Thanks for advice in response to my post … I learned some very helpful things.
Some of you shared you would be checking the comments for the advice. I thought I’d make it easy for you by providing it here. No need to scroll through the comments.
Take what works for you and leave the rest …
- Figure out how you want to use Twitter. Knowing is half the battle. Is it just to follow friends, family, or other people of interest? Is it for the purpose of building writer platform? Or is it for some other reason? The answers to these questions can help you determine: who you’ll follow, what you’ll tweet, and why it’s tweet worthy. You can use it to:
- Network
- Research topics
- Polls on topics
- You’re in control. You can turn off tweets from individuals you follow e.g. if you don’t want the political season spam or they just tweet excessively. As my blogger friend, Talli put it, “It is much less offensive to follow / unfollow on Twitter than Facebook. A Facebook “unfriend” is akin to a slap in the face to some.”
- Numbers are fluid so don’t worry about them. They will change constantly. Some people expect the follow in return for a follow and will unfollow if there isn’t reciprocation. “So, lots of followers doesn’t mean squat.”
- Cultivate relationships with the list feature. You can keep track of the people you really want to hear from by creating lists. Then you won’t miss stuff from the people you most want to support. Favorite, reply, retweet and repeat. Go for it.
- Learning something new takes time. Again, don’t worry. Don’t stress. It will come.
- Have fun and be real. It’s a great way to reveal who you are in sound-bites kind of like revealing characters in a story. So share the humorous, random, odd, and non-meaningful.
- Make it work for you. You can have all your social media talking to one another. Your tweets can show up on Facebook at the same time. Your Instagram photos can hit your Twitter and Facebook page simultaneously. Your blog can publicize to Twitter and Facebook. All with the click of a button. You decide.
- Put it in perspective. My blogger pal, Britt says, “Ah, Twitter. What a fickle beast.” Good to keep in mind. It will help you stay sane.
If there are other thoughts that weren’t shared here … add them to the comments, it’s not too late to help out the newest to the twitter-verse.
the Jotter's Joint 
Great advice here, Gail. I’m relatively new at Twitter and I need all the help I can get! 😀
Glad it’s helpful to you Dianne. Thanks for reading.
That’s great advice, Gail. =D I’ve noticed that there are some people who unfollow me if I don’t follow them back, but I can’t follow every person who does; I feel overwhelmed with just 42 people, haha. I try to make my twitter personal with the occasional advertising, and even then I don’t update as often as many others I know.
Glad it was helpful Zen. I’m with you. I know people who carry on conversations like its personal text. Interesting to read at times but then it fills up your feed. 😉 Thanks for reading.
Hey, I made the list! Yay! : )
Yes, you made the list. You’re one if my peeps. Thanks for the advice it’s helpful. Less overwhelming.
Glad I could help! I completely understand. Twitter made me scratch my head for years. Then, I just dove in. It’s the only way.