The Evolution of How I Use Twitter

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I've written several lengthy posts on
how writers can use Facebook to platform build.



I've said very little about Twitter use.



That's because it's so difficult to give advice on how to use Twitter that would apply
to everybody.



So much depends on:



What type of audience you'd like to reach and how (or whether) they use Twitter

Whether you intend on being a source of information or using it for conversations


Where you're at in your career and how many followers you have

My philosophy about Twitter tends to align with the opinions expressed in this article, "Twitter
Is NOT a Social Network." In it, a Twitter exec says:

Twitter is for news. Twitter is for content. Twitter
is for information.

And that's how I use it.




I'm sure you've noticed my weekly
Twitter round-ups by now. It's not about Twitter, but about great content I find
through Twitter.



Since I started the weekly round-ups, I've gone from a few hundred followers to 40,000
followers. How did I get so many followers?



I'm extremely focused in what I tweet out.

Nearly every tweet links to information that's valuable—or offers a link to a new
blog post.

I only tweet a few times a day unless I'm live-tweeting an event.

The weekly Twitter round-ups bring more attention to my presence.

Twitter started including me on "top people to follow" lists related to books/literature
(probably due to the 4 previous tactics).



That strategy hasn't changed since I joined Twitter in May 2008.



But I've had to change my approach in following people and information on Twitter.
Here are the stages I experienced:



When I first started using Twitter, I followed everyone who followed me.



At some point, that became too time-consuming. So I only followed people who directly
engaged with me on Twitter, or who RT'd me, or who otherwise mentioned me.

Finally, I stopped following even those people who were, it hurts to say, immensely
kind. (Remember: I still get to have conversations with those people on Twitter even
if I don't follow them.)

By stage 3, I was following about 3,000 people, and it became meaningless to follow
anyone else. Why? Because there was far too much information in my stream and I had
to stop looking at it.



So I resorted to Twitter
lists, RSS feeds, and Yahoo Pipes to
scrape information (tweets) from the people who I really needed to follow—to keep
up with the industry and to report on best tweets.



Unfortunately, this has meant that my live Twitter conversation is fairly limited,
even though I keep an eye on Twitter throughout the day. It puts the burden on other
people to initiate conversations with me. I've always felt guilty about this.



So Now I'm at Stage 4


I actively unfollow dozens of people every week, in a slow march toward a manageable
number of people to follow. Why bother now, you might ask?



This is critical: There are now tools (third-party applications) that use who
you follow on Twitter to generate valuable content mash-ups.



Two popular examples include:



Paper.li


Flipboard


If I want to make the most of these tools, then I have to follow only those people
who use Twitter in about the same way I do: To spread valuable information.



Perhaps more important: Because these tools can create content that the larger
public can tap into and follow, then it becomes imperative that I'm selective
with the people I follow. Otherwise the content that's generated becomes a meaningless
hash.



No one wants to ostracize their followers, but for the good of the many, it seems
necessary to focus the following list. (Certainly Twitter lists are supposed to perform
this function in part, but I'll leave that discussion for another day.)



I welcome your thoughts, especially from those who have been using Twitter since 2008.

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