Three Twitter Techniques I Shouldn’t Be Showing You (Day 20)

Hey John,

@RiaSharon sent me this and I just wanted to take a minute to say how much I enjoyed it. Both the stuff you're talking about as well as the way you present it. I felt like I just ate a warm bowl of chicken soup when i was done watching. So - useful and aesthetically pleasing. Thanks for the tips, I'll stay tuned.

Cheers,

Devon

Good point. Automation isn't bad unless it's the only thing you do. I love the TwitterFeed sharing tip. Great way to support your friends/network and reduce the time you have to spend online.

ps. i'm thinking "hatemail" thoughts about you right now! :)

Another cool thing you can do with Twitterfeed to pull in photos on Flickr
or videos on YouTube that you've marked as a "favorite" - and then filter
those with keywords.

John,
Some great ideas here. Nice to see people using automated Tweets for good. I particularly like the CoTweet ideas. Definitely going to check that out. Thanks for the tips.

Hi John,

I use it like voice mail. I setup my voicemail so that people can contact me at different numbers, know where I am or leave some useful information.

The problem is not automation per se but how you apply it.

Great series you have here, by the way.

Ivan

Thanks Ivan!

Good stuff. I didn't catch it until now! Will check out Twitter Feed.

Hey John - love the comments, been using HootSuite to do much of what you discussed here. I'm curious - any general etiquette for...

I have more than one twitter feed - they talk to different audiences, but there's some overlap. (Some followers get both feeds). If I send a tweet once (to both) and then reschedule the tweet for a second time (which I've done and think is a good idea) - some folks could get it four times. Should I worry about this? Wait for nasty DM's...Thoughts?

I'd vary the feeds (not sending the same feed to both accounts). If you have to use the same feeds, you might want to parse them with keywords.

I wonder about this same issue. I worry more about the people who are silently unhappy with the multiple tweets ... I try to be selective about when I use the 2nd account.

Smart cookie, you are!

Great ideas, recently setup account with socialoomph thanks for ideas in using it better!

Sean - That's great. I'm glad it's working for you.

You know, it's so easy (okay, maybe just for me) to get on the bandwagon of the naysayers. They say "Automation in Social Media Is Bad" and we follow along like lemmings.

I say - use the tools that best help you to build and connect with your community. With that end in mind - if it involves automation - our answer should be YES!

Be remarkable - do what you do for your community. Screw the naysayers.

With the caveat I've utilized similar techniques in the past, I have three unrelated questions for you, John.

First: You make no qualms on reciprocally following everyone. You also don't use the default twitter.com interface, but third-party tools for reading and replying, right? Would you follow all who follow you if you only used twitter.com?

Second: Why do you use cotweet vs any other application? Your video bit is unclear.

Third: Why did you embed the video as blip.tv and not, say, viddler?

1. I would, if there was an efficient way to follow back.

2. For me, Cotweet is easy to use. There are other tools, but I just got used to using it.

3. Blip.TV allows me to create a video podcast on iTunes. And, as with CoTweet, I've gotten used to using it.

I've been thinking more and more about using scheduled tweets. I tend to "catch up" on Twitter and blog reading in the middle of the night Pacific time, and so even when I do share that information, I don't think it's really providing a resource because there aren't a whole lot of people up at those hours.

I've done scheduled tweets using Hootsuite (they have a great Send Later function) for work to space things out during the day. It's a great way to take care of all your "tweeting" at once (job posts, etc.) but not have them hit someone's stream in a huge clump.

I recently discovered hootsuite, too and I love it! It's worth checking out - I'm sure I use about 1/10th of its capabilities, but even that I'm really finding useful. The scheduled tweets are good, but you also get to view all of your twitter profiles within the same browser (yay, no desktop app to install!), it has a URL shortener, and whenever you use the tool to send a tweet, it puts a nifty bar at the top of the page that gives readers lots of options for sharing.

Plus, it allows you to not only tweet later, but post to nearly any social media site using ping.fm and others.

The one thing that I don't like about Hootsuite is the nifty bar, and most people don't like it either because they feel like it hijacks their web browser.

That's what I've heard too.

Hootsuite is a good tool. I used to use it about a year ago. The only
problem I had was analyzing traffic in Google Analytics when ow.ly
didn't completely forward the URL.

Socialoomph lets you spread out tweets too. I like cotweet because it forwards the URL correctly and you can pick any day and time to tweet.

I really need to try Cotweet. One of the reasons why I've stuck with Hootsuite is I started using it before all the Desktop apps had multiple account support. Hootsuite made it easy to manage the different accounts for the NP.

Hootsuite is good too. The only issue I have is that they don't completely forward a URL with their shortener, so it's harder to measure results with Google Analytics.

Nice to hear someone else autofollows, never understood all the objections. If they just send crappy on spammy tweets I'm unlikely to see them, and you can never tell when a "newbie" will get the hang of things and start engaging properly.

I don't autofollow, and it's less about the spammers, etc. and more about me being serious about actively reading my timeline and 500+ is already too much. I think if I was more effective at using lists, etc. I would follow more people.

To me, it's all about filtering with Lists and keywords.

My Momma always told me: "Give everyone the benefit of the doubt".

No hate mail here - you have good reason to take this approach.

One technique I like is to leverage Twitter search RSS in Google Reader to find people asking questions within my niche. Takes some time to set up but then you're positioned to engage quickly.

http://www.steinarknutsen.com/twitter-search-rs...

Google Reader rocks - and Feedly.

Always helpful information, John. I have used scheduled tweets in the past too... because I like sharing useful information (other than what's on my own site) to my followers but know that I might not be available at times when it would make sense to send them. Or if I find a few great parenting articles, I'll space them out so I'm not flooding anyone's stream... but don't have to remind myself throughout the day to tweet them.

You and I are alike that way. Sometimes, I'm up until 1:00AM reading blog posts. That's when scheduling a retweet makes sense.

More great stuff from John Haydon. Whether others agree or not; if it's used with consideration there shouldn't be a problem. I'm not too keen on the automation if it's used with an, 'all take' and 'no give' attitude.
I liked the content of your automated DM, very thoughtful and considerate!
Thank you for sharing
Regards
Paul

Thanks Paul! In terms of automation, I view it as a way to augment a natural conversation that one should already be having on Twitter.

Hi John.

As you might know I have not been a big fan of DM's. I used SocialOomph when it was called Tweetlater. And I sent just a basic DM where I said Thank You for the follow.

Also used Twitterfeed to feed various RSS feeds.

I guess in away I got turned off by some of the negative articles around automation.

I'm very happy you made this article. It was just time to put automation in a new perspective. And I think you had found some great and innovative ways to use it without being spammy.

And your examples here brings info-sharing and interaction to a new level. This was a cool touch you shared here.

It made me think about adapting some of these techniques to my Social Media Approach.

Cheers.. Are

Are - thanks. Fortunately, I tend not to listen to prevailing opinions. Also, my dad was an investor, so I grew up with the questions: "How can I use this thing?" "What does this do?"

Unfortunately I am a extreme Libra. So I tend to take to much of an diplomatic approach sometimes. And within social media I experience that it sometimes get me in a 'wait and see' mode. Guess I need to start listen to my wife.. she keep telling me to listen to 'that inner voice' more often. (.. but don't tell her I said so.. )

That's why I think you bring up some great reminder articles for an 'Extreme Libra'..

After the answer you gave to Ari I have to check into Blip.tv. That was some nice info.

Cheers.. Are

I haven't automated things on my account this way before, but I say you ignore the hate mail :) There's no wrong way to use Twitter. Thanks for sharing what works for you - how you've found value.

Thanks, Avi! Miss you. :-)