Inmates running the Twitter asylum
I used to think I was in control of what I blog and what I Twitter. Recently I've been disabused of this notion, particularly with regard to what I Twitter. In a postmodern, Jacques Derrida sense, the reader has come to mean more than the author. Or to think that she does.
This fact was brought home to me yesterday when two of my 1,195 Twitter "followers" advised me that I was Twittering incorrectly. I had been working myself up to a blog post, and was thinking through the idea over Twitter in 140-character snippets. As a result, I posted a string of short snippets that added up to a full screen of Twitterings. A bit lengthier than I'd like, and much more than I normally post, but I wanted people to see how I think.
Now, I have yet to see a manual on proper Twitter etiquette, but given how easy it is to "un-follow" people on Twitter, it seems bizarre to me that certain readers should determine the proper way for me to Twitter, other than by unsubscribing if my strategy doesn't suit them. That, to me, seems the proper market-based response. If that 1,195 number were to drop to 500, for example, I might assume I were doing something wrong and correct the behavior.
But the data suggests the inverse:
Matt Asay's Twitter Growth
One of the commentators later suggested to me that he likes much of what I write, but was trying to offer constructive criticism in how to improve the content for him. I care about his perspective, so I'm trying to accommodate him. But I'm still not sure why readers don't vote more with their feet, rather than with their mouths.
The great (and terrible) thing about social media is, well, how social it is. Readers, especially on Twitter, aren't content to be followers. They also want to lead the content, and have no compunction about prescribing their preferred style and content. This is positive, I suppose, but after blogging for several years and Twittering for a few months, I'm finding it can be a bit uncomfortable to realize just how vocal readers can be.
More pertinently, it's very hard to take in social media's blaring wall of sound and effectively process it. Has anyone else found positive, non-cumbersome ways to interact with their Twitter or blog readerships?
Follow me on Twitter at mjasay.
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
For instance, I stopped following you on twitter recently, for similar reasons - did you notice? Of course not. And now that someone else did what I should have done all along (talk some sense into you), I'm giving you another shot. Thanks @mikeolson
he blog is the pulpit, Twitter is a conversation.
(BTW - I still follow, just using TweetDeck and search - and look only now and again, RT and @replies are equally telling.)
Great post. Twitter is probably less about following and micro-blogging than it is about social micro-conversations. Maybe another perspective comes when changing the word "follow" by "listen to". The new great thing being that editors, journalists, people on the other (top) end of the media have now the opportunity to click on the button... listen and engage conversation as well.
Best. Luc.
Thanks again,
http://Twitter.com/TrendTracker
It harkens back to the IM and Email etiquette police where somebody self-appoints themself to police an arbitrary standard. The same applies here, so I may disagree with your assertions, but your presentation is entirely yours.
Carry on!
1) PLEASE, NO CAPS. CAPS MEANS YOU ARE YELLING AT ME
2) Do not include everyone in your address book in the To with wide distribution. Use BCC.
3) Please do not send me every single joke and tidbit you find interesting.
At first I was greeted with "hey do you want to hear from me or not???" but over time, they learned.
I am a newbie to Twitter, and I would actually appreciate a Twitter best practices guide, posted prominently at Twitter.com. (Maybe I missed it?). It would not mean you can never go outside the best practices, it just sets some generally understood and accepted guidelines.
But admittedly, I even like meetings to be run with some sort of ground rules so we are on the same page (maybe not as far as Roberts Rules http://www.robertsrules.com/ but things like: "a) he who calls the meeting writes the minutes within 1 day, with accompanying action items, b) include a dial-up for those who cannot attend in person and c) let's not interrupt each other every 5 minutes, etc."
Also, aren't your Twitter Followers your "customers" in a way? Seems to me if you want to serve that particular customer, their comments may be of interest. On the other hand, not sure if the feature exists, but could be interesting to be able to "block" that follower in a similar way that a restaurant reserves the right to refuse service for disorderly behavior.
http://www.webanalyticsworld.net/2009/02/ultimate-guide-to-twitter-marketing.html
If you want to send me a message directly, use IM and not Twitter :)
Give me a break.. Use how you want and let the buyer beware..
For example (and to be honest, I don't feel good about this). Recently, I had an awful experience at a local sub shop. Something I order all the time was terrible. I didn't realize there was an issue until I opened the bag back at my office. Now, rather than speaking up and letting them know, I have been avoiding the place like the plague. I've been meaning to say something, but now I'm not so sure I'll do it. There are plenty of other local lunch spots and they'll hold me over for now. However, if I ran a restaurant, or sold a magazine which people subscribed to, etc. I'd be very grateful for feedback BEFORE I lost the customer. You sound annoyed by it. Like I said, I guess it depends what you're trying to accomplish.
With that out of the way, let me comment on why I think Twitter occurs differently for you than, say, this blog.
On Twitter, 85% or more of the people I follow also follow me. So it ends up being a dialog, not a broadcast, mechanism in my brain for 100% of the content I receive from Twitter. This is a positive thing overall ... without interaction, it wouldn't be social, it'd just be a different web publishing tool.
Hitting reply in Twitter is a much different decision than choosing to comment in a blog like this one. It is a peer thing, not a reader to author thing to me, and, I believe, to many Twitterers.
As an established and widely read cnet blogger, you clearly come to Twitter with a different expectation. Neither of us is right or wrong. We just have different expectations.
Back to your question then. I think how you deal with blog readers in a positive, non-cumbersome manner is fundamentally different than how you deal with Twitter followers. What they have in common is that neither will be all that offended if you don't respond individually every time we comment..... 1195:1 or 2:1... I'd be much more offended if you blocked me than if you ignored my reply to your tweet.
At first I was going to answer in a similar tone as your arrogant title implies by saying "shut up and listen', but then I thought better of it and say "listen quietly". You assume that the great wisdom only flows from you toward the great unwashed masses. If you polled your audience as to education, wealth, over all life success who quietly listen, you may (should) be embarrassed. You and I have been given the greatest opportunity to improve ie. feedback from an uninvolved source. Even if it does sting a little it will not injure you.
Thank You,
JLL
- by cyberpyr8 March 11, 2009 2:29 PM PDT
- I have a separate Twitter account for notes that I want to post for later retrieval and that works great. I have the normal spammers that follow me on there and a few random followers. I don't care if anyone there really likes it or not, it's for me. My main twitter account is the normal following of people and companies I like and I post things going on in my life.
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- by pallian March 15, 2009 6:39 PM PDT
- Instead of creating separate twitter accounts to manage your lifestyle - why not just create groups using Tweetizen (http://www.tweetizen.com) that allows you to easily manage all your tweets.
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(15 Comments)I have my co-workers follow me and I have my Twitter posts go to FaceBook also. I was posting some personal things to FB and general posts to Twitter. But as a co-worker said to me (very wisely), don't filter yourself for us. We can follow or un-follow you if we please on Twitter. The point being, use Twitter how it works best for you. If you post too much I might drop off (oh well). If it is working for you and the intended audience you want to reach then don't filter yourself for followers you really don't need to cater to. Or maybe you create a second account that has your thought processes and who cares if you have any followers on that one.