How I twitter

(This is not the post that I told everyone that I was going to be posting...that will be here shortly)


So, I recently read an article by Guy Kawasaki about how he uses twitter and the reasons for his actions (Read it Here!) It is pretty interesting.

Since then I've seen one or two similar posts by people doing the same Q&A type post about how they use twitter and I decided that I needed one, as well...Not quite as prestigious, though, because I dont have a multi-thousand, celebrity-type, following. Here goes!!

Q. You only follow 41 people? How unpopular are you??

A. Relatively unpopular. But that's not the reason that I only follow 41 people and only have 53 followers. You see, despite my being a student of social media and being a particularly tech-savvy dude, I simply dont know many people, personally, who use twitter. But that's not that important. I could, very easily, follow every twitterer I can get my hands on and hit the auto-follow button and, thereby, follow every bot and porn-spammer who decides to follow me. Instead I follow only certain friends and, primarily, the people who are virtual celebrities in the field that I find most interesting. Social media and entrepreneurship. By following only 41 people, I literally see every single post that comes by me. And I read every single article/blog post that people tweet. And, on a decent majority of them, I leave thoughtful responses and often retweet the posts that I feel are most relevant to the people who I know are following me. Let me say it one more time--I read every article that comes through my tweet stream. That means that, of this elite group of super-people in their respective fields, I read every single thing that they think is remotely important or interesting.


Q. Do you ever repeat tweets?

A. Occasionally. I try not to make a habit of it because, quite honestly, the people who are important might never see them, and the few people who follow me that AREN'T that important...well...They dont really need to see me post the same tweet over and over again. Generally, I'll only repeat tweets when they contain a link to an article that I posted a comment on or something. That's my way of saying, First: "hey look at this article" then Second: "Look at my post on this article! Timothy Ferriss responded to me!!"


Q. What twitter applications do you use?

A. Well, my needs are very simple. I use TweetDeck, primarily. I sync it between my office and my computer at home. My cell phone is relatively basic, so I occasionally tweet via SMS, but i dont receive updates from twitter on my phone. That would probably bug the hell out of me as well as run my bill up before I could even think of changing to an unlimited-SMS option.


Q. How long do you spend on Twitter each day?

A. I hate this question because, while I enjoy tweeting, I dont want people to think that I'm so hopelessly addicted to twitter that I cant step away...I spend 8 hours a day with the TweetDeck open on my computer at the office. I then go home and put up the tweetdeck, there. And I'm constantly monitoring that for the rest of the evening. Probably totaling around 15-16 hours per day.


Q. 16 hours a day on Twitter? Do you take breaks?

A. Well, I try to take weekends off, at least. It works out because I tend to be furthest from computers on weekends. But then, of course, I have an entire weekends worth of blogs and articles to read and comment on, Monday morning.


Q. How much self-promotion do you do?

A. None. This will probably be the first blog post that I'll ever have posted an external link to. Absurd, right? Truly, because I keep such a tight group of follow/ers , I dont consider the things I read of much importance. I spend most of my time retweeting the articles and posts of my celebrity-cast and then I post some general tweets to my small group of friends on twitter. I'm not clever enough to find my own sources to share with people. I wait for the pro's to do it.


Q. What about real self-promotion?

A. Yeah...I do that. I look at my twitter account as the best self-marketing tool that I have at my disposal. My twitter stream is populated by the small group of people who I truly feel are the most important and influential in my area of interest. And how do I connect to them? I read their blogs. I post on their blogs. I read the articles the post. I respond to them or retweet them. How would I have ever gotten to talk to Kevin Rose or Andy Beal if I hadn't found them on twitter? (Kevin Rose might've been the first person I ever followed on twitter!) So I hope that, someday, when I'm a world-shaking business-world-titan, I can call on these people and they'll lend me a hand as though I were an "old friend" or something. Eh, here's hoping, right?


Q. So Twitter isn't as lame as people were thinking it might be?

A. Absolutely not. To me, twitter is one of the most influential and powerful tools that I've ever had at my disposal.


Q. Not so fast--We read your blog post where you blasted Twitter for 10 pages!

A. Now now, dont be silly. I said that it wasn't the greatest step in social technology that the world has ever seen. I stand by everything I said in that post. Twitter is important to me for different reasons than were cited in that absurd article that I was ragging on. Besides...It was a TIME magazine article! How could I NOT tear apart it's terrible inadequacies while I had the chance?!


That's it for me. Hope everyone is doing well!
(keep an eye out for that post that I keep meaning to write!
Hint: The working title is "Generation: Y bother? Democrazy and Apathy")