Why my Twitter followers are not really following me ?
Toma 
I’ve recently wrote an article about how to create a great community that will get you the benefits you expect. I decided to expand my own concepts and ideas on social media tools. And today’s winner is Twitter. Yes, another Twitter article but the difference is that this one is my opinion – so it’s gonna be different from any other articles. Everyone has his own interpretation on how social media networks and tools will impact his business, life, goals – we all feel the changes that appear in our lives. We tweet, we digg, we stumble, we blog, we create our own trace on the Internet. Maybe at some point there will be a tool that will track chronologically a search term. This way we’ll be able to see a version of our life : the virtual one, brought to you thanks to our addiction to the web.
Why do we talk about Twitter ?
Twitter is something that is cool – it’s a cool place to hang out; it’s a cool tool to use. It’s easy to socialize, exchange ideas, post your opinions, see what’s going on on your niche market : and all is happening under your own eyes in real time. With the open API we see more and more applications that let us use Twitter the way we want, get informations, stay up to date with our friends.
I think the power of this microblogging network sits in it’s ability to connect authority people in a niche with people all around the world in real time. Everyone is talking about Twitter and some time ago, Darren Rowse from Problogger launched a blog only for this phenomena : Twitip.com – so, I feel that for now, no matter how many articles appear on this subject are welcome. Of course that it will be a time when all this emotions will fade and Twitter will become another usual place – or maybe not : time will tell.
What does Twitter offer us ?
The power to host technical discussions side by side with all-day-talk : this is something that is very common on Twitter. I think that here the concept of “social party” applies 100%. Other social networks tend to be more strict on the topics they encourage. But not on Twitter – here you can talk about what ever you want. It’s up to you to set up a goal or not.
Here are some benefits, I consider Twitter offers to the people that want more then a simple talk :
- up to date with the latest events and news in your niche
- the ability to test ideas before you implement it
- facilitates the contact between authority people in different niches and people all around the world in real time
- a great way to attract traffic to your blog
- one of the best and simple ways to connect with people that share the same interests
The difference between “to follow” and “to participate” or “to interact”
Despite of all the benefits it can get you Twitter has also it’s down sides. First of all it consumes to much of your time – if you don’t post anything for a week you can find that many of your followers have un-followed you. This social network doesn’t conserve the “trace you make” for a very long time. The reason is because of the millions of tweets that are being posted every day. So you need a continuous presence if you want to achieve something by your activity on Twitter.
This social tool also has it’s own drug : the number of followers. Everyone wants more and more followers. The more the better. The main problem comes when you are trying to do two basic things you are there for :
- interact with your friends
- expect them to participate or interact with you by talking to you, answering to your questions, clicking on your links
The biggest problem is when you are following to many people and all that you see on your TweetDeck screen are tweets that go on and on without being able to catch what the people are talking about. Although this is the biggest problem is not the one that hearts the most : why people are not interacting with me ?
Choose wisely
I’ve did some testing to check how many people click on my links. I post a daily photo and measure the number of clicks and also registered with hootsuite.com to measure the number of clicks I get on an usual link. What I’ve found out is that I get more clicks on my photos rather on posts about my niche market. This led me to this conclusion : many people that follow me or that I follow are not related on my niche market. And this is kinda true : I’ve checked.
So if you see low interaction you may want to check if you are in the right place or if you are tweeting at the right hour since there is a possibility that your tribe to be awake and tweeting at a very different hour. People choose to follow you and that is fine. But if you use Twitter to get in touch with your niche then you should pick the ones you will follow much more carefully. Twitter can be a great tool but this is it. It will not perform a magic trick and send 500 visitors to your blog just like that. Twitter is as good as the one it’s using it.
I hope I didn’t bored you with my Twitter philosophy – so, if you are still here, let me know what you think, what is your approach, what are you after, your goals, how do you try to achieve it – basically, how do you do it ?
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Great article. I run a commercial janitorial business and that is a small niche as well. It’s a balance between keeping a presence (and staying ahead of the competition) and not floundering around too much. I try to send out a few janitorial specific Tweets per week, but have also expanded more generally into green and sustainability which keeps my followers interested.
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I started Tweeting about 4 months ago. After being overwhemled by self-proclaimed “social media experts” I slowly started seeking out those in my field of interest, and they followed back.
It seems the overall composition of my followers is getting more in line with my target demo, but it’s taken consistent tweeting, interaction and using smart keywords. I now limit myself to 3 Tweet sessions/day to keep it manageable. But now you’ve got me wondering if I picked the right times per day to do so. Something to think about!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
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Thanks for making me feel more like a normal person! I’ve been getting alot of followers lately and followed most of them back out of politeness, but when I’m Tweeting I get very little interaction, which I don’t think is polite at all. I understand that if someone has alot of followers they’re not going to see all of everyone’s Tweets, but at least every now and then I’d like a response. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.
I read alot while having Twitter in the background so check my replies every now and then to see if someone Tweeted to me w/o my seeing their post. I thought pretty much everyone did that, kind of like call waiting or a brief email to open when you have time, but apparently not. Oh, well. At least I’m not alone @ feeling invisible at times.
Talk to me, I’ll talk back.
Molly
Molly’s last blog post..Interns needed. Do you qualify?
I agree with Molly in terms of feeling invisible. I feel the same way too.
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Great comments people. Thanks for sharing. There was a time when I followed back everyone who followed me, too. I now realize the mistake and try to correct it by following only my nice. For all the others who might need my advice or my help I create a trail of keywords in my tweets. I’ve noticed that interaction is something that can happen in time. For example if you post links most of the time at some point people will start clicking on your links. If pose question after question requesting people to interact with you sooner or later this will start to happen. I think it’s all about that “trail” and the fact that you need to work harder on Twitter to make the others to notice you.
Thanks again for your time.
Hi
Great article. It’s interesting that you raised the visual element, and maybe users of Twitter for marketing purposes should also consider the photos etc that they add. We have just developed a Twitter Map which is visual represenation of the Tweets which depending on your objectives may help keep you up to date see it here http://earthware.cloudapp.net/demos/sltwittermap.aspx
Here are another couple of helpful comments about Twitter and trying to make it more engaging:
- Ask Questions in your Tweets
- When someone follows you, don’t send them a standard response and try to engage with them to try and find out why they are following
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Thanks for your informative article. It has helped me understand a little bit more of what has become so widely popular. I am just a little unsure of how deeply I want to delve into what sounds like will be a huge time eater.
@Carlars Cuties – Thank you for your comment. And Yes : Twitter is time consuming. Try not posting for a week and the entire trance of your posting will be gone.
Has anyone used Twollo effectively, the Twitter tool for finding people by keyword?
What is the best way to find people in your area if not through this tool?
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@Richard – didn’t use it; If it can find people with the same interests based not only on their tweets but profile info as well then it’s ok – but I don’t want to auto follow them. I’ll check this tool out.