To Tweet or Overtweet?
So, as we read more and more about Twitter, we have been very interested in the debate about this idea of “overtweeting.”
There are several posts about this and we came across a great post from Twitterati that got us thinking: why are we asking questions about how to control Twitter? No don’t get us wrong, Mark Evans provides value to the world, and is an awesome blogger. We have no issue with the question or the advice that Mark brings up, which is all good.
The anti-overtweeters will argue that you are just clogging up your followers’ stream and that you are annoying people. Well, if that is the case, then yes, you will lose some followers, but we ask this question: if people unfollow because you “overtweet,” what about the people who DO follow you? Do they like when you “overtweet?” Whenever I tweet from @julito77, I do ask myself that question, because according to my stats, I tent to tweet a lot when I am on Twitter (when I am not working). Yes, some people find me annoying and leave me, but those who don’t have always told me that they appreciate how I tweet and how I engage with my stream. So what do you do?
We tend to share a different philosophy: we truly believe that Twitter is organic and cannot be controlled. That is, there is NO RIGHT WAY to tweet. In fact, what we tell clients is a bit different: just be yourself, connect with your followers, and if they want to engage with you and go back and forth with a conversation, then do it. If it gets too much, DM that person or take the conversation offline. But don’t start overthinking Twitter. Once you do, we believe that you start compromising yourself. Remember: those that stick with you are those who want to be with you and hear from you.
Let us provide some examples:
1. People Call Me a Twittercaster: During several sporting events, my former sportswriting background allowed me to provide several play-by-play updates of the game. For those people in my stream who weren’t near a TV or a computer, my “twittercasting” provided value to them and they let me know about it. Yeah, I tweeted almost every minute and had a blast with all the fans who were watching the game. Did I clog up people’s streams? Sure. Did I lose some people? Probably. Was that important to me? No. And this is not being critical, it really wasn’t important to me because I absolutely enjoyed my time on Twitter yesterday and enhanced some great relationships.
2. There is NO Strength in Numbers: I don’t actively look for followers every day, but when I do, I follow people that meet my interest or that engaged with me and said hi. Number of followers mean nothing to me, and so do unfollows, because in the end, those that follow are the ones who say, “wait, this person adds value.” I would easily trade in all my follows if you told me the only person on Twitter who would follow me is someone like Steve Jobs and Steve would give me access to him at all times (well, I would still follow Gini, Adrian, Chris, Justin, Jeff, and the rest of the Julito77 Posse), but you get my point. Would you rather have 100,000 followers who won’t pay attention to you or would you want 10 followers who would be able to fund all your projects, get you access to anything you need, even a meeting with the President?
So I understand the “overtweet” argument, but in the end Twitter is YOUR universe. You control it. You won’t please everyone, but you shouldn’t think that way. Memo: not everyone is going to like you in this world, and that’s cool. Just focus on your stream and be yourself. If you do that, people will stay with you and will value what you bring to their lives.
The right way to Tweet is a simple one: JUST BE YOU. DON’T OVERTHINK IT. TWEET AWAY!
I am in the upper 10th percentile of superduperovertweeters. And ya know, that’s just who I am and I can’t help it. Maybe there’s a more streamlined, efficient, better way of Tweeting that would further help my business compared to what I’m doing now, but I’m not gonna try and change who I am. You’ll just have to put your Twitter earmuffs on if you follow me LOL.
Go Cards!
Never unfollow The Brotherhood™
My man, Chris, I am with you. It is what it is. I 100% agree that what we have been doing has worked for v5. In the end, I regret nothing. Danke.
No way, I would never do that!
I agree with you on this post. I hate it when people say: what do the pro’s say about twitter?… I always say, who cares, we are what makes twitter happen!
Much Love Man!
There is something to be said about organic growth. Twitter is a universe that cannot be controlled. That is the struggle that many companies and people are fighting with. The old paradigm is over. Twitter flattens it for you. What you do with it is YOUR choice and no one elses.
Julio, I couldn’t have said this better myself. I have teasingly referred to my Tweeting style as one of a member of OverTweeters (Not So) Anonymous. I have a few different reasons for participating in Twitter; some that are a part of my marketing strategy, but some that fall, quite frankly, in to the category of loving the interaction I have with friends, old and new.
It is not wise to try to control a medium that is hitting its stride because of its ability to allow and encourage conversation. That is akin to putting tape over the mouth of those who are social, and who choose to communicate in whatever medium they choose. I can’t imagine going to the Chamber’s Business After Hours with a limit of 10 short conversations with people. That would be selling the BAH short, and it would surely be selling my networking skills short.
Don’t try to tie my hands together when I choose to shake the hands, and hug the necks, of many people with whom I have chosen to connect on Twitter. That’s nothing short of absurd!
Nancy, you said it better than us. Love what you posted here.
I am not an OVER tweeter, but I am starting to much more. Even in my FB status…here is a something weird I noticed….
Overtweeting is acceptable in Twitter…but your FB friends tend to get ticked off MUCH faster if you constantly update your status aka hyper-status-updates, why is that?
Are the platforms really THAT different?
Yeah, Twitter and Facebook are different beasts. I liken Twitter to a big open bar and party, but Facebook is your home. You definitely don’t want to have all your Twitter things invading your home. I tend to find a balance between Facebook status updates and posting links for my Facebook friends. So instead of just adding constant status updates, I add links about what I am reading, watching, or going to. That balance seems to do the trick since it is not always constant status updates. Thanks for your comment!
Not going to lie…thats a GREAT analogy. Maybe only the special things should make it into FB
Thanks for the help!
Great. I wrote about that analogy two weeks ago on this blog. Here it is if you want to read it: My Social Media Trifecta
Glad to help. Good luck! You seem like you got a great handle on it and have the right attitude for this. Have fun with it.
Love it Julio! I think you and I tweet at LEAST 300 times a day. How else are we supposed to build relationships for goodness sakes?!
Glad to be in the posse. 🙂
Sarah
Ha! Is there any other way? If I only tweeted 20 times, I would be done by 7:30 am! To da posse!
Julio,
There is one thing in my world i can’t resist;it is nice writing -your divine approach.I’m looking forward to your words and tweets.
“When my thoughts match yours then it is a great book written for me;I’ll read it through”
i met you in that beautiful world.
Thank you
Slavica
Thank you so much. I teuly appreciate it.
I’ve been thinking about this since you posted this. We twitter to connect with people – and those we follow show us their many sides and interests the more they tweet. i.e. I was tickled to find out someone I really admire as a journalist also loves my cilantro dip recipe. You can’t make those connections otherwise — Twitter allows for a bonding experience.
What I dislike is the automatic twitter updates from some people (which I immediately unfollow) – those can be annoying – they are repetitive and totally not what the platform was intended for….
just some musings….:-) Viva el Tri! – had to throw that in there…
Look at you. sharing awesome Mexican recipes with your followers. I agree that posting automatic updates with no interaction is pure garbage and I also block and unfollow.
Shopping for a Vela jersey next week. Well played this week, even with players who like to go after throats of American players. Jejeje
Tweet on bro! I love your stuff and have learned a lot from your insights. Everybody has their own style and substance. Some like it, some don’t. Ain’t that the wonder of this medium?
Steve, that is exactly the attitude that I love to see on Twitter. Each of us has the power to make it our own, quite literally, our own universe, or corner of the Internet. Totally agree with what you say. There is no ONE way to be on Twitter, you just be. Thanks again for commenting.
Julio, great site and kudos on your entrepreneurship! I will respectfully be the only dissenting voice in this thread 🙂 Discovered your site via a retweet from @adriandayton
I totally agree with you and appreciate that twitter is organic with no “correct way” to use this medium. But Twitter cannot be controlled? It can, and is, and has to be. Everything about Twitter is control – limit on number of characters, API limit, follower/follow imbalance, and on it goes. It would be quite chaotic otherwise.
And, there is another control. Self-control. And that’s not a unique Twitter behavioral element, it’s a life one. We can all agree that Twitter is a beautiful relationship building tool or forum so why shouldn’t social norms or rules apply here? Like you, I love the idea of being unbound by convention, and believe me, I try to at every turn, but the one thing that governs my actions is “am I being thoughtful?”. I do acknowledge that there are situations where that will cease to be the first consideration.
I followed and unfollowed this guy a couple of times because I greatly respected his philosophies but yes, he was an FT – frequent tweeter 🙂 – The final time I unfollowed, I sent him a DM explaining this and he graciously DM’d me back saying that he totally understood. I don’t follow him now, but respect him even more.
But to hold fast to what I said earlier, although I disagree with you, I’m not claiming my point of view as the correct one. In fact, I appreciate that your post was so provocative that I felt compelled to comment.
Keep on tweeting, man. See ya around the Twitterverse
@uMCLE
What a cool comment and thank you for posting it. Just like life, there are different philosophies, but in the end, you are actually proving what I hope I was able to communicate: that each of us can create our own Twitter experience to what we like. For me, I get pumped when I see @ posts next to my name, and if you notice my stream, I would say that 80% of my tweets are @ replies to people who @ me. So yeah, maybe, that might feel too much for some (and that is cool), but to me, when someone comes to me and wants to talk, I do so. After three or four @ back and forth, we usually start DM-ing and then take the conversation offline. I have been thinking about this a lot, and in the end even though it has crossed my mind to tweet less, I haven’t because it just ain’t me. Simple as that. And I truly believe that Twitter is all about you, but you raise some excellent points and I totally love how you presented them. Way cool. Much props. Respect.
I guess I’ve never really thought about the fact that people might think we’re overtweeters (other than @PhilipNowak telling me he needed to create a column just for me), but I can see their point. If you go to my Twitter stream on Twitter.com, you’ll likely be overwhelmed because I sent a TON of @replies, I tweet about 20 articles a day, and I RT quite a bit. I guess this could be perceived as overtweeting.
But trust me when I say this, Julio, I don’t think you overtweet and I follow everything you put out there.
I don’t really worry about it that much, but there is something to be said about doing @replies. That matters to me, and to many. And you keep doing what you are doing. It is awesome.
I don’t think it’s overtweeting if you are paying attention to the world around you and that’s what comes through in your tweets. It’s not something to worry about if you are tweeting out of enthusiasm, passion, or even obsession. And really, anyone who asks whether they are overtweeting probably isn’t — if you ask a question like that, it’s a sign that you probably are paying attention. Still, for those who might be worrying, these are, in my opinion, warning signs of overtweeting:
1. Your schedule doesn’t give you much time for Twitter, so you write 20 tweets in 10 minutes every time you get a chance.
2. You program an app to repeat the same 4 tweets every 6 hours because you can’t think of anything else to say.
3. More than half of your tweets make no sense at all when taken out of context. (Examples: “I am so bummed.” “LOL what was that again?”)
4. You’re following the advice of a branding coach who tells you that all of your tweets should be variations on the key ideas of your “brand identity.”
5. You regularly get angry, agitated, etc., and when that happens, to make yourself feel better, you fire off tweets as fast as you can type them.
These are the kinds of things that Twitter followers are likely to find distressing. But if you’re being true to yourself and tweeting out of a real sense of connection, none of this can happen. And if, like Julio, you tweet with the kind of basic enthusiasm that brightens everyone’s day, then just keep it going — don’t let the recent discussion of overtweeting make you feel like you ought to slow down.
Rick, what you added here as a reply should be its own blog about it! Thank you for taking the time to add more to this conversation. You nailed it on the head with the examples you bring. Thank you again for adding this here. I know it will help a lot of people who really need to understand the Twitter culture. All the best, Julio
I am a charter member of OverTweetersAnonymous and that’s just the way it is. In fact, it’s part of the reason that I know amazing peeps like you, baby. I, too, believe that follows/unfollows happen and it’s nothing to focus on. I am irreverent, get on the occasional soapbox (but try to always avoid nasty subjects like religion or politics), and learn something new every single day as a result of my interaction in the Twitterverse. Oh, and did I mention the make new friends that I would’ve otherwise not ever been exposed to? So, if that’s the “downside” of being an overtweeter, consider me a lifetime member.
Thanks for a terrific post – you rock!
Shelly, thank you so much for your comment. I agree with you 100%. You keep rocking it!
What? You tweet a lot? I thought you hired a cast of thousands to send all those messages?! You mean all those tweets were from YOU? Wooooow…
LOL! Seriously, Julio, another great post and right on target. Twitter is just a microcosm (did I really just say that?) for the larger world. We find all sorts there, and all sorts of approaches. We respect the differences with most (decent, non-porn, non-Spammer) folks, but especially respect your approach and always have.
Tweet on, bro. And say Hi to the Twitter Jail staff for us, when you see them next….
Mike & Kali
@DreamWorthy
P.S. BTW, shameless plug: Check out our thoughts sometime at http://tr.im/DWTwitterManifesto.
Love it!
This post is going in a folder with that amazing podcast and I am titling this virtual folder: “ABC’s of getting started on Twitter”.
I actually had a close friend of mine stop following my device updates because his phone went off constantly one day. I can’t say i blame him for that, but it boggles me how many people don’t get the concept of being yourself and not being tied to preconceived notions.
Thanks for giving us “awesome lessons” Julio.
This was a conversation that I had with @jeffmello of Evolution of Communications. Is there an amount of tweeting you should do per day?
In the less than 10 weeks that I have been on twitter I have almost 3500 tweets. Does that qualify me as an “overtweeter”? Sure does but I have alway been a very loquacious and inquisitive individual in real life, and being on line isn’t going to stop that. I try to conduct myself the same way online that I do IRL.
I thank you for this post. Hopefully people will realize that there isn’t “one” way to use twitter effectively. My motto is “whatever works for you.”
There are relationships I have been building which are not only leading to great friendships but wonderful business opportunities. I am thrilled with what Twitter has added to my life and business.
Jaimie, the key here is that with Twitter you MUST always be yourself and I believe your Twitter profile and what you do there has a direct correlation to your own personality. So, basically, keep doing what your are doing and don’t let anyone question you. This is all about being true to yourself and enhancing your tribe, which is the group of people who voluntarily choose to follow you. I am part of that group and proud of it.
Julio’s got it dead right here. If you’re a “talker,” and you try to not be a talker for Twitter purposes, you’re not being yourself. And not being yourself is not only difficult to maintain, but impossible to pull off. So tweet away, and the right followers will gravitate towards you.
[…] To Tweet or Overtweet: That Is the Question: This piece is another personal favorite, since we try to explain that on Twitter, you just need to […]
I definitely wouldn’t call myself an over-tweeter. I post very few tweets throughout the day promoting my blog or other people’s blogs/sites/articles. Most of my tweets are conversations that I end up having with other writers. I don’t pay attention to how many followers I have or don’t have. It’s not really important to me. The connections I make are what matter to me.
I do follow mostly by lists now and if someone is “clogging” one of my feeds or another, I take a good look at the content they’re putting out there and decide whether it’s beneficial and enjoyable for me. If so, they stay where they are. If not, I put them on a different list or unfollow.
To tweet or not to tweet is up to the individual and so is the decision to follow someone or not. If they don’t like your tweeting for some reason, there’s a simple solution just one click away.
Tweet on, Julio.
Bingo!