When I first started using Twitter all I could think was, "I don't get it". Then I started feeling like maybe I am just to old to understand it which is not a fun feeling at 27! After using Twitter for a little while now and I think that - while clearly not an expert - I am starting to get the hang of things so I thought that today I would take some time to pass along some of my thoughts and insights into the matter.
It seems to me that to be a successful Tweeter, or Twitter user, Twitterer, whatever first you need to know why you are there. Is this to keep in touch with friends and family, advertise your business, network, etc. For me the goal was to get the word out about my new business and network. So, not knowing what else to do I got on Twitter and started tweeting about me. That didn't really go so well. Tweeting only about you is kinda like going to a party and only talking about yourself all night long. Boring!
But, I didn't know anyone yet. So, I started by following photographers who I knew about from their blogs. Then I added in vendors that I use. After that I read an article about 9 people all newbies should follow on Twitter, so I followed those people as well. By this time I was following quite a few people and my stream was really full of a bunch of stuff I didn't really care about and still nobody knew who I was.
It was about this time that I had my epiphany. Twitter is about having a conversation and sharing common interests with other people like you. After realizing that, I made a few changes. I dropped people I had been following if I did not end up reading any of their Tweets or if they weren't in my area of interest. I also stopped following people just because they were following me. This was hard for me in a way because it seems so mean to not want to follow someone but not everyone is a good Twitter match for everyone else so there really shouldn't be any hard feelings (I hope!).
Then I discovered re tweeting. Now I also figured out that there are some people who you follow because they consistently provide good content that you like to pass along and others you follow because you share common interests and can have conversations.
Then, if you are engaging in conversations with other members (as opposed to just pimping your website all the time) and re tweeting content you find interesting chances are that people will start finding you interesting and want to follow you too.
Those are just my observations from my personal experience so far. Let me know what you think in the comments. Have a great Wednesday!
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