How and Why I Use Twitter

First let me say I’m not 1 of those Twitters who tweets about everything. I don’t tweet about going shopping or silly conversations I’ve had. And because I don’t tweet about my everyday life I don’t tweet a lot.

Until yesterday I had tweeted 29 times since November 4, 2008. That averages out to less than 8 tweets a month.

Yesterday however I found a new use for Twitter and informed my readers that I would start using Twitter to notify them when I found a new free online resource I thought they could use. Since I had found 2 that day I did 2 tweets.

One of my readers was not happy with my new use of Twitter and email me.

Here’s a copy of the email I sent to my readers in reply to his concerns -

This morning I received an email from Barney about yesterday’s message saying I was going to start using Twitter for those notifications.

Here are the highlights of his message:

“What few of you seem to understand is the overhead, the cost to your subscribers. For you, it’s no more time consuming to tweet than to email. For me, it’s now a necessity to start reviewing another application on a daily basis that is, by and large, more active than email ever could be. In order to catch your tip tweet, I’ll have to look at every tweet that comes by. Or, perhaps, search for tweets by you. Frequently, if I’m to stay current.

…

Sorry, dear … I’ll miss the tips … but I cannot afford to invest the amount of time that would be required for the return.”

I’m sorry I didn’t make myself clear in yesterday’s message. This is what I meant to say.

You will still get all the same email I’ve been sending about tips, classifieds, etc.

When I find something of interest like the 2 resources I discovered yesterday I’ll use Twitter to let you know instead of sending an emails. If I used email I would either have had to send
2 emails or send 1 at the end of the day – if I remembered.

Since I obviously have a Twitter account I do understand the extra overhead of using it for my subscribers so please let me explain why I chose this route.

1. Over the years I’ve discovered many resources I’ve not shared simply because by the time I email you I’ve forgotten about them.
I’ve tried taking notes, bookmarking and some other things but rather than share these finds I’ve just created cluttered my pc and desk. Putting them in a blog post gets the information to you before I lose it.

2. I could send you an email every time I post to the blog however I also have time constraints. Those who have a list probably understand the amount of time it takes to write a message, log-in to an autoresponder account and send the message. By using Twitter all I have to do is click a box when I publish a post.

3. Every time I send an email I risk being reported for sending unwanted email, aka-spam. About once every other month I get reported by someone because I either told you about the tip or the classifieds. (Last week I was reported for both.) And while I am willing to take the heat for those mailings I am trying to avoid sending a lot of extra mailings since it increases my risk.

4. I try to be a fairly smart Twitter user by:

* Keeping the list of people I follow down to a small number.
* If I follow someone who does lots of tweets over nothing
important I un-follow them.
* I don’t have Twitter on anything other than my PC because I
am not using it to chat with others.
* I try to check Twitter at least once or twice a day but if
I’m really busy I forget.
* When I do check Twitter I skim through the new entries
quickly and it takes less time than cleaning my mailbox.
* I’ve used an image to make my tweets easier to find in your
Twitter account.

The 1 disadvantage is that if you both stay subscribed and follow-me then you will get both an email and a tweet for the weekly tip and possibly the classifieds.

However if you stay subscribed you’ll get notified about the tips and classifieds. And when you read the tip you can see if there were any new finds posted.

If you follow-me you’ll get tweets about everything I post on the blog. I try to tweet about other things like the classifieds but don’t always have the time.

Now I’m sorry this message is so long but I hope I’ve clarified what I meant and why I chose to use Twitter for discovery notifications.

If you have any questions or suggestions about how I’m doing things please feel free to write.

Have a great weekend. And if you’d like to follow-me and get my few tweets I’m occasionally at:

http://twitter.com/SusanCarroll

To Your Success,
Susan

This morning I received an email from another reader with more advice on how to use Twitter.

If Barney is on twitter daily he can use tweetdeck to place your twitter name in a friends column and see your tweets as they occur separated out of the jungle of tweets. He can also just click your twittername and look at your tweets in your profile to catch up on them. It’s not big thing as he describes. It just appears he is new to twitter and not aware of how to use it to his advantage.
Dan

Now I hadn’t used tweetdeck although I’d heard of it. However after Dan’s email I decided to gave it a try.

As a new user I can’t give you a lot of information on how to use tweetdeck or how well it works. I did discover however that to separate certain people you follow you create groups. So if you’re following certain people who don’t tweet a lot like me and you’d like to not miss their tweets you can put them in a group and see their latest tweets.

If you don’t want to download a tool another easy way to find the latest tweets by occasional tweeters is to use Twitter favorites. Simply locate a tweet by that person and mark it as 1 of your favorites. Then when you do go into Twitter you can go to your favorites and click the user name of the person to see their latest tweets.

I hope this gives you a better understanding of how and why I’m using Twitter. I also hope it helps you become a become a better Twitter user.

If you have any comments or suggestions about the use of Twitter please leave a comment.

To Your Success,
Susan

Tags: free twitter tool, how to use Twitter, social marketing

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