5 Rules For Using Twitter
September 28, 2007 |
Lord help me, I’m on Twitter.
I’ll be quite honest with you, I wasn’t initially impressed with Twitter. It seemed kinda pointless to me. My opinion changed after I read an interview with Chris Brogan at Guy Kawasaki’s blog. Chris spoke about using Twitter as a way to engage in conversations, and keep an eye on what other relevant conversations are out there. So I started browsing around Twitter, and I found it sort of interesting. I also found it a bit inspiring. After I started thinking about Twitter and how I want to use it, I came up with some rules that I am going to try and follow, and wish others would, too:
1) Don’t tell me what you are doing– tell me what you are thinking.
2) Don’t tell me where you are going– tell me what moves you.
3) Don’t just tell me you wrote a new blog post– tell me why you did it.
4) Don’t just notify– engage and inspire.
5) Make sure you follow, but also try to lead.
I know that I am going to break these rules a few times here and there, and probably bore people with mundane stuff every once in a while, but I think that if I can write three posts that follow these rules for every one post that breaks them, Twitter could be pretty interesting.
I look at Twitter like this: it is a place for people to engage one another, instantaneously and very acutely. It can be so much more than “what are you doing?”. I’ll give you two examples of notable Twitter members who I think are wasting their tweets:
1) The New York Times: As near as I can tell, the only thing the NYT is using their tweets for is to push headlines from their website. Isn’t that what RSS is for? The NYT main feed has 25 followers, over half of which are just other NYT feeds. Robert Scoble, on the other hand, has over 5000 followers. Why? Because he is engaging people, sharing something interesting. The NYT is just pushing headlines. They have columnists, don’t they? Would it really kill the NYT to offer us something other than what we already have access to?
2) John Edwards: This is a man who is running for President of the United States, and all he wants to tell us is when he is getting on a tour bus or making a campaign stop? Is that all he has to say? Here is a perfect opportunity to engage voters on a daily basis, to inspire, to share insights in a personal way. For once in my life, I would like to see a politician get off the script and share something meaningful. I can go to a website to find out about the next public appearance.
So that’s it. Those are my initial thoughts about Twitter and my plan to use it more effectively. Sure, I’ll use it for pedestrian stuff from time to time, but wouldn’t it be cool if we could take something ordinary and transform it into something altogether different. . .
[tags] web 2.0, social networking, twitter, tweets, john edwards, new york times, robert scoble, scobleizer [/tags]
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9 Responses to “5 Rules For Using Twitter”
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Disclaimer
My name is Daniel Rothamel. I am a licensed real estate agent in the Commonwealth of Virginia and a member of the National Association of REALTORS. As such, I adhere to a strict code of ethics and all laws with regard to equal housing, which is reflected in the content of this blog. My broker is Strong Team REALTORS, 86 Joshua Lane, Palmyra, VA 22963; (434) 589-5800. My VA Real Estate License number is 0225 077325. All of the opinions in this blog are mine, unless otherwise noted.
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I agree with your thoughts completely, especially the concept of sharing ideas and not mundane facts. Why instead of what, if you will. I kind of see Twitter in the same light as text messaging — concise and abbreviated. It gets the job done quickly.
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Well done, well said. It’s about the depth, ya right, it’s what is inside our heads that truly get’s the conversation started.
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I agree with your points as well. When we first looked at Twitter all we saw were updates on when people feed their cats or what they ate for dinner. Not really relevant information and nothing that I was interested in.
In addition to the items you outlined I think Twitter can be leverage as a business communication tool… lending itself to tell me what I need when I need it. Break down the barriers of information and provide it across all communication channels.
‘@comcastcares’ does this very well as do the FireFox team. They have used Twitter to not only communicate but to ensure that customer service is on the top of their game.
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