of people you follow, it might be useful.
countzeero
· 4 months ago
I have become increasingly annoyed at the "look how many followers I have" approach many people are taking to twitter. My Question for you Chris would be: Where do you see the real Value in twitter? Is your "Twitter Value" gained from the people YOU follow or those that follow You?
Chris Brogan
· 4 months ago
Neither. It's in the number of ACTIONABLE followers and how you both nurture each other. Meaning, the top number is stupid. It's the ACTIVE number.
RealEvilGenius
· 4 months ago
Thanks for your answer Chris, The Actionable concept has given me a great idea for "grouping" in tweetdeck...
just realised I wasn´t following you on twitter *g* - this has been rectified...
Deirdre
· 4 months ago
Hi Chris...Thanks for your helpful tips. I really like the Seesmic app but ever since it was recently updated to a new version and it keep freezing on me. So, I'm back to TweetDeck. Have you experienced this? I was wondering what you use if you are doing a chat session. I have #prstudchat coming up next week and I wanted your opinion on whether tweetgrid or tweetchat is better (or maybe they're both good), Sometimes chats can be really overwhelming for all parties involved so I want to make sure it's as organized as possible. Thanks!
Chris Brogan
· 4 months ago
Huh. It hasn't frozen on me once. Maybe the install was corrupted? Wonder how you could re-install? Also, ping @askseesmic . They might have advice.
Deirdre
· 4 months ago
Thank you!
David Turnbull
· 4 months ago
I'm personally a huge fan of Twittelator Pro on the iPhone. I haven't used Tweetie, but with Twittelator Pro you can quickly record videos within the app and they're uploaded to twitvid.io and posted to your stream. That and it looks brilliant.
But overall your Twitter usage seems similar to my own. Occasionally I'll just say exactly what I'm doing, but most of the time I'm sharing content I've found, or linking to my own work.
Oh, and you may want to check out www.su.pr for shortening URL's. Gives you some great metrics, and makes it easy for followers to share the content on StumbleUpon, Twitter etc. I expect with your audience you'd see a noticeable bump in traffic.
Chris Brogan
· 4 months ago
Guess I will. You're the second person to tell me to try it. : )
Matt Batt
· 4 months ago
No matter how many times I conduct a "Twitter 101" with folks (friends, clients, etc.) I always learn about a new tool or tactic. I particularly like your comment about TweetLater and how such robot technologies don't work for you on Twitter. I do use TweeteLater to monitor conversations via their "keyword" alert feature which emails you reports throughout the day. You also mention Twitter Search as your primary search tool. Do you have others that you utilize such as Twellow (to search for people by category/topic)? Also do you use services like Tweepular to manage your followers? Finally, I always learn from you...that's what the social media experience is all about...thanks!
Chris Brogan
· 4 months ago
Hi Matt--
I don't really use any of those other services. I had no idea that TweetLater did that kind of search analysis. That's actually kind of cool. I'll check that out.
--Chris...
CandianLawyer
· 4 months ago
2 questions 1) I admit I am new to Twitter and have been AMAZED how much relevant information is shared by others - how do I organize the most brilliant people I follow so their Tweets are separated from the peopleI follwo for personal nterest? 2) What are the top 10 basic instructions I should know (e.g., RT @)?
Chris Brogan
· 4 months ago
There are grouping features in Seesmic and Tweetdeck.
Hmm.. try Twitter for Dummies. Very simple and useful.
ubiquit
· 4 months ago
Well, I was using the plain old broswer for Twitter. But after launching my consulting services online, 'had to switch to a tool like Seesmic to better manage my twitter account. This post is just right in time, and it answers most of the queries that I had in mind. Thanks!
Looks like I've got to spend a few more hours on twitter to enhance my contacts for the business ;)
tdhurst
· 4 months ago
I constantly get told that Twitter seems like a lot of work and have never understood what the issue is. Just like any other relationship building, it takes some time.
Thanks Chris, this helps a lot. I am trying so hard to get my legal application off the ground. Nothing seems to be working. Twitter has helped some, but I am just getting a handle on it. This really helps. Thanks, Spence
VideoVendetta
· 4 months ago
It's very helpful to see how you use and manage Twitter. Thanks for posting this!
genuinechris
· 4 months ago
Nice Post-I've got a similar ethos, but lower goals.
I use search to find people that need what I do for a living, and I engage one on one, @ing them and sharing what I know. It kicks ass.
I don't really care about the details--twitter is about relationships.
The only thing I do do is use Twuffer to promote blog posts, I do each post 4-5 times, but it's not too obtrusive.
frank barry
· 4 months ago
Good stuff Chris. For those that might not already know, Seesmic has a web app that is pretty nice. No grouping feature yet, which is a downside, but it is a web app so you can get to it anywhere no matter what machine your on. Beautiful!
My one tip for anyone = Try to really connect with people and build a strong network.
It's hard to have hundreds let alone thousands of followers that you actually connect with, but if you can have 10 - 20 people who you really interact with, talk to, support, learn from, encourage, etc ... then you are getting something out of Twitter and giving something back to those 10-20 people.
Over time you figure out how to do this on a bigger scale, but it takes time and it's NOT about the numbers if your trying to connect.
This is a tricky strategy that most, in my opinion, can't pull off. If you don't have the personal brand that Guy (or @chrisbrogan) have then amassing large amounts of followers is difficult to do at best (unless you used some crazy service and in that case all your followers aren't listening to you anyway. useless).
So that brings me back to my original point. Try to build a small and strong network of people you actually interact with. (then get @chrisbrogan or @Guykawasaki to ReTweet you once and a while).
Personally Twitter has been a great place for me. Three things it's done for me: 1) Learning - there are so many great people here. if you pay attention you're bound to learn something.
2) Sharing - everyone likes to share in the world of Twitter. I share peoples stuff that i like and people share my stuff. it's great.
3) Building relationships with others in my industry - like i said. there are so many great people here and most of them are looking to connect. i've met some great folks that are in the same industry as me. love it.
Am I the only person out there that communicates via the web with no Seesmic, Tweetdeck, etc? I keep telling myself "I'm not old fashioned" and then I try one of these apps out and immediately return to the comfortable home base. I guess it's what works for me...
Matthew Loop
· 4 months ago
Thanks for the tips, Chris. You're right, tools do matter. Haven't used Seesmic yet but I hear it's a good one. I found Tweetdeck to be very user-friendly.
Ashwin / Thoughts Unlimited
· 4 months ago
Did I read it right? I did not find #hashtags.org in your list. I use it together with Twitter Search most of the times. Though sometimes I am irritated to find people using #tech with their personal updates like when did they wake up, I find #hashtags pretty good most of the times!
Eric Dominic Santillan
· 4 months ago
Thanks for the tips. I'm a Twitter newbie (I've been trying to hold off as much as I can, but couldn't anymore), and these are helpful tips all around.
I am quite intrigued by the using-twitter-as-search functionality. I wonder if that's how the original developers intended it to be, but that's definitely a great use for this "140 character max" machine.
Thanks Chris!
Terry
· 4 months ago
Wow, great post Chris. A lightbulb went off in my head.
KevinFerrasciOMalley
· 4 months ago
Greetings Chris ! Good thought provoking post (as usual)
One point you made that really hit home for me was about your preferring to use bit.ly because it does NOT obscure the URL.
This speaks to one of the key reasons why I think you've created such a loyal following - you're very open and willing to share when you find something interesting or worthwhile and provide full transparent credit for the author = + to your TRUST (there's that word again)
Compare that to when I come upon someone who is using Hootsuite and obscured the URL so that now if I want to get further info I must go thru more needless work. I can't help but feel = negative credibility, less trust.
Lastly, really like the way you use Twitter to provide updates on events your attending. Since I only get to see you at SOBCon every year it's great to hear about what other good events your attending plus i learn about new events that are out there.
CourVO
· 4 months ago
Chris,
Great as always! Just look at these comments...99% of them are written by people who know how to WRITE! Cogent thoughts, well-composed, good grammar (in a manner, <---heh, rhymes), and contributes to the community. 'No substitute for this talent, no matter the medium! 'Luckily, broadcast writing is also economical, so I've had a hard master for years, now JGSOTOTA (just gotta stay on top of the acronyms).
LoneWolf
· 4 months ago
I think you need to add another question to your list. Before asking "how do I get more followers?" I think you need to ask "do I need more followers?"
For many people, the answer would be no as they need to build the relationships that they have already. For others, the answer is yes and the "how" becomes important.
jlangford
· 4 months ago
A good Google Phone app for Tweeting is called iTweet. I think it costs a couple of bucks to use
gibs
· 4 months ago
Wow, you really know your way around Twitter. For every action on Twitter there are many sites that offer services, how do you pick the right one. I have used http://www.similarsites.com on some of the products you wrote about and found many other options.
magreet
· 4 months ago
I am interested very much in the subject matter of your blog, it’s my first visit.I admire the time and effort you put into your blog. Thanks.
mardysitzer
· 4 months ago
This is a great overview Chris and some of the comments as well offer up juicy tips. Allow me to add to that. Tweetlater does a few additional things that are helpful such as vetting followers and auto DM'ing a thank you message. I can't write an individual message each time and I won't auto follow sex and spam followers. Also I share a lot of blog posts and news articles and Tweetlater allows me to stream them in over the course of the day without a bombardment effect. So with hectic days, which seem to be most days - I can at least remain 'on' twitter and still take care of my clients.
LoneWolf
· 4 months ago
Does auto DM'ing really do anything other than annoy the people who follow you? I know that it annoys me although I've never unfollowed because of it (although I once unfollowed due to the content of the auto DM).
If you don't have time to respond to everyone that follows you personally, just don't. At least that is honest. And I think that most people follow for one of two reasons: 1) to get you to follow back or 2) they have seen some of your tweets and checked out your profile already.
As for spreading tweets out during the day, that is something that I'm on the fence about. If you spread them out when you're not actually 'on' then the honesty factor kicks in since you're talking when your not even there. However, I don't like the bombardment effect either so it helps with that.
Since tweets are marked with a source, users can see that it comes from TweetLater (or similar application) and realize that you may not be actually 'there' when they see your tweet.
Well, that's my 2 cents!
mardysitzer
· 4 months ago
Excellent points and you hit on target to the quandary most of us face using Twitter for business. The need for efficiency versus the 'genuine' - so I make value decisions and choices to balance it out with automated thank you DMs for following most but not always, but always hand write thank you notes to the associates in my world – and I never never never use DM for spam or self promotion – EVER! Also the information I am sharing I view as an open invite to share my resources and I don’t need to be there for that. Spreading it out throughout the day I see as a common courtesy to others who don’t need their tweet stream suddenly slammed with 4-8 posts from me! When I do respond and chat – that is me 100%! Everyone has to use Twitter in a way that works for them and for what their job function or work world is like. My first priority is my business and my customers and so I have to manage my time and my resources with what tools I can as I advise my clients to do as well. As amazing a resource as this is – it is not everything.
LoneWolf
· 4 months ago
That is why I'm on the fence with having tweets posted at a scheduled time. The pro's and con's balance out for me.
As for the auto DM's, have you found that they make a difference for your business? Most of the talk I've heard from people on Twitter (granted, that is a really small number) is that they hate them. There are several people who've said that they automatically unfollow people who auto DM. But I suppose that for every person who says this, there are probably 100's that don't like but don't do anything about it (like me), 100's that don't care and 100's that like it. What have you experienced with your followers?
mardysitzer
· 4 months ago
I haven't noticed anyone unfollowing or cursing me for the DM thank you. But I know when I get them, if they are self promoting like 'thanks now go buy my stuff" I don't regard that individual with the same weight as others and they don't get loaded into a follow column on my Tweetdeck either. My DM is just a thank you, which I hope is perceived as common courtesy. I haven't gotten any complaints or blocks or spam reports so I have to believe that how I am currently operating is not offensive. I believe in 'do unto others as...'. well you get the idea.
LoneWolf
· 4 months ago
Twitter is still evolving, and as such, the etiquette is still forming. But as long as your philosophy follows the Golden Rule you probably won't go wrong.
mbowlersr
· 4 months ago
Wow, Chris, I think the 52 comments almost are as great as the post, yet they won't be here with out your creative thinking. Thanks again for some great content. Mke
facebook-793365076
· 4 months ago
Hello. I ended up on your page via Mitch Joel. I love him... and I have a feeling I'm gonna love you too. :) Thanks for this: [Instead of answering the question “What are you doing?”, I answer the question, “What has your attention?”]
Christian
· 4 months ago
I have to concur! Tweetdeck has completely changed how I use Twitter. I really feel that the tools you use have a significant effect. My time on Twitter is more conversational with Tweetdeck than it was before. Highly recommended :)
jakilevy
· 4 months ago
Next time you visit a "foreign" city, you should take a look @foursquare for local happenings (and maybe even a happy hour special)
Jochen F. Uebel
· 4 months ago
Lesenswerte Twitter-Tipps (engl.) – gerade auch für Neulinge.
mathster
· 4 months ago
Chris. I just found you. THANK YOU. I can learn a lot from you. I Twitter but only have a slippery grip on it but now I know more. I will Tweet and promote your book. Also I will mention it on my blog. I want to keep learning.
I'm on twitter almost always during my waking hours.
David T Stark
· 4 months ago
I tried TweetDeck and didn't really find it to be intuitive for me. I use TweetGrid. I follow several hashtags this way, which gives me what I want out of Twitter (along with being able to set up a window for the people I am following).
I do plan to try out Seesmic.
Ed Justen
· 4 months ago
Its' amazing how Twitter is so many things to so many people; news feed, information repository, conversational web tool, breaking news distribution. More than anything I am curious to see how people will be using Twitter three years from now.
Sterling Lambert
· 4 months ago
great advice, its easy to let high-volume tweeting get out of hand, especially when it is business related. thanks for the simple advice!
David Rose
· 4 months ago
For searching Local Twitter traffic when visiting another city, a friend of mine here in Knoxville TN just developed http://localchirps.com You might give it a try.
All Comments
But as you said in your Rules post... different strokes...
Keep up the great content friend.
@TomMartin
Doug
I, too, keep coming back to Tweetie. I like the group feature with Twittelator, but it's too slow. I'm hoping Twitter adds groups and filters. (I wished they'd done that instead of RT.)
Also, I love the part about your followers being smarter than Google.
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/40617
I used to like bit.ly until I found http://su.pr/ as it has StumbleUpon built in too = an extra level of exposure.
Cheers,
John.
It's what I like best about Twitter.
Your point about Twitter as a communications platform and not using it to microblog is a good one and a reminder to us all that the value of Twitter is in learning about other people, helping them, and engaging in conversation with them - building relationships online that serve to enhance our face-to-face relationships and our lives in general.
I'm just so excited to see where this is all heading.
Cheers,
Tony Hollingsworth
My Question for you Chris would be:
Where do you see the real Value in twitter? Is your "Twitter Value" gained from the people YOU follow or those that follow You?
The Actionable concept has given me a great idea for "grouping" in tweetdeck...
just realised I wasn´t following you on twitter *g* - this has been rectified...
But overall your Twitter usage seems similar to my own. Occasionally I'll just say exactly what I'm doing, but most of the time I'm sharing content I've found, or linking to my own work.
Oh, and you may want to check out www.su.pr for shortening URL's. Gives you some great metrics, and makes it easy for followers to share the content on StumbleUpon, Twitter etc. I expect with your audience you'd see a noticeable bump in traffic.
I don't really use any of those other services. I had no idea that TweetLater did that kind of search analysis. That's actually kind of cool. I'll check that out.
--Chris...
1) I admit I am new to Twitter and have been AMAZED how much relevant information is shared by others - how do I organize the most brilliant people I follow so their Tweets are separated from the peopleI follwo for personal nterest?
2) What are the top 10 basic instructions I should know (e.g., RT @)?
Hmm.. try Twitter for Dummies. Very simple and useful.
Looks like I've got to spend a few more hours on twitter to enhance my contacts for the business ;)
via O'Reilly Radar via Kevin Marks on Twitter
http://www.twitip.com/3-steps-to-building-a-pro...
I use search to find people that need what I do for a living, and I engage one on one, @ing them and sharing what I know. It kicks ass.
I don't really care about the details--twitter is about relationships.
The only thing I do do is use Twuffer to promote blog posts, I do each post 4-5 times, but it's not too obtrusive.
My one tip for anyone = Try to really connect with people and build a strong network.
It's hard to have hundreds let alone thousands of followers that you actually connect with, but if you can have 10 - 20 people who you really interact with, talk to, support, learn from, encourage, etc ... then you are getting something out of Twitter and giving something back to those 10-20 people.
Over time you figure out how to do this on a bigger scale, but it takes time and it's NOT about the numbers if your trying to connect.
Now, if you want a lot of people to hear you then the numbers matter. Ask Guy. He'll tell you his strategy. Better yet, check out his posts about it.
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/12/how-to-use-...
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2009/07/how-i-tweet...
This is a tricky strategy that most, in my opinion, can't pull off. If you don't have the personal brand that Guy (or @chrisbrogan) have then amassing large amounts of followers is difficult to do at best (unless you used some crazy service and in that case all your followers aren't listening to you anyway. useless).
So that brings me back to my original point. Try to build a small and strong network of people you actually interact with. (then get @chrisbrogan or @Guykawasaki to ReTweet you once and a while).
Personally Twitter has been a great place for me. Three things it's done for me:
1) Learning - there are so many great people here. if you pay attention you're bound to learn something.
2) Sharing - everyone likes to share in the world of Twitter. I share peoples stuff that i like and people share my stuff. it's great.
3) Building relationships with others in my industry - like i said. there are so many great people here and most of them are looking to connect. i've met some great folks that are in the same industry as me. love it.
Good stuff Chris.
http://twitter.com/franswaa
I am quite intrigued by the using-twitter-as-search functionality. I wonder if that's how the original developers intended it to be, but that's definitely a great use for this "140 character max" machine.
Thanks Chris!
One point you made that really hit home for me was about your preferring to use bit.ly
because it does NOT obscure the URL.
This speaks to one of the key reasons why I think you've created such a loyal following - you're very open and willing to share when you find something interesting or worthwhile and provide full transparent credit for the author = + to your TRUST (there's that word again)
Compare that to when I come upon someone who is using Hootsuite and obscured the URL so that now if I want to get further info I must go thru more needless work. I can't help but feel = negative credibility, less trust.
Lastly, really like the way you use Twitter to provide updates on events your attending. Since I only get to see you at SOBCon every year it's great to hear about what other good events your attending plus i learn about new events that are out there.
Great as always! Just look at these comments...99% of them are written by people who know how to WRITE! Cogent thoughts, well-composed, good grammar (in a manner, <---heh, rhymes), and contributes to the community.
'No substitute for this talent, no matter the medium! 'Luckily, broadcast writing is also economical, so I've had a hard master for years, now JGSOTOTA (just gotta stay on top of the acronyms).
For many people, the answer would be no as they need to build the relationships that they have already. For others, the answer is yes and the "how" becomes important.
For every action on Twitter there are many sites that offer services, how do you pick the right one.
I have used http://www.similarsites.com on some of the products you wrote about and found many other options.
If you don't have time to respond to everyone that follows you personally, just don't. At least that is honest. And I think that most people follow for one of two reasons: 1) to get you to follow back or 2) they have seen some of your tweets and checked out your profile already.
As for spreading tweets out during the day, that is something that I'm on the fence about. If you spread them out when you're not actually 'on' then the honesty factor kicks in since you're talking when your not even there. However, I don't like the bombardment effect either so it helps with that.
Since tweets are marked with a source, users can see that it comes from TweetLater (or similar application) and realize that you may not be actually 'there' when they see your tweet.
Well, that's my 2 cents!
As for the auto DM's, have you found that they make a difference for your business? Most of the talk I've heard from people on Twitter (granted, that is a really small number) is that they hate them. There are several people who've said that they automatically unfollow people who auto DM. But I suppose that for every person who says this, there are probably 100's that don't like but don't do anything about it (like me), 100's that don't care and 100's that like it. What have you experienced with your followers?
Sandra
www.tinyurl.com/realsmart
I do plan to try out Seesmic.
Thanks for the overview on how you use Twitter!
DR
I adopted Your post into Russian. You can find it at http://www.rutwitter.com/kak-razrulit-tvitter/