Is There a Trick to Using Twitter?

Posted by Gabe on August 2, 2009 under Ask Gabe, Social Media, Twitter, Twitter for Beginners | 14 Comments to Read

rubikThis is the first post from the Ask Gabe series:

I recently received an interesting question when I asked my Twitter “newbie” colleagues if they had any questions about Twitter.

“@KidsAreHeroes: I sent out a general tweet asking for a response and got nothing.  Is there a trick to getting answers?”

That to me is a loaded question with the following correct answers: “Yes.”  “No.” and “It depends.”

I examined this person’s profile and saw that she had 109 followers.  The question she asked was definitely of a “nichey” nature.  My response to her was that what she needed was more targeted followers to raise her chances of getting worthy answers to a question such as this.  There are many factors involved when you send out a question. 

1) How many of your followers are actually online at the time you asked it?  There are many opinions as to what is the best time to tweet, but you can try it yourself by asking the question a few times at different times of the day to see which produces the best results.  You must be careful not to be too repetetive or people may unfollow you.  You must also consider your target audience.  If it is global then you might also try a service like Future Tweets that will schedule the question in the middle of your night which is the day for many others.

2) How many people are following you?  I think many new people still don’t realize that your followers and your followers only are likely to read your tweets.  So if you have 100 followers, it’s the middle of the night for 50, 25 are awake but off line right now…you get the idea.

3) How many people are your followers following?  If a person follows more than a few hundred people chances are that many tweets will be not be noticed at any one time.  This is just simply the nature of the beast.  To combat this you can retweet your own questions, but just be aware that overdoing it will be annoying to many.

4) Does your question appear to have a self-serving nature?  If you have hidden agendas behind your tweets you are likely to turn people off.  Here’s an example: “So-and-so said my web site was awesome! What do you think? http://spammylink.com”  The number one thing you should remember about being involved with social media is the word “social”.  If you connect with people they will pay more attention to you – plain and simple.  I was perusing new followers’ profiles this morning and came across a particular person who had a few tweets that read something like, “New to this, bear with me.”  Then he asked how to shorten a URL.  So far so good.  But then I saw some self-serving tweets that pointed to his web site.  The sad thing is here that I don’t believe this person is a spammer per se, but he simply doesn’t know any better.  Hopefully he will learn in time.

5) Who are you? That’s right, I said, “who are you?”  To me you are just one of the eleventy-million people on Twitter until: a) I learn more about you in your profile, b) I read one of your tweets that interests me, c) You have engaged me in some way that wasn’t spammy.  This is crucial to your success with Twitter.  You must make your connections one at a time.  And guess what? That takes work and it also takes time.  But the time is incredibly well spent.  There are no shortcuts to doing this properly.  Oh sure, you can get sucked into the “16,000 followers in 90 days” scams but what do you have then? You still haven’t connected with anyone and the ones that you would like to connect with can tell that you used a program to gain followers so they won’t follow you.  On top of that many people (includng me) unfollow when they see a tweet that advertises these follower schemes.  Just for your knowledge here are a few relevant tweets from @spam which is the account to report spammy Twitterers to:

“If you give out your username and pw to a site claiming to get you more followers, updates often get sent out on your account.”

“Giving out your username and password to a 3rd party site promising you more followers: not a good idea! Please be safe!”

“Don’t believe the hype & sign up for ‘get followers fast!’ programs. They can be scams that steal your username and password!”

So, is there a trick to using Twitter?  I wouldn’t call it a trick, just be genuine and connect with people – everything else will fall into place after that.

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  • Deborah said,

    This is very helpful. I like what you said about SOCIAL. This makes much more sense to me. In the old days–meaning the pre-Twitter, FB days, we used to say about book signings and sending out postcards, and etc., you might not see the results right away but WAY LEADS TO WAY. Now that I read this I realize that it’s the same thing. The only thing that worries me is the time you say it takes, and I do believe you. My first job is to write the best books I can, which takes a lot of time. My second job is to make sure people know about those books. But how to allot the time? This is what I’m struggling with right now, every day. (Except yesterday when I took a day off and while my husband and I were out for a walk we met two people, to whom I gave my card! Just a fun coincidence… but way leads to way.) Anyway, thanks for the great post. Glad I didn’t have to tweet my response. I usually think in more than 140 characters.

  • Gabe said,

    Hi Deborah,
    You mentioned a hot-button that many talk about when it comes to social media – time. Rather than say another word I will simply point you to another recent post on this very subject and you can decide for yourself. http://www.justgabe.com/2009/06/18/is-twitter-a-time-suck/

    Enjoy. -Gabe

  • Dirk Loehn said,

    One way to get answers or attention from not-followers is the use of hashtags, especially if you have a question around a niche topic. Some hashtags like #jobs are well established, but if you’re tweeting about specific topics find out what hastags other tweeters are using for this topic and try. If your question is interesting it will be replied to.

  • Gabe said,

    Very good point, Dirk. One word of caution though. I would hesitate to “piggyback” on a popular hash tag that has nothing to do with the subject as it will then appear spammy. Try to find one that is at least similar in its meaning. For more on what hash tags are and how to use them you can read this post: http://www.justgabe.com/2009/01/30/yet-more-twitter-gems/

  • Amy Shropshire said,

    I’ve had mixed results getting answers on Twitter and I think you hit on all the reasons why. The biggest ones for me are #4 and #5. I get a bit annoyed when someone is asking for help, answers, advice, etc. but they have never contributed to anyone else’s requests. You have to show that you are willing to be an active part of the community before you can benefit from its collective knowledge. That doesn’t mean that you have to answer every question (because face it, sometimes you just don’t know the answer!) but if its a valid and interesting question, why not retweet it?! I think the trick to Twitter is to give more to it than you expect to get back…and you might just be surprised at how much you do get back =)

  • Gabe said,

    Very well said, Amy. :)

  • philhart said,

    Your comments are right on the button, I figure. If I want answers to technical questions, then I use Google &/or wikipedia. Answers to social questions (“What did you have for breakfast?”) are much tougher, and rely on having an effective PLN.

  • Keila said,

    I found this article to be very helpful. I’ve been on Twitter for a couple of months now and it still is a fairly new social networking site. I love to learn new ways to get followers or engage my fellow followers in creating meaningful conversations. Thanks!

  • Gabe said,

    Phil,
    I detect a tone of sarcasm in your comment. Do you not think you can get value from your Twitter colleagues?

    Also I had to google PLN as this is new to me. Coincidentally the Wiki definition came up with the currency code of the Polish zloty, the Partido Liberal Nacionalista, a few others and the last entry was PLN – Professional Learning Network, used frequently on Twitter.com. I guess google is still good for something. ;)

    Keila,
    I am glad you got something out of it. If you click on the “Twitter for Beginners” category on the right side of my blog you will get a bunch of posts that I hope will help you.

    Thank you both,

    -Gabe

  • Raffi said,

    You briefly mention timing, but I think it goes beyond that.
    Let’s say you are a restaurant tweeting about lunch specials. You should tweet them at 11am, 11:30am, noon. Get people while they are thinking about where they will go to lunch – not 8:30am when they are starting their day. Same with dinner – hit 4:30pm, 5pm, 6pm…

  • philhart said,

    Gabe,

    Now you have me absolutely stumped! Your comment “I detect a tone of sarcasm in your comment. Do you not think you can get value from your Twitter colleagues?” left me speechless (and my wife would be perfectly happy to attest that I respond that way when I am totally clueless), so all I can say is “SORRY, SORRY, SORRY, AND I BEG YOUR FORGIVENESS”. (I am extremely fortunate, being a mere male, in having no less than three female friends who know exactly where I am coming from, and would back my statement to the hilt.)

    I will now lay it on the line, and I would guess from your previous response that you may find the following extremely offensive, but it is the best that I can offer: I state that what I wrote I regarded (and still regard) as being purely factual, and that (as can happen in human communication) the message that was received was not the message that was intended to be sent.

    Please accept my apologies if this has occurred.

    As a minor aside, of course I value my twitter colleagues: they have added immensely to the quality of my life!

  • Gabe said,

    Raffi,
    Good point – thanks for adding value to this discussion.

    Phil,
    I meant nothing by my statement other than it was an observation that I apparently was wrong about. It was not meant as a barb, just a friendly nudge. You need not apologize. It is difficult sometimes when people do not know each other (as you can attest we just started tweeting to each other yesterday) when the written word has to be interpreted without any history of communication. I will add that nothing you said has offended me in the least. :)

    Let this serve as a good lesson on the value of “social” media. The fact that you came back and stated your case is a testament on how discussions can be valuable to making real connections.

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  • Rose Caplan said,

    Hey Gabe!

    How do you get followers to retweet something like this

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