When You Tweet With Me, You Tweet With Me!

Leave a comment

Posted on September 17, 2010

I think of this every Friday when I copy my followers that week from my Excel spreadsheet to my word document, that I spend a lot of time trying to be “social” with social media. I know what you are thinking…Excel spreadsheet…Word document…she’s geek of the week.

I just don’t get this fully automated social media nonsense. It really seems like an oxymoron to me – how do you automate something which is supposed to be about social interaction? That doesn’t sound very social to me!

I had someone reach out to me on my www.MidMajorMom.WordPress.com blog yesterday asking me about what I thought about adding personal stuff on her “pro” Twitter account. Please follow @ldelmonte – she is an interesting lady and learning about all of this social media etiquette. I told her I really did not enjoy Twitter until I spent more time doing @mentions rather than just Tweeting my ideas. I also began enjoying it more when I took the time to read other people’s blogs and visit their websites. It helped me know whether I wanted them in my timeline and I always get great pleasure ReTweeting someone’s Tweet if I think my followers will enjoy it as much as I do.

You can also over-do ReTweeting, in my opinion. It is a lot like forwarding e-mails. I stopped using one of my e-mail accounts because I have a person who ONLY sends me forwarded e-mails (who hasn’t read the one about the dollar coins not having “In God We Trust” on it by now? It does, by the way, on the side). How many in this room delete e-mails whose subject line starts with FWD:? Take time to tell me why you like the Tweet and you engage in “social” media.

I vet my followers and use thought when I follow someone. I take pride in the fact that I follow only 17 people/associations that do not follow me. I take pride in the fact that I am on a lot of lists (one list for every 15 followers…not bad at all). I take pride that I personally thank each follower who took the time to follow me that week.

When you Tweet with me, you Tweet with me!

Life is good!

Jude

Twitter: MidMajorMom

Twitter: JudeCaserta

AthleticBudgetCoach.com

About these ads

Do I Over Think Twitter? Youbetcha!

Leave a comment

Posted on May 31, 2010

Do I over think Twitter? Youbetcha!

And, I have a reason. I was sick of not being able to enjoy my timeline.

First off, I’m no Twitter guru – fewer than 400 followers does not make me an expert but I’ll bet I am more the norm than the big guys who have a gazillion followers.

You open an account and are ready to Tweet. First you realize you are Tweeting to no one because while you are following 201 accounts only your two best friends follow you. It seems easier to just text them, doesn’t it?

Next, folks start to follow you and you are so happy you follow them back. A new Tweeter does not realize that they may be following bots that will fill your timeline with Tweet-spam and drown out any chance you have of reading relevant and interesting Tweets.

If Twitter is about relationships then perhaps the term should be defined:

A connection, association or involvement

A connection implies at least two things, same with association or involvement.

If you and I do not know each other and you follow me I have an obligation to determine if I want a connection, association or involvement with you. I ask folks who follow me and who are not from college athletics how they found me and why they followed me. I have had some very interesting answers and have enjoyed their exchange. Because of this obligation, I do not automatically follow everyone who follows me. You may seem interesting to me but Tweet so frequently each day, and worse, repeat the frequent Tweets that I may list you without following you.

Here is a pet peeve: if you follow me, I follow you back then you unfollow me. What’s that about? Remember that relationship thing? I liken it to a cold call in business. It would be like making a cold call to a blue chip prospect and leaving a message. When the prospect actually calls you back, you don’t answer and don’t return the call. That’s rude and very bad for the business relationship you had hoped to develop when you made the initial call.

I use care and reason when I follow someone that does not know me.

Sometimes I follow an entity like the NCAA. I am interested in what they have to say with no illusions they will follow me back.

Sometimes I follow a person who is in the media or an expert in things I am interested in, again with no illusions they will follow me back. I simply am interested in what they Tweet and enjoy reading their Tweets in my timeline.

Sometimes I follow someone who was recommended to me by a fellow follower. If I read and like their bio and a few pages of their Tweets I will follow them. If, eventually they do not follow me back I will unfollow them. My thought is, they made a reasoned decision not to follow me and if we don’t have a relationship and they are not interested in my contribution to Twitter then unfollowing is a good way to clean my timeline.

Unlike in The Godfather (perhaps the greatest movie of all time…just sayin’) when Michael says, “It’s not personal, it’s strictly business,” once you realize Twitter is personal, you will think more about relationships and make more reasoned decisions of who is in your timeline, too!

Life is good!

Jude

Twitter: MidMajorMom

Twitter: JudeCaserta

http://www.MidMajorMom.WordPress.com

AthleticBudgetCoach.com

How my Twitter Account Got the Social Media Equivalent of VD

Leave a comment

Posted on May 18, 2010

I used to be AthleticBudget (because AthleticBudgetCoach was too long) but blew up the account late last year. I was new to Twitter, but let’s face it; Twitter is still so new that we are all basically new to it.

I decided I was going to use Twitter for business and Facebook for friends. I have stayed with this and enjoy Facebook with friends old and new as well as my son’s friends who are scattered at college. Although I share plenty of personal stuff about me, Twitter is primarily a way for me to share my expertise about college athletics and athletic business in particular.

In September I went to the dark side of Twitter. I did three things that ruined my account as well as seriously damage my e-mail, filling it with pharmacy spam and more.

1. I registered for a webinar on how to rapidly increase your Twitter following.

Actually, I mistakenly registered twice. I know this because when these two very famous social media guys send me emails they send one to Jude and one to Judith. As a result I get not one but two copies of each stupid spam email on how to enhance my non-existent body part as well as those UPS packages I never received.

My bad the first!

2. I actually did the rapid follow method.

OK, this is where you follow followers of people you think are your “market” then drop them if they do not follow you within a few days. So I did the 200 a day and dropped every few days. I went from 100 followers to 1,200 followers in about 10 days. Cool? No, not so cool!

I ended up with 100’s of Twitter accounts that were basically robot spammers. They filled my timeline with crap about how to get more followers (that went well the first time!), joining the Trump network (cult like – sorry Trump network) and basically how to make a million bucks in 15 minutes without ever turning on your computer.

My bad the second!

3. I relied on a social media program to respond and manage new followers.

This may have been my greatest sin. It certainly does get more time consuming as you gain more followers to personally thank them and interact with them but there is no greater single thing that makes Twitter fun and valuable. When you rely upon a computer program to interact with your followers you become just another spam robot. I just dropped a guy who looked pretty cool when he first followed me because he posted nice quotes. The problem is he never actually Tweets anything live…just those silly quotes. I “un-followed” him with no regret.

My bad the third!

Here is my new approach to building a grass roots following:

Before I follow anyone I click on their profile and read at least two pages of Tweets. If they Tweet 100’s of times a day I will not follow back. Timeline hogs are not invited to my party.
I only follow those who look interesting to me (and who will not clutter my timeline as described in #1). Here is a question: if someone gives you something for free that you did not request or desire do you have to keep it? How many plastic cups that say Acme Flange & Widget Company do you need to keep in your cluttered cupboards?
I always personally thank each follower, whether I follow them or not. I have met some very cool people this way. After a while you can spot a computerized message a mile away. I really enjoy Tweeting back and forth with folks.

Twitter no longer feels like standing on the 50 yard line at Ralph Wilson Stadium and speaking in my inside voice without a microphone hoping just one person will hear me.

Life is good!

Jude

Twitter: MidMajorMom

Twitter: JudeCaserta

http://www.MidMajorMom.WordPress.com

AthleticBudgetCoach.com

Jude The Foodie

Living a "Glass Half Full" Life!

Tag Archives: Automatic Twitter Following

Do I Over Think Twitter? Youbetcha!

Follow “Jude The Foodie”

Please share :o)

Like this:

Please share :o)

Like this:

Please share :o)

Like this:

Follow “Jude The Foodie”