Comments on: Tweeting my #@$!! Off: 7 Tips for Using Twitter to Make Money

By: Tom Searcy

Tom Searcy — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 01:34:23 +0000

Thanks for the post Hank. Have you been reading all of the “experts” in the social media space? They would look at yours and my comments on this topic as out of touch- But anyone who has ever gardened knows, you prune to get the right growth.

By: Hank Trisler

Hank Trisler — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 19:30:43 +0000

Fine article, Tom. I’m particularly drawn to your idea of not following everyone. An awful lot of people are just time sumps, nice people though they may be. I have to constantly prune my following to avoid being buried in minutiae.

By: simon kelly

simon kelly — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:20:31 +0000

Tom, I think personal preference has a lot to do with it, and ultimately it boils down to a number of other factors – quantity vs quality (someone’s micro-movements 25 times a day will get them unfollowed as rapidly as the machine gun re-tweet biz links approach). Neither work – they interrupt and we know interruption is dead. It also depends on your comfort level – some people are just plain uncomfortable with sharing details of their personal lives with a billion of their closest friends – and in some cases rightly so, because their lives are boring . So as ever, I really think it boils down to understanding your audience (notice how everything reduces to publishing ) – gauging the balance between personal and business related content, frequency of updates and relevance to your audience. Ultimately if your content is relevant and either useful or entertaining (biz or personal) then you’ll get traction. In my humble opinion, anyway!

By: Tom Searcy

Tom Searcy — Wed, 20 May 2009 00:33:59 +0000

Simon, do you think the ratio is in any way an issue of personal preference? I really wrestle with the frustration I have with people who inundate me with too much personal information- some, OK, but 70%? I am open to your thoughts on this… I am still learning. I recognize that my personal preferences may be out of sync with the other users of the platform… Help me out here.

By: simon kelly

simon kelly — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:28:16 +0000

Tom wins this one. I’ve tried both and Tweetdeck beats Twirl, hands down. The ability to manage groups by contextual relevance is invaluable (its called publishing) and Tweetdeck does that, so I make sure I never miss a post from those I really want to follow for a particular set of reasons and will spend much longer reading their posts. The rest I skim mostly for interesting nuggets of work/marketing related information.
I disagree with your ratio though (Tom). I think its 70-30 in favor of personal versus work-related tweets. The main reason is that personal posts are more engaging, mostly, give an insight to the person you’re following (who more than likely you’ve not met) and add more credibility to the times they do post something work-related. It usually means they’ve thought about it and it has some weight.

By: Gretel Going

Gretel Going — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:21:42 +0000

I knew you would have a good rebuttal You win!

Signed,
The NAG

By: Tom Searcy

Tom Searcy — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:07:44 +0000

I respectfully disagree, oh madame NAG. I have a variety of very specific interests- so I find new people through the search function who are speaking about the topics I have flagged. Also, the groups help me to listen specifically to people for specific reasons and have that information presented to me in a manageable way. The posts that come from people I am not following are actually those I am linked through too by someone in a group or a search who I then become interested in because of a “re-tweet.” Finally, every once in a while, I clean out my follows for exactly the reason you suggested.

By: Gretel Going

Gretel Going — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:35:34 +0000

Note from your nagging marketing partner…

Great post! I knew I’d turn you into a Twitter junkie sooner or later. But one question: In #3 you say, “The people whose posts I read are not even those people who I am following, they’re the people who are a part of a group I have created on TweetDeck, or they are including terms that I find in my Searches.”

Why are you following the ones you’re not listening to and not following the ones you are listening to? I’d say it’s time for some spring cleaning. When I see that people are using Tweetdeck I know it’s a surefire sign that they’ve built groups to listen to and groups to not. People on Tweetdeck are also most often those following the most people. I keep it real by using Twhirl. No groups, just people I like to hear from.

(Now you know better than to take my name in vein in another post )