A recurring question I get from Twitter users shortly after I follow them back is, “How can you follow xx,000 people?” (the number on November 11th is 16,928, with 19528 following me.)
It’s not easy. Twitter, for most people, is the chance to engage with like-minded people, or geographically similar people, or otherwise to align your interests along certain lines. Most people have a hundred, or a few hundred. Some folks feel the crush of too many tweets at around 300-1000 followers. Still others don’t follow back that many people, but consent to having several people read their tweets.
Update: People often ask me how much time I spend on Twitter a day. That assumes I ever turn it off. It’s a flow. It’s like asking you how much time you spend on the phone or in your inbox. I process tweets and stay active with tweets throughout the day. I comment during meetings. I comment at red lights. I think about things late at night and when I wake up. Answer: all day.
At volume, it’s a bit different. It’s a lot like showing up to a very busy, very loud cocktail party, but also a business meeting, plus a focus group, plus several other social situations. Twitter, unfiltered, is like someone with mind reading powers walking down 38th Street in Manhattan. It’s not especially easy to manage, and it’s very different how things work at this pace. Looking at unfiltered Twitter at this volume just doesn’t cut it.
Further, goals at this volume are different. I can’t exactly answer every reply message. I can’t dig into every passing story or fun conversation. I can’t be part of all the action. It just doesn’t span. So, I have a few goals: be helpful, be informative, be human, and be as responsive as I can in the time allotted.
My Four Goals
Be Helpful - Being helpful is how I’ve built my reputation and personal brand. I am known for being a guy who shares as much as I can of myself, and I give as much as I have capacity to give. By the way, at almost 20,000 people, that means that if only 1% of folks ask me for something on any given day, that’s 200 people. So, I try to help as many folks as I can, but that also means disappointing people from time to time.
Be Informative - I love sharing links to things that are interesting. I’m frequently emailed and DMd links that people want me to share. I look at everything before I send it out. I’m not a posting service. I’m not a robot. I’m a human. If the information is interesting to me, then I share it. I share as many Amber Alerts as I can, because I want to spread that effect as much as I can. I also share lots of links to various social causes. But I also run into trouble doing that all day, because it could be a full time job on its own.
Be Human - When I say be human, I mean that I’m a person, not a company. I run a company, but I’m a person. Thus, I get cranky, or I tell jokes, or I run at the mouth sometimes. Whatever. It’s part of the tapestry, not a flaw. If you’re not treating Twitter like a personal communications device that also happens to be a business tool (or some mix of the two), you’re missing what makes this fun and vital.
Be Responsive - When I say be responsive, I try to answer as many people as I can in a given day. I get about four angry unfollows a week from people who were mad that I didn’t respond back to their tweet, or their request. Most DM me an angry last message and unfollow. Others spew it out into the main channel. Either way, I can’t do much to help. I answer as many people as I can. If you leave, sorry.
Here’s how I handle most of this, technically:
Primary Application: TweetDeck
I use TweetDeck when on my laptop. It gives me windows for search, to see Direct Messages, plus a general flow along the left hand side. It seems to be the app I see at most of the conferences. Other folks use Twhirl and like it. Note: both of these applications require Adobe Air.
Mobile Device: Twittelator Pro
I just switched to Twittelator Pro for the iPhone, after a suggestion by Justin Rasmussen. Before that, I was using Twitterific Pro, as recommended by Nick Saber, and it worked mostly okay. What Twittelator pro does better is that it handles direct messages, has some location-based information in it, and does a few other things like report trending topics natively. It has four different color schemes, if that kind of thing matters. (I set mine to dark).
What I think will appeal to me (haven’t tested it fully) is the “nearby” feature. Another Twitter app or two have similar features, but I agree with Justin that it’s pretty useful.
I do a great deal of twittering while in meetings, while between jobs, while out and about. I tweet at events. Having a mobile app helps with that a great deal. Being tethered to the desk takes 2/3 of the fun out of Twitter.
Search: The Most Important Element
I use search all the time. I’ve got searches and searches and searches. Sometimes, there are as many as four tabs open. And the more I learn how to use Twitter Search, the more I learn that search is how it will endear itself to the general public.
If you leave this blog post with nothing else, learn that search is what matters. Search by location. Search by topic. Search by filtering out links. Search and learn how to interact with people in that way.
Am I Using It Right?
Twitter’s the new phone. It’s not meant to be a broadcasting tool, as such. It’s supposed to be a one-to-many, but at a slightly more conversational level.
I don’t recommend twitter at volume for most folks. I understand that there are some benefits. I realize that it’s different when I ask a question versus when other people ask a question, or when I direct people to check out a certain link versus the average user.
But that just happened that way. I’ve done nothing to actively grow my following. I’m just me. I just follow those four rules above.
You’re probably using it right.
So, that answers a question I’m asked a lot. The other question I get asked often is, “do you ever sleep?” Want the answer?.
Photo credit, Striatic
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Pretty cool, because I have always wondered. Thanks.
Personally I use OutTwit to manage my reading of tweets and stick them in their own folder (.twitter) - it shows me which I’ve read or not (as if they were emails), direct messages show up as important items and it’s easy to sort and search.
It also lets me batch up my tweet reading for parts of the day when I’m less busy - but I can see the unread count going up. Sometimes I just go ahead and “Mark All As Read” in order to get some sanity.
Twhirl is nicer to post from, but one of the problems I have with their app is that it remembers that Firefox was my default browser when it was first installed and ignores Chrome (which is my new default browser).
Glad I showed you Tweetdeck at Gnomedex ;-). I don’t follow nearly as many people, but I do use Tweetdeck and search like you do. The one thing I think you’re missing out on with Tweetdeck is building groups of people to follow more closely. I’ve done this and I’m getting a lot more out of Twitter now. Yes, you have to pick and choose, but it isn’t set in stone.
Too funny. A co-worker and I were just talking about you in this context today over lunch. I used the mind-reader analogy, too…it seems to fit really well.
Thanks for sharing, Chris.
Those are pretty cool suggestions, Chris. I really like the 4 goals you have but wondering how much time you spend on running the company and how much on twitting.
Search has been key in helping me identify those folks that share my interests. I created a pretty complex twitter search incorporating Jungian terms about ten days ago and the rss feed has delivered over 50 responses of folks that use the vocabulary I’ve targeted in their tweets. What’s been really interesting is that often these are folks new to twitter and we could go for months if not longer never connecting. A month ago I made a decision to “go find my peeps.” Search makes that possible.
I briefly wondered if you were a Pentagon experiment that got away… :-)
TweetDeck is great for sure. You’re a Broadcaster too :-) and as my business partner and I always say “we can sleep when we’re dead…”
- Giles (a.k.a. Casper)
You’re a master at the art of the multitask. Thank you for sharing the secret tools and zen approach. Your tweets enrich my own life experience regularly, and it’s an honor to RT your wisdom. @caseyfern
Being in Wyoming, we can’t get iPhones - Apple/ATT won’t support it. So, managing tweets away from my desktop is next to impossible. Any suggestions?
Thank you for putting it into perspective, I knew you had tons of followers, but I guess I never really broke it down inside my head to think of how many people may be asking you questions. I asked you a Social media question a couple weeks ago, and did not hear back and figured you were busy or just did not see it. It is crazy to think that someone would stop following you or send you a nasty message because you did not answer them, IMHO that is their loss, as the links and info you supply in your everyday posts are very helpful all alone!
Twitly.com is also good for mass volume. Its a browser based app that separates the people you follow into groups.
I tried TweetDeck, but didn’t particularly like it too much. I am vision impaired and I could not find a way to make it easier to see (larger fonts, etc.). I keep looking for something that’s easier for me to view. I’ll give it another whirl and see if there’s a way I can make it work for me.
My problem is that I’m here to learn and feel like I have to read everyone’s tweets, read everyone’s blog, etc., thinking I may miss something I need to learn. So with only around 163 followers, this has become overwhelming for me at this point when I’m trying to keep up with everyone!
Thanks for this great info on Twitter at volume. At around 400 now (followers and following) I’ve found that growing little by little helps to learn how Twitter works, who you want to follow and what I personally can handle :). So many twitter tools out there - some better than others.
Thanks for the insights. I use TweetDeck too and I much prefer it to any of the other apps.
It’s reassuring to know that participating in Twitter is scalable.
I have installed twittelator pro on my iphone and going to give it a try. Thanks for a great article!
Very helpful and insightful.
Tweetdeck looks nice, but crashes on my IE7 on Vista. My PC doesn’t like AIR apps.
RIA = fat client in a browser container.
http://twitpic.com/lafm
very interesting post. useful and supportive. As a new follower on your tweets I wish to keep in touch and learn/share more…
I’m feeling the pressure of high volume Twitter with ~1500 followers. I’m jumping into Tweetdeck again (I tried a while back and it just didn’t take). The other thing I’m doing is using Twitter search to build search strings of people I want to follow closely and then pull the RSS into Google Reader. While I’m not able be in direct conversations with them at the moment, it helps me keep up with what’s happening and I connect as possible.
Jim | @jstorerj
P.S. I love the fact that your iPhone battery is “in the red” in the image above. ;-)
Four simple, and yet important, rules that everyone should follow in all areas of experiencing this thing we call “life”. Definitely a pure gem.
You have it set to show you any tweet with the word “Brogan” in it? I knew Internet celebrities were narcissists!
I’m curious as to what percentage of your time Twitter takes up using it as you do. I find Twitter very useful, enjoy meeting new poeople and would love to use it far more than I do however right now I’m finding it competes fiercely with already full, billable hours and working time. When I’m focused on writing I’ve taken to turning Twitter down or off because I find it distracts I check out recommended sites and share when I can but no way could I - nor would I - even want to - field that # of DM requests. When it comes to billable work there’s no contest really. Time is definitely a restriction for me. I fit it in when I can but that means I will inevitably miss stuff.
My other reason for asking this is that as a copywriter and consultant I talk to business owners and marketers about SM strategies and tools, Twitter being one of them. I’ve recommended Twitter on occasion however as the “time component” becomes apparent to me, I am finding myself adding a caveat around the time issues when I recommend it.
Many businesses currently see Twitter as a productivity issue - (as with many SM tools).. i.e, if they are paying their employees to work playing around on Twitter isn’t going to go over well at all. Particularly in this climate. If it’s allowed at all it’s considered a diversion.
So, back to my question - if it isn’t confidential - how much time on average do you spend using Twitter all told?
Great post! I’ve been saying the same thing recently - Twitter Search is vitally important. “If you leave this blog post with nothing else, learn that search is what matters.” Spot on!
You might want to consider ditching that tabs for search terms and drop the feeds into something like netvibes. Or use one of the many trackers out there; monitter, perspctv etc. Helps me to see the stuff I’m interested in a dashboard-like manner.
@sondernagle
@Tris - you know, you’re right. It was you who got me looking at it again. I didn’t remember that!
@Toddy - I’m a little unique. My job involves social media. When I’m on Twitter, I’m doing work lots of times. Not directly, but through building relationships that turn into sales.
@Jason - BlackBerry isn’t *too* bad as a mobile client, but it doesn’t do as much. I used one for 2 years.
@Webconomist/Giles(Casper!) - I am a broadcaster. I understand that. Some days, it’d be nice to be a little lower profile, but what can I do?
@Jim - it’s always in the red. I’m a user. : /
@Wesley - it’s the “be responsive” part. If people don’t know how to use @chrisbrogan, I still want to talk back.
@TJ - that’s interesting. I’ll give that a look. : )
One suggestion that may be helpful to everyone is on TweetDeck, I break down my followers into different categories.
For instance, because I’ve met Chris in person, he’s in my A-List. Everyone I’ve met or talked to on the phone is on my A-List.
I elaborated this moments ago over on Mack Collier’s blog at http://moblogsmoproblems.blogspot.com/2008/11/how-do-you-budget-your-social-media.html for anyone interested.
@Nicky - depends on the business. I just worked with a client today who is dying to get onto Twitter because it’s a tool for more presence and more customer touch.
My post wasn’t “how businesses can use Twitter.” That’s this post.
Yes, it can be a distraction. It can also be a customer service product, a lead generation product, etc.
For me? It’s a way to build relationships that turn into something bigger.
Maybe I’m doing something wrong with Tweetdeck and need to try again? I like a desktop applications that slowly display the tweets so that I see them at the bottom on my desktop and can choose to interact if I want to. So I was using an old version of Snitter which coped with the number of people I follow but have now had to change to Twhirl.
I use Twinkle on my iphone which also finds displays nearby people.
Love the comment about do you ever sleep — get it myself :)
I tried following someone on Twitter but only could last a day. Still trying to use it as promotional tool but I think it’s more personal stalking.
This is crazy cool. Some days I look at how many Tweets you’ve sent out to my 1 or 2. Some days I just have less to say. Love the platform though. Thanks for the insight and info. Keep it coming.
Great post. I use Tweetdeck myself and sometimes I just sit and watch everybody else for general amusement. I’ve had Twhirl recommended since it takes up less desktop real estate, but I haven’t gotten it to track the people I’m following to the extent Tweetdeck does. I’m also exploring Tweetlater for doing a whole day’s worth of promo tweets even if I’m at a speaking engagement or a conference. Great stuff.
Hi,
Still you managed to answer me. You and Gary Vaynerchuk are the only ones that have so many followers and still manage to answer people.
Thank you for that and I totally understand that it’s not easy to talk with the guy in the other corner of the room at a loud party.
When you are the front of your industry you are not there because you were looking back, you are there because you look forward. You provide direction. Your presence is a rally point of thought within the synaptic chaos of the Twitterverse, Blogosphere and beyond.
As your followers increase to 100,000, I think you will find “Be Helpful” and “Be Responsive” extremely burdensome and I hope you find your role evolve in the “Be Informative” and your voice in the “Be Human”, which as a blogger is probably exactly where you started. We are still too immature and in lack of enough leaders in this space for you to become the Dear Abby of it. We need some Einsteins.
I enjoyed your post about post-media because it looked beyond our current circumstance. You threw a thought out with few directives and the responses went beyond just “great post” or the nodding of heads. It certainly challenged me to think.
More thought pieces! Paint even larger visions! Mold the destination.
Great insight, Chris. Open and honest, which I’d expect from you, and which I also believe is by far the best policy.
I hope the day goes well, without too many angry ‘unfollow DMs’.
hi — since you use search a lot, you may want to check out tweetscribe.com, which helps manage your search queries.
i’m not connected to the site. it’s just the only one i’ve found so far that helps me manage my search queries. if anyone uses a similar twit app for managing search queries, please shoot me a tweet.
gus
(@gus_sentementes)
@chris - You’re preaching to the converted when it comes to the benefits (potential and otherwise) of Twitter. And I understand how you use it and that the post was about personal rather than business. But my question was how much time (on average) do you spend/does it take using it as you do?
By the way I’d already seen the post about the business use of Twitter.. I believe I re-blogged the original article or this one.
I’d always wondered about how someone could keep up, thanks for sharing. I’m curious - what % of your time on a daily basis you spend using Twitter and searching through responses? I’ve seen folks bow out because of the time commitment, not just trying to digest the stream.
Chris - I just started reading your blogs and following you on Twitter and I must say that I am intrigued. I’ve been thinking what a great way for business leaders to make decisions….they can be informed by their customers constantly and they can have a platform to bounce ideas off of their customers constantly. Nevertheless, I’m intrigued.
Thanks!
As you said, I follow so many people on Twitter that if I wasn’t using Tweetdeck….my head would explode.
I’m glad you’re you. Human and helpful. You do your best at that and the results are remarkable. Thanks for sharing one more piece of the puzzle.
One web app I’ve found really useful lately is called TweetGrid - http://www.tweetgrid.com. It allows you to setup anywhere from 1 - 9 keyword-based Twitter streams on a single screen - very cool and very useful! I keep several of those open at all times.
Kevin Dykes
Agency Principal
@vibe media
OMG, I can’t imagine the noise your TweetDeck makes. Just the thought of that volume makes me a little nervous. I applaud your ability to keep up as well as you do. I enjoyed learning how you stay on top of it all. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for insight and effort you freely put out there to all people, even greenhorns like me. The contributions you make to people you don’t even know is very generous and valuable and people like you make this a great place to be.
Mark
I’ve found that once I reached about 300 followers/following I had to use Tweetdeck to manage Twitter. I have 3 groups and a search running all of the time. And I completely agree about search - it’s the best way to find information and people.
Before the numbers grew I would keep track of everything - in the morning I would go back and read the tweets that I had missed overnight. There’s no way I could do that now or else Twitter would turn into a full time job.
Thanks for this article.
Hi Chris! :-)
Thanks for sharing - you really have to find a way to deal the twitter thing as things grow… thanks for the valuable tips! :-)
Greetings,
André
Since I started using TweetDeck, Twitter has become such a great tool on many levels. I use it for a lot more than just sharing my current activity.
Great post Chris.
I was told about Tweetdeck and enjoy using it over Twirl, although I’m sure I don’t know how to fully utilize it. I don’t have nearly the followers you do but still experience an increase in Twitter noise, most of it irrelevant. I try my best to interact with new followers and engage in conversations with strangers to have a more open web friendship. I agree you have to be personal and half the fun of Twitter is using it to post random thoughts.
Craig
http://www.budgetpulse.com
Twitter/craigkessler
I think you can serve thousands of followers effectively with good links, etc. but there’s no way you can follow thousands of people; there’s simply not enough time in the day. Anyone who suggests otherwise is fooling themselves - just like Scoble tried to convince people he read 100s of blogs a day.
I have 100% fallen in love with Twitter :)
Though it did take some time to ‘get it’ … i remember when i 1st learned about it … i thought “this is cool” … but after using it a bit i dropped it.
Then months later i picked it back up, but the difference this time is i went on an hunt to figure it out. searching the web for what people had to share and say about the tool and their use of it. i found a LOT of great stuff:
http://delicious.com/franswaa/twitter
Overall I think I’ve landed in a similar place a you @Chris … i want to be helpful, human and keep the interaction up. I don’t have a personal or work Blog up at this point so i try to share things i find interesting from as many other sources as possible
–
http://twitter.com/franswaa
Some of this sounds very similar to my appraoch to Twitter.
I found I really wanted to have a search box on the Twitter homepage, and missed the trending topics that had been there during the run-up to the election — so I wrote a Greasemonkey script to add them.
http://www.designmeme.com/twitter-search-bar/
The Twitter API is excellent - it lets you build the tools you need to use Twitter the way you want. :)
I love Twitter too and I often wonder how folks like you (Chris) manage to keep up with the volume. Personally I have to unplug otherwise my family will go hungry and unclothed! (”Oh right, the kids…”)
I am a Twhirl girl, and it’s just because it’s simple. TweetDeck is lovely but that grey background just brings me down. For someone juggling as much as you, I completely understand your Tweetdeck affinity.
I agree 100% on your best practices and philosophy of using it and just love your phrase “Twitter is the new phone”. Very true!
As long as you’re there Tweeting all the time, I feel OK not to be Tweeting all the time. I figure you’ve got it covered and I thank you for that. Actually my family thanks you for that too. :-)
Keep being awesome,
Nancy Marmolejo
Thank you for this post! I did come away with a new understanding of how to search on twitter, way cool!
Karin Manske
Thanks for the useful post! I’m currently testing twirl and tweetdeck head to head. I can’t decide which I like better.
Bill McIntosh
http://twitter.com/billmcintosh
great article, question about if you are using it right I think is irrelevant, after using it for so long I think it is a matter of “different” ways to use it, not correct ways :)
I just read another article about it being a legitimate news source? I started following cnn headlines on twitter and I almost like it better than their website. Can’t imagine why FNC doesn’t have a corresponding ticker
Sounds like it’s time for tweetdeck, as my follows inch up to 1000. Avoided it. But now….
I like your four rules.
@carissarogers
My life would be easier if I remembered to read your blog every day - but I can’t even remember to write mine every day - so instead I’ll just make it easier by seeing if I can get Tweetdeck to work for me now. This is the first time anyone’s given me a valid reason to try it again.
Oh, yeah, and I’m bookmarking this sucker. Now I no longer have to explain it to people myself. I won’t ever be at your level, but anything over about 500 changes Twitter immeasurably, doesn’t it? :)
Thanks! :) (yes, I’m getting caught up… sue me! I sleep more than you do!)
Great advice, Chris. The “I’m human” really encapsulates why I find following you to be a joy. I don’t follow any other Web celebs, and not a lot with more than 1,000 followers - because while being human, you are a MACHINE at producing meaningful and helpful content and relationships. Going to explore search more, but not sure I personally can handle more than 200 - the people I like to follow are the top 10% in terms of output, which means a lot even at 200. Rock on, man!
Great post Chris, I like the way you avoid jargon and talk straight. New tweeples can learn a lot from following your tweets and RTs. I love your image on this post its super-appropriate.
Thanks for the tweetalator pro tip.
Donna Jackson
Social Communications Specialist
http://www.wisequeen.com
@wisequeen
Hi, Chris!
Good points; thanks for sharing. Hmm. Maybe I should use mobile app’s more often, since you stated that {not doing so} takes out 2/3 of the fun of Twitter. ;)
Maybe I’ll buy an iPhone sooner. (I already have a Motorola RAZR phone for personal use and a BlackBerry from work). I’ve been waiting for the hardware upgrade on the iPhone (about a year?). Maybe I’ll just go ahead and get one.
I don’t buy gadgets just for the sake of “looking cool’ or because everyone else has one. I want the best steady-state technology that serves a useful purpose & fits my lifestyle. I’m “patient.” I’ve been an early adopter on the WWW, but not on portable devices. I prefer top shelf HW/SW w/ plenty of encryption, etc.
Again, thanks for your insights Chris. TTYL.
@CheriSigmon
aka @LongestWiener (dog charity)
p.s. It’s a challenge to use more than one Twitter account as the volumes grow; I use more than one for distinct purposes and to add value to each. People who are interested in my professional/business tweets may/may not care too much for hearing about wiener dogs (Dachshunds). That’s why…
Thanks for the tips. Very helpful to a Twitter newb like me.
I’ve tried twitterdeck w/out success and would like to try some other apps. Right now just use the web. Tried using my phone but it went off all the time. The laptop app you show looks promising. Nice post. Thanks for the info.
This was a very helpful post. I still consider myself pretty much a newbie on Twitter and it seems that there is always something useful to learn how to manage twitter. I will have to give tweetdeck a try and obviously the search. Thanks a bunch Chris!
I too, consider myself to be a Twitter newbie, spending a lot of my time reading blogs such as this, watching the tweets and adding and responding to followers.
I haven’t got round to trying TweeterDeck yet, but have found a combination of Yoono, Monitter and PeopleBrowsr has worked quite well for me.
Have another subscriber by the way!
LOL